DSLR sensor damage

[sunsetter]

Will long exposures(over 20 minutes) cause damage to the sensor due to heat?

[jdepould]

What heat? Assuming you're doing night photography a 20 min daytime exposure would be white. Only time you'd damage anything would be pointing it at the sun.

[Nicole]

Based on what I read at the PopPhoto forums, this was the best answer I found:

The only way a sensor (CMOS or CCD) can be "burned" is by leaving it exposed directly to the sun for a long period of time. If you accidentally leave the shutter open while the camera is pointed at the sun, the heat generated (by the sun hitting the sensor, *not* by any electricity in the sensor) can melt the RGB filters (which are a thin membrane over the microlenses) and ruin the sensor's ability to take color images.

Otherwise, there is no "burn out" from long exposures of any kind. None. Your sensor can quite easily do hours-long exposures with no effect to the sensor at all, as long as you're not pointing it at the sun. And long exposures don't cause any kind of heat from electricity to build up in the sensor -- the heat actually comes from the surrounding circuits, not from the sensor itself. And what the heat does is simply increase dark current (which shows up in images as "hot pixels"), it doesn't harm the sensor in any way.

[sunsetter]

Thanks for all your help. I read somewhere about the sensor getting hot from long exposures, but I guess not..Thanks again

[brianfarrell]

If you're taking astronomical photographs, maybe you want one of these cooled Astro 400D's: http://www.centralds.net/en/

[nekuromanseru]

Originally Posted by brianfarrell

If you're taking astronomical photographs, maybe you want one of these cooled Astro 400D's: http://www.centralds.net/en/

cool site!.....but i use A700...maybe i just try n error... ...if something happen to my slr...just sent to service center...