Author Topic: Filming a welder?  (Read 7054 times)

jasonfish

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Filming a welder?
« on: September 21, 2017, 03:14:02 PM »
With the recent eclipse, we were all inundated with "don't look at the sun" of course, but there were also a lot of warnings about using protective films/filters over camera lenses.

How might the sun relate to a welder? Safe to point the Chronos sensor at such a bright spot?

JamesB

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Re: Filming a welder?
« Reply #1 on: September 21, 2017, 03:39:18 PM »
The excessive heat and UV radiation emitted by welding can damage all camera sensors if exposed to for prolonged times. This discussion on dpreview about the subject throws in using a UV filter to get that UV light filtered out of the sensor.  https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3258116

What I would do is use a UV filter and an ND 4 or 6 and test is enough light can come in, to still get the shot and see if I need to reduce the filter stack to get something usable.   Halfway through the last Eclipse my camera solar filter detached from my poorly improvized clamping system and exposed the camera a GH4 to the sun on a 400mm lens for about 15-20 seconds until I noticed and put it back on. After close inspection with a macro lens, no damage had been done visually or while taking footage or images.  However, it was exposed when the sun was at 56% occultation which may have helped.  Direct full sunlight would have probably burned my sensor in some way.  ::)

Here is another discussion on the welding/camera subject: https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/12590/how-can-i-photograph-welding

jasonfish

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Re: Filming a welder?
« Reply #2 on: September 21, 2017, 04:02:57 PM »
Translation: "Use someone else's camera." ;)

Electra

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Re: Filming a welder?
« Reply #3 on: September 21, 2017, 10:39:09 PM »
I'm informed that even high levels of IR won't get past the lens and damage the camera and if your lenses are made from soda lime glass then this will also work for UV,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet#Blockers_and_absorbers

I'd follow the standard rule, make sure the camera is half a meter or more away with a 10mm thick polycarbonate shield (Good idea anyway due to splatter/fumes/'no molten metal in camera' rule,etc)  you should be fine..  Remember that you can actually safely watch a welder if your more than a few(Like 4-5) meters away due to the inverse square rule(Not recommended, you'll still have minor vision bleaching but you won't have any damage for short amounts of time).

I plan to do a similar thing sometime over the next few months and this is what I'm planning on doing.