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Mirrorless - constant exposure - sensor damage?

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#1 MrDavo
I'm getting the Canon EOS R (coming from a 6D that I finally burned out the shutter on - 130K shutter actuations)
Since the sensor in a Mirrorless camera is always exposed directly to whatever light is coming in from the lens, and since the lens is focusing whatever's out there directly to the sensor...
It would seem to me that if I'm timelapsing for 10 minutes for example and the sun is somewhere in my shot - wouldn't I be asking for trouble? Wouldn't that cause damage to the sensor?

I can see how the 6D (or any non-mirrorless DSLR) would only be exposing the sensor to the direct sun for fractions of a second at a time, but Mirrorless cameras are ALWAYS and CONSTANTLY exposing the sensor to the scene.

Thoughts?


Davo
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#2 Gunther
I've never heard of a case, where this happened. Anyone?
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#3 MrDavo
I've done a lot of googling, but many of the answers are some version of 'the sensor is only exposed to the concentrated rays for very brief moments, don't worry', but that betrays a lack of understanding that Mirrorless and DSLR work completely differently - and how Time-lapse is unique. There certainly are some who say it will totally for sure burn out your sensor - it's like a magnifying glass focusing the sun on bugs and frying them, but others who say the sensor has IR coatings to prevent damage. But so many thoughts are folk who are just speculating - nothing from an equipment vendor or anything I find very conclusive/compelling. So frustrating.

It seems logical to me that if I take a lens and focus an image of the sun (even if it's a small area of the photo) for many minutes to be focused directly on a sensor that damage seems inevitable. I've even seen photos of aperture blades melted, and holes burned in DSLR shutters, so... I just don't know...

Surprised no input on this thread. Other than those of us who Timelapse (Camera on tripod, pointed in direction of sun for prolonged duration), I can see that the proposition isn't realistic and thus not really something to worry about. Our use of the equipment is admittedly very unique in this way.
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#4 Gunther
I must admit, that I don't shoot that often directly into the sun, because I mostly don't like to have blown out sun in my timelapse. And during the day the sun will mostly be blown when in full brightness during the day.

Also during the day I always shoot with an ND filter to get longer exposures no matter what. So the sun will only be 1/1000 of the normal intensity.

For sunsets, when the sun is already weak near the horizon, I think it's no problem at all, even without filter.

But thinking about it, I think you are right, that for a daytime timelapse with the full sun in the frame without a filter, mirrorless is most likely the wrong tool and a dslr will be better suited. But again: that scenario is very rare and can easily be avoided.
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#5 MrDavo
Gunther,

I guess I'm thinking of the times I've time lapsed clouds, using a 14mm Rokinon, and half the sky is in-frame, so it's almost hard to avoid the sun being in there a lot of the time, but yeah, I think you're right. Just need to probably be a bit mindful.

I'll see how it goes!


Davo
www.davolaninga.com
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#6 lkunl
If you shoot with lens wide angle. The sun is just a tiny spot on picture. I don't think it will have any problem. I shoot some of my timelapse point to the sun my camera still fine (i not shot at noon). But if you shot with tele photo is another story. It can burn your camera. Another thing that should avoid is dont shoot straight at laser eg. concert event it can easily damage your camera sensor in few second.

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