I shot the eclipse with my Sony A700, and a Perkin-Elmer 800mm
catadiptric lens. Only thing I had that would cover that were my gold
coated full face lenses. I did some test shots in my driveway mid-day to
try and get a handle on shutter speeds and such (since the lens is a
fixed f/11), and noticed that after only a few minutes of experimenting
trying to get an idea where I needed to be for the actual event, my
right eye was starting to get that scratchy eyeball feeling most welders
have experienced.

I ended up shooting through a #13, ISO 160, at 1/4000 sec.
Here's 6 of the best:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10986502@N08/sets/72157629865291990/

Obviously late WRT to the eclipse, but for someone wanting to view or
photograph the Venus transit, this might give a clue what you're going
to need to dim the sun enough to see Venus against a full sun. I don't
think a welding lens is going to cut it for the Venus transit. Search
ebay for 'solar filter', there's special films available pretty cheaply
that blocks 99.9999% of visible light.

BTW, a neat tool for photographers, is The Photographer's Ephemeris, a
freebie that integrates with Google Earth data. You can specify a date
and pick a location, it'll show where the sun and moon will rise and
set. You can also use it to determine of there's anything in your line
of sight that will interfere with the shot you wish to compose. (well,
big things like hills...) I used it to make sure I picked a location
where I could get a clear shot at the eclipse. Wouldn't have been able
to shoot it from my driveway due to trees.


Jon