Shoot the Sun

[SgtHowie]

As you may know, there is a total eclipse of the Sun in a few weeks time. Since I am likely buying a Sony HC1 camcorder soon, I wondered if it is possible to get any good shots of the eclipse with it?

I know very little about cameras, but my instinct is that pointing a camcorder at the Sun is a very bad thing to do! Would it burn out the capture device, even just a small part of the direct Sun being too much to handle? Is there a filter strong enough to shoot the Sun, which could then slip off quickly for the darkness of totality?

Or is shooting a (very direct!) daylight scene which then becomes a night scene in the space of a few seconds not really feasible? I intend to be watching the sky and fiddling with a camera as little as I can. Would it be safe for the cam to start shooting the Sun once it is totally obscured, and stop before it starts to reappear (since that is safe for the naked eye)?

Would hate to spend a grand on a cam and fry it on its first outing so any hints welcomed!

 

[DigiStuff]

Hi,

Having a quick look at this web site, http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/eclipse.html it appears that the solar eclipse will not be visible here in the UK but I might be wrong! I remember people trying to video the last one her in the UK some years back now and if memory serves right they did it using reflections in some way. Or using pin hole techniques. You might have to just surf some other sites to find out more if you are going to be in the right part of the world to see this.

Hope this helps some!

DigiStuff

 

[smallmanongn]

For a solar eclispe get some solar filter material

http://www.dhinds.co.uk/pages/fullProd.php?id=117

and fix it over the front of the camera some how.
Used some of this over my binoculars for the total eclispe we had a few years ago.

 

[SgtHowie]

Thanks for your replies, invaluable! Filter sheet (and cam) now ordered. True, the eclipse *will* be only partial as viewed from the UK, fortunately I'll be in Turkey.