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
Cameras, like your eye, can be damaged by high light intensity. The sun, lasers, etc.
And even if they weren’t damaged, the sun is very very bright. You won’t capture a good image. You will just get a white square.
Solar filters block most of the light. So it doesn’t damage the camera, and it doesn’t max out the pixels. This lets you take a nice image and not break $5000 of equipment.
A total eclipse is fine without a filter (just like with your eyes), but doesn’t last long. You need to set up the camera ahead of time, and that part of the eclipse will still be way too bright.
Most eclipses are also not total, so a dangerous amount of light still gets through.
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