Topic: Photos of Earth from Space

[astrobeck]

This site is VERY cool.  Images are made with digital Nikon D2Xs' now, but in the past, the astrounauts used Linhof, Kodak, Hasseys, and Nikon "film" cameras to make the photos.
Just use the clickable map to naviagate or go to the main page and search
cities or countries.

The Gateway of Astronaut Photography of Earth
http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop/clickmap/

The site lists camera and film, process info with the photos.
I would really like to get my hands on the Hasselblad those guys used at
one time...or maybe not.

Becky

[Sandeha Lynch]

Cool ... I never heard they used a Linhof up there.

Are they still using film, Becky?

[cwilk]

That's a great site but the weather ruins a lot of photos.

[astrobeck]

they still haul IMAX cameras up on ocassion.

Not sure when the last time was, I'll check unless someone on the list here already knows and rings in.

[warren]

At this point almost no film is being used. The ISS and Shuttle crews are using digital cameras 99.9% of the time. STS122 which landed last week is a crew of photo buffs and they returned with no film. (Some film is still manifested for each flight but it's less and less each time with none being used.) Having said that, the previous crew returned with a few rolls but they were mostly experimental, using a stereo camera they had on board and also testing an 18mm lens.
There's still a veritable ton of earth imagery on film that hasn't been scanned, not to mention the thousands of digital earth images we process from the space station.

[gothamtomato]

Someone keeps posting, on eBay, two Hasselblad Super Wides for sale, that they claim once belonged to NASA. They are asking thousands over the going price for Hassys because of the 'history', so they don't sell, and they keep putting them back up again.

Here's a link for one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/NASA-CAMERA-HASSELBLAD-SUPER-WIDE-C-SWC-ZEISS-SUPERWIDE_W0QQitemZ130115460171QQihZ003QQcategoryZ3351QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQ_trksidZp1638.m118.l1247QQcmdZViewItem

[warren]

Oh Lordy. Definitely an attempt to prey on naivete. Looking at the JSC acquisition group alone, many many cameras have passed through with NASA property tags. This doesn't mean anything other than an official NASA photographer used it. May have been for any number of things but I don't suspect the 'history' warrants the price gouge. The cameras flown in space with any historical value are in very safe hands.

[al]

I picked up Full Moon by Michael Light on Amazon a few months for a couple of quid.   Great book, a huge collection of full page re-scans of all the old NASA negatives, nicely put together with all the camera and photographer information included at the back. Don't think the camera serial numbers are included so no way to check if those ebay auctions are bargains 

  Worth a look, as is his "100 suns" photographic collection of  US nuclear test shots... if like me you still haven't quite got over the cold war.

[warren]

And the scans in his book, as nice as they are, are produced from third generation dupes. We just finished part of a long-term project involving hi-res scans from the original Apollo flight film. Just beautiful. Looks like they were shot yesterday. I've helped bring some of that film out of the cold vault, and that was kinda heady. Carrying a case around with some of the most historical photography ever.

[Ed Wenn]

So, Warren. I guess it's safe to say that you don't work at Starbucks?

 

[Tammy]

I want to work with you for a day, Warren. 

[warren]

No, I don't work at Starbucks per se, I just contribute begrudgingly to the coffee juggernaut. 

Working here really is amazing. It's a job, yes, and it has all those jobby frustrations. But it's the little things like the film vault that give me joy.

Well, at work anyway.