solar eclipse set ups4.6k interval

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Mark Shogren

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solar eclipse set ups4.6k interval

PostSat Aug 19, 2017 6:37 pm

Anyone setting up their 4.6k to do a time-lapse . will it wreck the sensor?

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Stephen Press

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Re: solar eclipse set ups4.6k interval

PostSat Aug 19, 2017 9:35 pm

"A cameraman with out a camera is just a man"
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Mark Shogren

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Re: solar eclipse set ups4.6k interval

PostSat Aug 19, 2017 9:55 pm

thanks, yes I saw that one. was wondering if using nd filters would be enough as opposed to the solar filter. Don't want to kill my sensor though.

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rick.lang

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solar eclipse set ups4.6k interval

PostSat Aug 19, 2017 10:17 pm

Thanks, Stephen. I travelled to Quebec to see the solar eclipse of July 20, 1963. The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada was there with many telescopes set up at Shawinigan to observe and document the eclipse. There were many clouds moving in before the eclipse began. My mom got in the car and drove us kids to an area where the sky was clear briefly. Got out and watched totality. Unforgettable and an other-worldly beautiful. The amateur astronomers were stuck with their telescopes and never observed totality. So that's one piece of advice not mentioned in the article: be prepared to move fast.


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Last edited by rick.lang on Sat Aug 19, 2017 11:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Stephen Press

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Re: solar eclipse set ups4.6k interval

PostSat Aug 19, 2017 11:01 pm

We tried to shoot a hour long live special of a solar eclipse in the south of England back in the late 1990's. It actually became the subject of a doco of how everything could go wrong behind the scenes (horribly, catastrophically wrong) and yet nobody watching would know.
We had set up a fixed camera with a matte-box with multiple ND but never got to try it out as he cloud rolled in 5min before on-air and the rain came down as the presenter read the intro. As the opening titles played the lights all shorted out and the outside studio we were fronting from lost power. We managed to move it all inside and get it up and running before we were due to go back on-air after they did a call out from the other live spot in Stonehenge.
We did get a shot of the eclipse from an air-force plane, one of our guys was up there above the clouds (over their operational ceiling, go the RAF) with a Schwem lens, I don't know what he used ND wise but it looked fantastic.
I was on a steadicam on the beach with a link supposed to vox-pop watchers but most ran for cover and then the link faded in the rain, so we ended up a few meters from the live hosting position.
Because of the cloud everything went dark but not black, some idiot stills guy with a flash kept blinding us... it was nuts.
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Andrew Bell

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Re: solar eclipse set ups4.6k interval

PostSat Aug 19, 2017 11:09 pm

Sometimes nd is just not enough to block the sun. So you can Give a try to X-Ray film. You can get it for free almost in every medical x-ray department. Just ask for that.
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Peter J. DeCrescenzo

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Re: solar eclipse set ups4.6k interval

PostSun Aug 20, 2017 3:40 pm

Mark Shogren wrote:... was wondering if using nd filters would be enough ...


Short answer is an emphatic "No!"

Direct sunlight is extremely bright, and also produces an enormous amount infrared (IR). Way, way more than can be adequately blocked by normal IR cut filters such as built-into a UMP46 cam. Intense sunlight and the heat generated by the IR can almost instantaneously damaged a digital sensor.

To prevent damage to a camera sensor mount a certified solar filter in front of the lens.

To prevent damage to your eyes wear certified solar eyeglasses. If viewing through an optical device such as binoculars, scope, telescope, DSLR viewfinder, etc., mount a certified solar filter in front of the lens.

The only exception is during full totality when the sun is 100% obscured by the moon. During 100% totality a solar filter is not required. At all other times (even @ 99%!) a solar filter must be used.

Enjoy the eclipse, and be safe.

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rick.lang

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Re: solar eclipse set ups4.6k interval

PostSun Aug 20, 2017 11:30 pm

I'm debating between shooting the partial eclipse observers and the landscape in either time lapse for a couple of hours or real time. Might get more human drama (or comedy) shooting in real time in a short video after editing. But also interested in catching the gradual changes in light via the time lapse. Any interest in either approach?


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Denny Smith

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Re: solar eclipse set ups4.6k interval

PostMon Aug 21, 2017 5:30 am

I was also thinking time lapse scenic type shot, with a local landmark (a Logging train bridge tha crosses a small river) in the foreground.
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rick.lang

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solar eclipse set ups4.6k interval

PostMon Aug 21, 2017 5:52 am

Decided to do real time after all. Raw. And since some stranger might object to being filmed afterwards, which would ruin the usefulness of the video, I'm not planning to film people, but will stick with the landscape as the light changes.


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Gene Kochanowsky

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Re: solar eclipse set ups4.6k interval

PostMon Aug 21, 2017 2:01 pm

I would consider creating a camera obscura and filming the image created by that. Solar observing is fun but requires an entirely different class of observing equipment from conventional sky observing.
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Denny Smith

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Re: solar eclipse set ups4.6k interval

PostMon Aug 21, 2017 4:35 pm

I wasn't planning on getting the "sun" directly in anymshots, but rather go,for a landscape type shot. However, it is a mute point for me now, as we are socked in with a heavy marine overcast that extends from North of here (Lost Coast area of Calif.) to San Francisco.
So will give the NASA site a go.
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Willem Timmersma

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Re: solar eclipse set ups4.6k interval

PostMon Aug 21, 2017 5:47 pm

ND filters will work just fine, stacking 14-15 or maybe soms more stops IR-ND should be enough I guess!
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cobydax

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Re: solar eclipse set ups4.6k interval

PostMon Aug 21, 2017 9:56 pm

Built in nd filters
600 mm sigma
4.6k mini pro

Nashville
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Mark Wyatt

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Re: solar eclipse set ups4.6k interval

PostMon Aug 21, 2017 11:46 pm

How do you get the 5 degree shutter?
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Re: solar eclipse set ups4.6k interval

PostMon Aug 21, 2017 11:54 pm

Hey Mark, page 66 of the manual :

Image
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Mark Wyatt

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Re: solar eclipse set ups4.6k interval

PostTue Aug 22, 2017 12:12 am

Ahh, thanks Hook! Must have missed that.
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Denny Smith

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Re: solar eclipse set ups4.6k interval

PostTue Aug 22, 2017 2:19 am

Nice shots cobydax, good job.
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Peter J. DeCrescenzo

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Re: solar eclipse set ups4.6k interval

PostTue Aug 22, 2017 7:02 am

That was fun! Here's a compressed frame grab from footage I shot of the eclipse today near Salem, Oregon. BMPC-4K RAW. Haven't done any real grading yet.
totality_(c)2017_peter_j_decrescenzo_all_rights_reserved.jpg
totality_(c)2017_peter_j_decrescenzo_all_rights_reserved.jpg (78.92 KiB) Viewed 7314 times


I used a decades-old Nikon 100-300mm zoom lens fitted with a Nikon x2 doubler. This clip was recorded with the lens zoomed all the way in ("600mm", or 960mm 135 format "full frame equiv."). A $15 solar filter mounted in front of the lens (except during totality). ISO 400.
IMG_4459-1080.jpg
IMG_4459-1080.jpg (223.75 KiB) Viewed 7314 times


Edit: My video is embedded in a post below:
viewtopic.php?f=2&p=358399#p358399

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Last edited by Peter J. DeCrescenzo on Thu Aug 24, 2017 7:25 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Denny Smith

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Re: solar eclipse set ups4.6k interval

PostTue Aug 22, 2017 6:32 pm

Nicely done Peter! :mrgreen:
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timbutt2

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Re: solar eclipse set ups4.6k interval

PostTue Aug 22, 2017 6:43 pm

Cool, can't wait to see the videos when people post them.
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rick.lang

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Re: solar eclipse set ups4.6k interval

PostTue Aug 22, 2017 7:03 pm

My video isn’t of the sun, but the people watching the sun and how it affected the landscape as the moon covered up to 90% of the sun.

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rick.lang

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Re: solar eclipse set ups4.6k interval

PostTue Aug 22, 2017 7:24 pm

Lovely stuff being posted here!
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cobydax

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Re: solar eclipse set ups4.6k interval

PostTue Aug 22, 2017 10:36 pm

A particularly interesting frame
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Peter J. DeCrescenzo

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Re: solar eclipse set ups4.6k interval

PostThu Aug 24, 2017 6:58 am

Here's an edited version of the video I shot:



Details in my previous post:
viewtopic.php?p=357915#p357915

Had some problems rendering out from DR14 Studio beta 7 on my Win 10 machine (crashing, poor video quality), so I might try again once final version of DR14 is released.

Edit 8/24/17: Updating to the latest Nvidia driver for my 980ti GPU appears to have fixed the crashing problem I was experiencing in DR14b7 on Win10, and may have also improved H264 rendering quality. Not certain yet, but so far so good. Because of the problems I was having rendering to H264 using the older driver, my video on Vimeo was rendered out as a 10-bit DNxHD file from DR14b7 on Win10, converted to ProRes LT with Compressor on my Mac, and uploaded to Vimeo. Hopefully I won't need to do that ever again! :-)

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Last edited by Peter J. DeCrescenzo on Thu Aug 24, 2017 6:49 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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rick.lang

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Re: solar eclipse set ups4.6k interval

PostThu Aug 24, 2017 4:38 pm

Very nice, Peter. What filtration did you use?


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Peter J. DeCrescenzo

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Re: solar eclipse set ups4.6k interval

PostThu Aug 24, 2017 5:51 pm

rick.lang wrote:Very nice, Peter. What filtration did you use?


I used a thin plastic solar filter I bought months ago (now discontinued or sold out) ...
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/ ... ilter.html

,,, except during the eclipse totality, when the lens was naked. I modified the filter by cutting it out of its cardboard frame and sandwiched it between a Hoya UV/IR Cut filter and a step-up ring.

IMG_4471_cmp.jpg
IMG_4471_cmp.jpg (187.27 KiB) Viewed 7109 times


In the edit, for the brief moment during the "diamond ring" immediately following totality I used Davinci Resolve 14b7 "Black Sun Highlight Correction". Worked perfectly to eliminate my BMPC-4K camera's black sun pixels. Luckily for me that brief exposure to direct sunlight didn't damage the camera's sensor, which I checked later.

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Peter J. DeCrescenzo

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Re: solar eclipse set ups4.6k interval

PostSat Sep 02, 2017 5:41 am

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rick.lang

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Re: solar eclipse set ups4.6k interval

PostSat Sep 02, 2017 2:46 pm

Thanks, Peter. Excellent post.


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