Shooting a Sunset

[Nicholas Jenkins]

Hello all,

 

Rather stupid technical question here but I don't want to end my injuring my camera OR my eye.

 

I need to shoot a timelapse of a sunset, pretty simple I know. But I want to make sure and NOT burn out my chip.

 

I'm shooting on the Sony PMW-EX1. I have a Hoya Polarizing Filter but not much beyond that. Are there any special tips tricks I need to know before I go out there and shoot? I want to make sure and protect the camera as I'm not sure my insurance covers stupidity on my part :)

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

P.S. I did a search and didn't find anything though I'm just about useless when using forum searches.

 

Thanks guys,

 

Nick J.

[Alex Zustra]

Do it as late as possible, when the sun is on or near the horizon. Not only is this usually the most aesthetically pleasing, but the suns rays are going through much more atmosphere at this point.

[Nicholas Jenkins]

Do it as late as possible, when the sun is on or near the horizon. Not only is this usually the most aesthetically pleasing, but the suns rays are going through much more atmosphere at this point.

 

Thanks. That's helpful. When I first got into this ('98) the XL2 was just coming out and I was told to never ever point it at the sun for fear of burning the chip out (much like a monitor can get burned out from sitting on one image for too long). But that may not be the case anymore. From everything I'm seeing online, it seems like everyone is just pointing and shooting for this type of thing.

 

Just trying to be safe :)