Shooting Sun You won't be able to use Iris and ND to reduce the sun to a nice golden ball.

You'll need to use electronic shutter.

This will mean that there is a lot of energy hitting the ccd.

I suggest that you shoot an evening sun which will be less bright.

I regularly shoot with f11 1000mm prime lens.

A few years ago I did a timelapse with a 1/2 inch minicam and wideangle lens. It damaged the ccd.(the only damage I have ever done to a ccd. The damage was in the form of a slight pink trace across the ccd where the sun tracked across the ccd.

Why? Because the sun was focused into a very very small pinprick by the wide angle lens and the exposure was for the ambient light (the cityscape scene) and not the light source itself (the sun)

This is far different from spreading the energy across the whole ccd and dropping exposure as you do with a big closeup of the sun.

A prolonged wide shot of the sun on a wide lens is potentially more damaging that a closeup.

For total eclipes I use the appropriate filter.

A pola filter and ND in the filter wheel will get you in the ballpark.

Be aware that Sony has failed to fix strobing of highlights when using the shutter. (is most obvious at 25p and 24p) Some cameras are better than others.

Miek Brennan