Shooting in the sun with a telephoto? Try not to set your camera on fire.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Long story short, a guy was out shooting on a sunny day with his 40D/300f4 and he accidentally pointed the camera at the sun for a few seconds while setting up his tripod. The sun/magnifying glass effect took place, and here's the result:

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a318/CatSplat/burnt-camera8593.jpg

Melted camera, burnt mirror, $400+ repair bill from Canon.

[GQBalla]

owned

damn thats a expensive mistake/

[Mitsu3000gt]

I read about this today as well. I wonder if its specific to Canon, for example, if they use plastic with a low melting point or something, or if this could happen to anyone.

[Hoagie]

wow, I'll keep this in mind.

[Ichigo]

that's why i always leave the cap on b4 i shoot.. also keeps dust off my lens and incase I pull a butter fingers and drop it.. o_0

[qrankz]

Dang. I've never seen that happen before. To me, it always seemed like an "urban legend" type of story but there's logic to not pointing glass at the sun.