Would shooting someone welding damage camera sensor?

If I'm running a 5 stop ND that should still allow me to show what is happening but cut down on the light from the welder hitting the sensor.  But will it be enough to prevent damage? 

I'm guessing that you're not talking about any long exposures, so you should be ok.

But if you're using a mirrorless camera, or 'Live View' in a dSLR, I'd watch out.

The welding masks are 9 stops right?  

Non variable welding masks are usually 10 or higher, and the filter glass can be changed to any number desired. The new electronic auto darkening masks are adjustable from about 7 to 15. I love my Miller Digital Elite helmet. It wirelessly senses the arc as well as the light from the arc, so much less failure to darken when the arc is struck.  My son and I both have them. Yes, we are experienced welders with a full welding/fabrication shop. I'm usually working when there, so haven't used my cameras to take welding photos, but you should be good using an ND filter setting of 7 or higher. If in close to the arc with the lens, you need to protect your lens from spatters of molten metal, so put a cheap UV filter on top of the ND filter that you can discard when it gets damaged. If this close, putting a protective cover over the camera would be a good idea too. I would do both if the camera is closer than about 5' away from the arc.

Charley

Can’t say I’ve done this, but was thinking about this and believe I can give some good advice here. If you're out there looking to photograph someone welding, you might be worried about damaging your camera's sensor, I get it. I mean, welding is a pretty intense process, right? It generates a lot of light and heat, and you might be thinking that could fry your camera's electronics.

Well, let me tell you, it's possible that welding could damage your camera, but it's not necessarily a given. I mean, modern cameras are pretty tough and well-built, and they're designed to handle a certain amount of exposure to light and heat.That being said, if you're photographing someone welding, it's definitely a good idea to take some precautions to protect your camera. You might want to use a lens hood to block some of the sparks from hitting it (depending how close you are), or you could even use a UV filter, stacked on top of your 10 stop ND filter (might want to start with 5 stop) to help protect the lens from damage.

And, of course, it's always a good idea to use a tripod or a steady surface when photographing welding, so that you can minimize the amount of camera shake and help keep your shots sharp.  Just so you don’t need to do again and expose (no pun intended) your camera to that over and over.

So really, if you're looking to photograph someone welding, don't freak out about damaging your camera's sensor. Just use some common sense (not trying to be a butt head here), take a few precautions, and you should be able to get some great shots without any problems.

One of the first things I was told is not point your camera at the son.  Photographing a welding machine can't be any good for your camera.  

I would say not. The arc has a lot of deep UV in it but not a lot of far IR.

Far UV is absorbed quite well by glass for a start and I'm not sure whether it would be harmful on an exposed sensor anyway.

Just overexposing a sensor will not damage it. Heating the sensor will but your arc has almost no heat IR, unlike the sun.

The problem our eyes have is the UV, which our corneas do not like.