nasty streak on the chip when shooting sun

R

Richard Sutcliffe

Well-known member
On a recent shoot I had a ton of shots with the sun beating down into the lens. Every shot has a nasty cheap loking streak right down the length of the frame cutting straight through the lens flare.

Anyone else find this with their cams and find it as ugly as I do? Blech.
 
This is an element of working with an IT chipset. Very Bright sources of light will cause this. Change the angle of the camera to the light source and it will go away. It happens with all cameras at this price range.

Best,

Jan
 
No way to avoid this other than work around it... as noted, not an HVX issue, more a 1/3" CCD issue...



ash =o)
 
Yep, the smaller the pixels the more likely this is to happen. A CineAlta will show vertical smear a lot sooner than a DSR500, for example. An HD100 shows smear way more quickly and prevalently than an HVX does. But it's a CCD issue, not a specific camera issue. It's just the nature of CCDs.
 
I recorded a dance performance on Monday and on some shots it was unavoidable that I momentarily caught some of the lights at the side of the stage as I followed the dancers.

The lights were bright enough for me to squint when looking at them, and I figured I would wind up with lots of smearing and a dark shilouette in front of bright lights.

When I started editing the material I was very surprised that there was absolutely no smearing on the HVX200 video, something I had become accustomed to from other cameras I have used. Because the iris control was on manual, the dancers also came out fine -- the only things that blew out in those shots (naturally) were the lights facing the camera, and it was perfectly acceptable and did not distract from the video.
 
Interesting,

does pointing the lens at the sun damage the CCD at all? Anything we should watch out for when doing this?

thanks.
 
That's like looking at the sun through a pair of binoculars. The result depends on your location, time of year, atmospheric conditions etc., but in general, I would avoid doing it whenever possible.
 
d-mac said:
Interesting,

does pointing the lens at the sun damage the CCD at all? Anything we should watch out for when doing this?

thanks.
Click to expand...

Shooting sunrise and sunset should be OK (well I've done it for a whole hour of DV tape with no ill effects), but perhaps would be wary of long static shots of the noon sun (not particularly likely as getting any useable exposure is probably near impossible).

Still it's your own risk - don't think there's an official position on it as there is a finite chance it may cause damage I suppose.
 
ericyoung said:
Still it's your own risk - don't think there's an official position on it as there is a finite chance it may cause damage I suppose.
Click to expand...
From page 124 of the Operator's Manual for the HVX200:
"Do not point the lens or viewfinder at the sun.
Doing so may damage the parts inside."
​
 
THoff said:
From page 124 of the Operator's Manual for the HVX200:
"Do not point the lens or viewfinder at the sun.
Doing so may damage the parts inside."


​
Click to expand...

Ah. So there IS an official position - but that would be a catch all precautionary warning. I mean you ARE right in that it's a lens focusing the sun on the CCD, so there must be a risk associated.

However, I still feel fairly safe risking my own DVX100A with ND and somewhat irised down at sunset and sunrise when there is considerably more atmosphere and pollution to reduce the sun's intensity than during the day. If the sun's disc is descernible with colour in it and not clipping white, the light actually hitting the CCD is no greater than a bright orange tungsten lamp?

Might think twice with someone else's camera though!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top