Solar Eclipse 2017 Recorded on Film

Ye Olde Photographer took the images seen here with a Canon A-1 SLR equipped with a recently acquired Canon FD 100-300 f/5.6 telephoto lens mounted on a Canon 2x-B Extender which doubles the focal length (but kills off two stops worth of exposure). Thus the zoom was effectively 200 to 600mm. A Daystar Universal Solar Filter, metalized Mylar mounted in cardboard to create a slip-on, was used during the non-total portions of the transit.

YOP found the FD series right angle viewer he used was rather difficult to work with, being very tedious about eye relief and optical axis. It beat trying to squat or lean over and look through the viewfinder, but against a black sky it was difficult to get a frame reference. At the narrow field of view of long telephoto lenses, the sun travels out of the frame rather quickly. A geared head set up with some attention to orienting the axis to be perpendicular to the sun's path might be very useful (if it can be done!)

A suggestion is made to use tape to lock the focus on infinity prior to the transit. On both the cameras used for this event that was impossible to do if one wanted to zoom wide to make the initial aiming easy. Perhaps a 500 or 600mm mirror lens or some such is in YOP's future!