Solar Filter Holder

About

This device will hold a piece of filter film in front of your camera lens, by compression-fitting over a lens hood, or directly over the lens itself. Any type of film can be used, so this is not necessarily for solar imaging, but that is the main use case I designed this for.

For a total solar eclipse, a filter is needed for the parts of the event before and after totality, in order to darken the Sun’s intense brightness down to a level where detail can be captured, and since a direct picture of the Sun could potentially damage a camera sensor.

See this design on Thingiverse.

History

In August 2017, I went to take pictures of the Great American Eclipse. In preparation for this, I bought a sheet of solar film, and made a device out of cardboard, glue, and painter’s tape, to hold the film in front of my camera, by attaching to the lens hood. This did the job well enough, but after getting a 3D printer, I decided to make a new model.