digital camera

Remember burning wood/paper with a magnifying glass? Any bright light source entering your camera lens gets focused on the camera sensor. Over a short time (a couple minutes) it can overheat.

Cameras with an LCD viewfinder ("electronic shutter") should be susceptible to damage by being exposed throughout the time you spend framing the shot.

The real shutter in an SLR would protect the digital sensor. Only now the bright light is shining into your eye while you compose your image. A very fast shutter speed should be required to properly expose a photograph on a bright light source. About the same amount of light should reach the sensor in all properly exposed images--whatever the subject be it the sun, a spotlight, or a powerful flash. Therefore, you should be unable to damage an SLR by photographing a bright midday sun unless the exposure is amiss.

I should remember to take pictures of very bright things very quickly because my camera has an LCD viewfinder.

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I'm posting this message for the archives with source links because I didn't find a concise explanation,