Camera Labs

Hi guys,

I'm currently looking into solar photography, however instead of the night sky I'd like to be able to take detailed images of the sun. Any advice as to what are the best equipment/filters are best suited for adapting a dslr for such a project? Hopefully under a reasonable budget of $500-1000. Thanks!

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Cheap way is probably to buy some solar film from astronomical kit suppliers. Then cut them into a suitable filter size for the front of whatever lens you use. Pre-made ones are more expensive. I'd go for something that is rated as safe for optical viewing, cos if things go wrong you don't want to be on the receiving end of the sun! They reflect most of the sunlight and leave enough to get through to image.

Thinking more, that would be most use for sunspot watching. I'm not sure if there's other detail that can be picked up easily.

Size wise it is similar to the moon, so if you want to fill the frame you're looking at 1000mm+ actual focal length on crop sensor DSLRs.

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lagnificent, while that's certainly amusing, you have to be very careful that no-one takes that advice seriously. Obviously no-ones got a billion ND filters, but even using, say, five, or ten would be unsuitable for safe solar work. They're not designed for it.

As popo says, you need a filter that's designed specifically for solar viewing.

The interesting thing is, solar film is actually surprisingly thin - it may look like foil, but is much thinner. I've made several home-made solar filters using Baader’s Astro Solar Filter Material.