Hi all. I just came across an article that has me questioning what I thought I knew about pointing my camera at the sun. I have read in several places that "the myth that your camera's sensor can be damaged by photographing directly into the sun is just that, a myth". This article provides evidence that this is not the case. http://www.the-digital-picture.com/N....aspx?News=304
In summary, while testing a 600mm lens, this reviewer left the sun in frame for about a minute to be greeted by smoke and melted plastic inside his 1DS Markiii.
One of my photographic interests is making time-lapse movies of sunsets and sunrises. Typically, this involves setting up the 650D on tripod, IS off, manual focus, f/8-11 (for DOF and sharpness), AV (aperture priority) mode, ISO100, and intervalometer set to shoot every 3-10 seconds (depending on the scene, light, etc) for anything from 1 - 4 hours.
My concern is that when shooting sunrises, it is not unusual for the latest shots to involve the full sun being fully framed. Now obviously, since I'm shooting in AV mode, my shutter speed will be so fast that the light will only hit the sensor briefly and I'm not using 600mm lenses (typically 18-24 but occasionally longer) but is there a risk here? Many thanks for any advice.