How can photographing the eclipse damage your camera?
I have captured images looking directly at the sun with my tech camera in the past and have not noticed any adverse effects, but for longer usage, is this something to be worried about?
I was thinking about using a 55mm or 90mm with a 2-stop grad ND filter at f/22 or higher. Could this still cause damage?
Most of the time when shooting the sun, it is low on the horizon, so less chance of damaging a sensor. Also LiveView vs dSLR changes the amount of time the sun can burn a hole into the sensor.
As far as what to use it depends on what you are after. If you are trying to capture during totality, the grad might work OK. Most are wanting to show the black disc of the moon moving across the sun fairly clearly. To do that requires a huge amount of density, not sure a 10 stop ND filter will allow that. special solar filters are closer to 20 or 25 stops.
I shot the annular eclipse a few years ago, where the moon is smaller than the sun so it doesn't completely block it. During the time of full coverage I think almost 98 or 99% of the sun is covered, yet you still can't look at it with your eyes. The shot is a stack, one exposure for the foreground and sky, one exposure for the sun. The sun was shot with 13 stops of neutral density which did allow me to sort of capture the moon in front of the sun.
The second picture is what we here in Utah and Idaho are saying i-15 will look like starting later today and tomorrow. As of a week ago, all rental cars were gone with the demand for those flying into SLC and driving up into Idaho. I was thinking of going somewhere to view the eclipse, but it sounds like a nightmare getting there and back.