SUN DAMAGE - a question

[loosecanon]

A warning often given is not to leave cameras where the lens could focus the suns image inside the camera and cause damage. Are mirrorless cameras more at risk of damage, with the strong sun focused perhaps onto the sensor for some time?

[Manfred M]

The lens focuses light on a surface (think of what a magnifying glass does). Direct a beam of intense light on a shutter (carbon fiber construction) or a sensor stack, the outcome will not be good.

With a DSLR, the mirror reflects most of the light to the viewfinder (with a bit hitting the phase detect autofocus mechanism and the metering cells near the pentaprism (or pentamirror) and then the focusing screen, so while the focusing screen is at most risk, even though much of the light will be transmitted through the viewfinder.

In a mirrorless camera there is a secondary issue, the viewfinder. There is a lens in front of it to magnify the information on it (dedicated video cameras work much the same way). I know one person who had this happen to his video camera; it destroyed the viewfinder. Uunfortunately, there is no "lens cap" that can be left in place on that end of the camera.