Rental camera gear destroyed by the 2017 eclipse

It&#x27;s a shame that Lens Rentals had to suffer such material loss, but that report is absolute gold-plated first-hand evidence for my perennial debates with other photographers who insist that they don&#x27;t need Solar protection for eclipses.<p>&quot;But I took a landscape shot at midday with the Sun in frame and it didn&#x27;t melt my sensor&quot;. The difference being the length of exposure and the concentrations of energy.

At one point during the eclipse I used a pair of binoculars to project an image of the sun onto the ground. Of course, it was a double image, so to fix that I covered one of the eyepieces with my hand. It took about three seconds for the pain to register. Hard to say which hurt more: the small, first-degree burn on my palm or the rest of me from kicking myself afterwards.

I think my favorite part of this article is how the author is so understanding and positive about his users. I think if I had rented out cameras to people, told them not to point it at the eclipse, and then got a bunch of damaged cameras back, I&#x27;d be pissed. In fact, I might have choice words for those customers.<p>I think there&#x27;s a lesson here in targeting inexperienced consumers. Perhaps a good preventative measure would have been handing out protective lenses before the eclipse so that customers would have really had to try to mess it up.

Now imagine that kind of damage being done to your eyes.<p>It hurts just thinking about it, yet some people don’t seem to really believe the warnings.

Those were some expensive mistakes. Some of the gear mentioned: Canon C300 Mark II ($9,999) and Canon 600mm f&#x2F;4L IS II USM ($11,499).

Interesting! My assumption is that this could not happen with a phone camera though, correct? Because then one would think just leaving one&#x27;s phone face down on the table in sunlight would ruin it.

Anyone who <i>doesn&#x27;t</i> take their glasses off and look at the total eclipse for a moment when the sun is completely covered, is missing out. It&#x27;s a beautiful sight.<p>Caution is needed of course. Get ready to put those glasses back on any moment now!<p>Incredible hues and glow and the surrounding twilight. Can&#x27;t see any of that with glasses on. At totality, sneak a peek with your naked eyes, it&#x27;s fine.<p>Same for camera equipment, it&#x27;s the setting up and pointing the camera at sun before the eclipse that does the damage. Keep lens cap on until last moment, then take off, and nothing will happen to camera. I&#x27;ve done it at two eclipse festivals, no clouds, didn&#x27;t even use ND filter! Cameras and eyes fine.

Since others are posting their images figured I&#x27;d pitch in: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;g2.img-dpreview.com&#x2F;8D7D9675C7AE4E6EAEF707CB4AEABB2F.jpg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;g2.img-dpreview.com&#x2F;8D7D9675C7AE4E6EAEF707CB4AEABB2F...</a> Canon 100-400 @400mm +1.4x tc, solar filter removed.

I got lucky while testing my camera, which is mounted at prime focus in a refractor scope. I had it in Live View which meant the mirror was up, and I removed the solar filter for just a second.<p>The camera said &quot;error&quot;, turned off, I replaced the solar filter, and it was fine. Much longer, and I&#x27;d have had a burn. The telescope really collects and concentrates a ton of light.

I can almost feel the LensRental writer&#x27;s pain of having to write this article without calling a bunch of dumbaxxes dumbaxxes because they are their customers. <i>sigh</i>

Does the eclipse make the sun stronger or something? I&#x27;ve pointed my camera at the sun for all day long taking timelapses and nothing bad happened to it. I guess maybe you need a really hardcore zoom lens to get damage like that...<p>P.S. Here&#x27;s the video pointing at the sun all day long: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;HgbG--t3Bd8" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;HgbG--t3Bd8</a>

On the day of this event I was at the hospital and everyone just used X-ray films. They work well enough. I also did try a pair of sunglasses, and I could last maybe for a second or two. I am not sure if my eye sights have been damaged since then. I hope not... I repeated a few times but all done around 1pm-ish in NY, so not at peak. It was more like looking directly at the sun during noon everyday.

I wonder, did they include a solar filter with all their rentals? If not, I wonder if that would have saved everyone some trouble.

I was shooting with a d800 200mm lens, no filter. There is no visible sensor damage, both when examining images and the sensor itself. I have to check out the lens. I left it on the sun for a good 20 minutes in live view but there doesn&#x27;t seem to be any damage. Thoughts?

It is not just at the focal point but<p>multilayered lenses can be destroyed as the expand and contract and heat is emminated from the join and also<p>Any lense with coatings to correct for chromatic abberation, the coatings get destroyed on the surface of the lenses just by being pointed at the sun.

A lot of phone cameras seem to have come through (apparently) unscathed. Both pictures and video. Too small a collector&#x2F;concentrator, or enough shaking because hand-held to keep the focal point moving?

I used a Canon 80D with a EF-S 55-250mm lens and a solar filter film over the lens. My camera was fine.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;imgur.com&#x2F;a&#x2F;OmPQP" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;imgur.com&#x2F;a&#x2F;OmPQP</a><p>Taken in rural Oregon (just two shots I selected at random for this post)

The amusing bit is at the end, where the author tacitly admits that their add-on camera insurance is somewhat crap. Someone who damaged a rental camera by pointing it at the eclipse would, ironically, have been better off if they then proceeded to &quot;accidentally&quot; drop the camera from a height onto concrete:<p><i>Unfortunately, these types of damage are considered neglect, as warnings were given out to customers before the solar eclipse. Our LensCap insurance plan, which can be added to rentals for a small nominal fee, does not protect from neglect but is an excellent tool for those who are worried about their rental and want to protect themselves from any accidental damage.</i><p>(but perhaps not really - there are enough wiggle words in that policy that I wonder if they ever pay out on expensive damage at all: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;help.lensrentals.com&#x2F;26475-damage-lenscap-protection-plans&#x2F;203113-what-is-covered-by-the-standard-lenscap-protection-plan" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;help.lensrentals.com&#x2F;26475-damage-lenscap-protection...</a> )