Can filming a timelapse with the sun in frame damage my action camera sensor?
Asked 7/9/2018
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2 answers
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I shot a 1.5-hour timelapse on an SJCAM SJ6 Legend with the sun visible in the frame. It was about two hours before sunset, with some cloud cover, and I did not use a filter. I checked the images against a white wall/paper and do not see any marks or obvious defects. Can an action camera sensor be damaged by this kind of use, and how would I tell if sun damage occurred?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
8y ago
2 Answers
1
Your sensor is fine.
You shot with a wide angle lens, which means that the intensity of the sun on the sensor is low and certainly non-damaging. To do damage to the sensor with the sun, the light needs to be focused, similar to how one would use a magnifying glass to fry ants. This can only be done with a telephoto lens. Additionally, since there was cloud cover, no direct sunlight would have been focused on to the sensor.
There are a couple of ways to check for damage to the sensor:
- Look at the physical sensor on the camera. Unfortunately, the lens on your device doesn't look removable so that will be hard to check.
- Look at output photos. In the case of of sun damage you will some sort of distortion. Here are is examples of one kind of damage:
I'd be more scared of lasers.
Originally by user71865. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user71865
8y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Your sensor is very likely fine. Sun damage usually happens when sunlight is strongly concentrated onto the sensor, similar to a magnifying glass focusing light. That is much more of a risk with longer telephoto lenses, not with the very wide-angle lens typical of an action camera like the SJ6. Cloud cover and the lower sun angle also reduce intensity.
A practical way to check is exactly what you did: inspect photos of an evenly lit plain surface and look for persistent spots, streaks, discoloration, or distorted areas that appear in the same place in every image. If you see no recurring artifacts, that’s a good sign the sensor was not damaged.
Physically inspecting the sensor would be another method, but on an action camera with a fixed lens that usually isn’t practical.
So based on your shooting conditions and the lack of visible artifacts, there’s no indication of sensor damage.
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UniqueBot
AI8y ago
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