Capturing the Total Solar Eclipse with Canon Explorer
Keith Ladzinski April 1, 2024
0 Comments
The Moon's shadow will be sweeping across the United States on April 8th in a highly-anticipated total solar eclipse event. Canon Explorer of Light, Keith Ladzinski, a National Geographic Photographer and Emmy nominated director, shares his tips & tricks for all shutter bugs out there to capture the moment of a total solar eclipse, forever.
Choosing a Camera Just about any camera will work to capture a solar eclipse, but some will produce a better experience depending on your expectations. Canon's EOS R series of cameras will probably be the camera of choice for photographers looking for the highest image quality and most equipment flexibility. Choosing a full-frame sensor camera like the EOS R5 or EOS R8 can produce high resolution images with low noise. APS-C frame cameras such as the EOS R50 or EOS R100 will benefit from the smaller APS-C sized sensor due to the 1.6x crop factor. The smaller sensor produces a cropped image compared to the uncropped full-frame sensor. Your sun disk will be significantly larger with the APS-C sensor than with the full frame sensor.
Choosing a Lens Choosing a lens to photograph the sun or moon depends on how large of a sun or moon disk you want. The size of the disk is controlled by two things: your mirrorless camera's sensor size and the focal length of your lens. You should be looking for a sun disk 1/3 to 1/4 the height of your sensor. A 400mm focal length like what you'd get from the RF100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM Lens produces a 1/4 size sun disk on an APS-C sized sensor. If your plan includes shooting a time-lapse sequence of the entire 2.5-hour solar eclipse with a horizon or other foreground feature, you will be using some very wide angle lenses like the RF15-30mm F4.5-6.3 IS STM Lens.
Canon RF100-400mm F5.6-8 IS USM Lens
Choosing a solar filter Solar filters can transmit or restrict different wavelengths of light. Non-silvered glass and metalized Mylar produce a blueish-white sun disk while professional silver/black polymer solar film produces a yellow sun disk.
A truly safe filter for viewing and photography should have a CE or ISO certification and goes over the front of the lens, this includes the rear filter tray when using super telephotos. There is a difference between solar filters used by the public for viewing the solar eclipse and photographers photographing the solar eclipse. Some are saying that ND filters that restrict 14 - 16.5 stops of light are safe.' These may be safe for photography use only but not for direct viewing. Restricting the light being passed through a filter is only part of the story. A safe filter for photography and viewing also restricts infrared and ultraviolet light beyond 800nm. Neutral density filters don't do this. Not having a solar filter or having a plain ND filter can burn a hole not only through the sensor of a camera, but also melt the aperture blades too!
Choosing a Tripod and Head Many photographers use their tripods reluctantly. In the case of the upcoming total eclipse of the sun in April, it's a must. The eclipse is almost 2 hours long and your arms will be exhausted if you don't use one.
Make sure your tripod can support more than what your camera, lens and tripod head weigh. Consider a tripod with four-section legs (versus a three-leg tripod) if you are travelling - four-leg section tripods fold up smaller and fit in suitcases easier and are often the same height as three-leg tripods when fully extended. Make sure your tripod comes up to eye-level, without fully extending the center column, because your lens will be pointing almost straight up, and you won't want to hunch for over two hours to see your LCD screen. You can also bring a camping chair to sit in.
More important than the type of legs you buy, it's the tripod head that counts. Unlike typical photography, you won't be aiming your camera and lens more-or-less straight ahead. This is a morning to midday event in most of North America, and you will be aimed almost straight up to photograph the sun during this eclipse. That's not something many tripod heads are designed to do, let alone with a large super-telephoto lens mounted. There are many types of heads that are usable, but the most preferred for this purpose is an astronomical equatorial head, gimbal head, and ball and socket head.
What to do when the eclipse happens There are two parts to a total eclipse. The partial phases occur as the moon begins to partially cover or uncover the sun's disk. Throughout this phase, you have the full intensity of the sun visible and need an actual solar filter over the lens. As the moon progressively covers more of the sun, there will be a point where only a small piece of the bright sun remains visible, and surrounding the moon is a bright ring of light from the sun. This is sometimes called the diamond ring effect. If you want to successfully photograph this conclusion of the partial phase, leading up to eclipse totality, you'll need to remove your solar filter and then photograph it. But be extremely careful, without a solar filter in place, the direct sunlight - even from just a small segment of the sun - can be damaging.
Baily's bead of a total solar eclipse is seen in Chonqing, China
About 15 seconds before totality, you can remove the solar filter to photograph the remaining diamond ring effect, and about five seconds before totality, there are still a few tiny rays of sunlight peeking between the valleys of the craters on the moon. This creates what has been named Baily's beads, after English astronomer Francis Baily. Once the moon completely covers the sun, after Baily's beads, totality has begun and you are photographing the corona. Totality during this ecli
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Zero in on one that says yes (and no)
Andy Marken May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image courtesy of Deposit Photos
For content creators the most difficu...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
29/05/2026
Solid State Logic will showcase its new compact, fly-away TCA Tour audio product...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, passed away last month on April 12 ...
29/05/2026
Paramount+ will be the English-language U.S. home for Barclays Women's Super...
29/05/2026
Further strengthening its virtualisation strategy to fully support broadcasters ...
29/05/2026
Swiss broadcaster Canal Alpha has deployed Harmonic's award-winning, software-based XOS Advanced Media Processor to modernize playout operations across cant...
29/05/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17-19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
29/05/2026
Arizona's Family has launched the Arizona's Family Sports (AZFS) streaming app, a new direct-to-consumer destination for live, local sports. The app is ...
29/05/2026
Starting in 2027, DAZN will be the exclusive home of The Canadian Football Leagu...
29/05/2026
Comcast Business has detailed the advanced network infrastructure it has deploye...
29/05/2026
In two-day event, leaders from academia and industry explored solutions to chall...
29/05/2026
The Basketball Tournament (TBT), now entering their 13th year of competition, ha...
29/05/2026
Roku has launched FOX One as a Premium Subscription on The Roku Channel in the U.S. Roku customers can now subscribe to FOX One using their Roku account for liv...
29/05/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
29/05/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...
29/05/2026
The days are getting longer, the temperatures are rising, and playlists are filling up for the season. With summer around the corner, Spotify's global edito...
29/05/2026
New retro-inspired MPC announced
There are few devices that have gained the status held by Akai Pro's MPC range, and in recent years, the company have s...
29/05/2026
Save up to 30 on acclaimed titles
Following a successful launch at Superbooth 2026, Bjooks have revealed that they will be continuing the Kickstarter campa...
29/05/2026
Binaural monitoring application improved
Genelec have just released an update that brings some powerful new features to their HRTF-based binaural headphone ...
29/05/2026
6 June 2026 at SAE Institute, London, UK
IMSTA FESTA 2026 is almost upon us, with some of the biggest names in pro-audio set to descend upon SAE Institute i...
29/05/2026
Gerald (Jerry) Pierce, a pioneering technologist who helped shape the digital transformation of the motion picture industry, died April 12, 2026, at his home in...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Comparing 5 AI Video Enhancers for Restoring Old Video Quality
Kate Luvis May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Digitizing VHS, MiniDV, and other legacy formats doe...
29/05/2026
Studio Hamburg Builds New Post Pipeline with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Workflow replaces a patchwork of legacy tools...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/05/2026
At the Intersection of Music and Dance, an Epic Collaboration Boston Conservatory musicians and dancers found creative parallels in their recent performance o...
29/05/2026
GLOOKAST LAUNCHES CINNAFILM TACHYON PLUGIN FOR MEDIA PRODUCER AND MEDIA SERVICES
This release first appeared here.
Visit our Tachyon product page or contact...
29/05/2026
May 29 2026, 09:00 (PDT) Dolby and rednote Bring More Immersive Storytelling to...
29/05/2026
Something fundamental has shifted in how people consume media. Audiences aren't abandoning television or radio content; they're just expanding how, wher...
29/05/2026
Youtube exclusive special drops today
Watch now
UKTV today announces another e...
29/05/2026
Back to All News
The Official Trailer of Physical 100 Italy, on Netflix From Se...
29/05/2026
Genelec announces V2.1 for Aural ID binaural headphone monitoring application posted: 29/05/2026
Aural ID 2.1 enhances binaural monitoring for stereo and ...
Capturing the Total Solar Eclipse with Canon Explorer 
