I used a welding helmet to look at the eclipse today. Where I live, the eclipse was about 80%, so there was a crescent at the time of most coverage. I tried getting a picture through the helmet lens with my camera, but the camera wasn't up to the task, the light washed out the imaging device.
The glass in my welding helmet wasn't really quite dark enough, but you could look at the eclipse for a short time without a problem.