Photographing the Sun

In preparation for next month I tried a bit of Sun photography this morning. A filter is essential both to get reasonable photos and to protect the camera; but a lens filter for my Nikon is more than $100!

Instead I found a very inexpensive (<$20) cardboard filter attachment, and tried it out this morning. I think I need some more practice with exposure settings as there’s no detail in the Sun – but the results are much better than with no filter.

Here’s the attachment, and a no zoom photo without and with the filter:

More interesting, some zoomed in images through the filter; the first image shows how the camera struggles to focus with this filter:

 

I did also try a “welding glass” as a filter but it’s pretty useless, making the Sun green!