360Photography

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Most of us on the DPReview staff followed our own advice today: we put the cameras down, donned our eclipse glasses and just enjoyed today’s total solar eclipse… most of us. Unable to contain himself, our own Rishi Sanyal decided last-minute to ignore all sound advice, hack together a rig and photograph the eclipse from DPReview headquarters, risking the life of a young Sony a7R II in the process.

This is one of those “do as we say, not as we do” moments, because we would never recommend anybody risk their camera gear by not using a proper solar filter to shoot the sun. Rishi knows his stuff, though (to put it mildly) so he stacked a few filters to create a proper rig that would most likely keep the camera safe. The rig included:

• Sony a7R II
• Metabones EF-E Smart Adapter (IV)
• Canon 1.4x II teleconverter
• Canon EOS 100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS II USM
• B+W MRC Nano UV filter
• 10 stop glass ND filter with some IR filtration
• 6 stop glass ND filter
• Gitzo 1542T tripod + Markins ballhead

Fortunately for him (and that Sony sensor) his gambit worked. Between the UV protection of the UV filter, 16 stops of ND filter, and the IR filtration on the 10 stop glass ND, he was able to capture a few really sharp shots of the eclipse in action without burning a hole in the a7R II’s 42.4MP sensor.

Check out the rig, some sample shots, and a few behind the scenes photos from our building’s rooftop deck up top. And be sure to share your eclipse experience in the comments!

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)