5 Eclipse Frames with a Zeiss Loxia Planar 50mm f2 lens…

…on a Sony A7Riii. In addition I had a “K&F Concept Nano-K variable ND 2-400″ filter which I used set to maximum for the eclipse images and one of the other frames. The location was the Parc du Cinquantenaire in Brussels.

Anyone who has seen a partial solar eclipse before knows there is not a lot to see, at least not very well unless you have the right equipment. The eclipse is primarily an opportunity to have a party and/or sacrifice a few virgins to the gods. So that’s what we did – party that is – and play with some of our toys. I met with the “Photoresk” MeetUp group some of whom had brought extensive equipment but several had just come to look.

Having arrived only two days before after a gruelling 27 hour journey door-to-door, and having completely forgotten about the expected solar eclipse, my choice of equipment was limited and not entirely appropriate. I had the camera body and a choice of a 50mm or a 20mm lens. The image size of the sun or moon on a 35mm frame with a 50mm lens is under ½ mm and under 0.2mm with the 20mm lens. In neither case was there going to be an impressive solar image. Knowing the location I knew the 20mm lens would not be necessary so took the 50. The filter – which I had brought along for another task I planned with the 20mm lens – was too large for the 50mm lens but would be useful for visual observation and could be easily hand-held in front of the lens for photographing the sun (although image expectations were not high).

I arrived at 7:15 pm (about an hour before maximum) – the location was already covered with sun worshippers all being remarkably well behaved, quiet and sober.

The featured image was taken as I left – a few minutes after maximum and the light still noticeably sunset light rather than the bright light of half an hour before. Maximum eclipse reduced the sun’s light (on earth) by 90% – which sounds a lot but the dimmed sun is still far too bright, and potentially dangerous to your eyes, to look at directly.

It took me about 20 minutes to find the group I was signed up to meet – having never met any before it was just a matter of looking for the group with big cameras round their necks. Typical of Brussels the members turned out to include Portuguese, Italian, and Arabic so as always English seems to be the language everyone has to turn to – plus the poor English have no other options available. We chatted for a while about equipment, the type of photography we do and in between we were taking a few photos. I left soon after maximum and on the way back took a shot still holding the ND filter in front of the lens:

The eclipse images you will have seen many times before but here goes

The last two images were ……. cropped (extensively)

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