I’m told that to photograph the solar eclipse with my smartphone I will need a filter to put in front of my camera to prevent damage to the sensor. My understanding, and maybe this is where I’m wrong, is that a camera that doesn’t have a telephoto lens can shoot pictures of the sun on a normal day without a filter. If that’s true what makes a solar eclipse different? It would seem to be like the more the sun gets blocked, the less energy makes it to the sensor, the safer it is for the electronics. Does it have to do with exposure time due to a darker scene?
In: Physics
You can take pictures of the eclipse without a filter for the few minutes of totality. However, if any of the sun is showing, it will be so bright that even if it didn’t damage the camera you wouldn’t see anything in the picture. However, a huge amount of photons can certainly damage sensors and anything with lenses can be like burning an ant through a magnifying glass.
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