I often hear that aiming a camera in the direction of the sun (directly east/west) will "burn out" the imager. However, I've only ever seen a couple of cameras with any damage from the sun, and they were likely aimed in that direction for years on end as they were quite old. Obviously, there are other problems which arise from having the sun in the image (reflections, lens flare, vertical lines and smearing, etc.), but actual damage seems rare.
So the question is: is this more security urban myth than fact? Have you ever seen sun damage to a camera's imager? If so, how long do you suspect it was happening?
