National Geographic Society

What brand is the camera of choice which are selected among most of
the NGS' photographers?
Did the NASA's Apollo mission on the moon use the Hasselblad brand?
Was NASA recently shipped Nikon cameras for the ISS ?
Does Kodak play a big role in the supplies of lenses for earth mapping
satellites?
Where did the lenses which were installed for the Hubble telescope
come from? Were they German or Japanese lenses?
Just curious.

 

What brand is the camera of choice which are selected among most of
: the NGS' photographers?
: Did the NASA's Apollo mission on the moon use the Hasselblad brand?
: Was NASA recently shipped Nikon cameras for the ISS ?
: Does Kodak play a big role in the supplies of lenses for earth mapping
: satellites?
: Where did the lenses which were installed for the Hubble telescope
: come from? Were they German or Japanese lenses?
: Just curious.

Sounds like a Google project to me. Why don't you research the questions there
and let us know what you find?

 

the ones that take photos

and Nikon. This is promising:
http://apollo.sese.asu.edu/

apparently, yes.

wouldn't have a clue, sorry.
does Kodak still make lenses?

Dunno. More than likely made in Japan.

Me 2.

 

Interesting resource. You can even see the studio lights in some of the
Hasselblad shots of the lunar surface.

In this one, the back wall of the studio is visible:
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/apollo/frame/?AS12-46-6868

 

NGS photographers own their own gear, and some like Nikon, others like
Canon. Generally, Canon has a greater share of the market. However, there
are situations that call of larger format. Depends upon the subject and the
photographer.

Won't even try to answer the other questions.

--
In the US everything is made in China except Chinese food - it's made in the
US.

Stan Beck > From New Orleans to Brandon MS
To reply, remove 101 from address.
***

 

As far as NGS, I believe it is the photographer's choice of his own
equipment. Some still choose to use film.

I wonder if NGS allowed lower res cameras early on, in the 3-5mp range like
the Canon D30 and some early Nikons.
John

 

I know that the UK military uses mostly Zeiss lenses for its aeriel
recconnaissance and survey imagery, although they also use Vinten equipment
too.
Seriously large format stuff producing 9x9 inch negatives.

 

is that from the same source? I don't think so.

 

IIRC the first "all digital" article published by NG was shot using a
Nikon D1x and D100 (5.5 and 6mp) cameras. It was an article on war
planes, I think photographed by Joe McNally:
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0312/feature1/index.html
If you search the NG website, you can easily find links like this:
http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0601/feature5/gallery1.html
Which may dispel some of the myth around equipment that pros use, and
about use of digital cameras in publications.

 

the original link leads to it if you click on "Space Exploration Resources"
then Earth's Moon and then the Apollo Hasselblad link. Those were the only
actual Hasselblad images I could find.

 

F----- kook.

 

That lens in the hubble won't look much like the one in your camera
although I suppose you could design a camera to use a mirror!!
Dave Cohen

 

<>

snip

www.google.com

 

The reason I threw this question is because I recall that Canon used
to advertise in the NG magazine, and the ad's content is usually about
a NGS photographer using Canon camera and equipment. Correct me if I
am wrong, as I just recall this by memory, and the ads were shown in
the magazine far prior to digital camera era (1970s or 80s). I have
not been read or taken noticed on NG magazines in teh past few years,
and don't know if Canon still advertises their cameras there.

 

Dave Cohen wrote:

As a matter of fact, back in the 1960s (might have extended into the
1970s), 500 mm focal length mirror lenses were being marketed by, among
others, Spiratone. There may have been 1000 mm ones also, but I don't
recall. In the ads they looked like black Quaker Oats boxes with a
protuberance for mounting and also a tripod socket. I have no idea how
many were sold, but I must admit that I lusted after one. I don't recall
that I ever actually ordered anything from Spiratone, but I miss their
ads, usually four pages in Pop Photo and Modern Photo, containing all
sorts of camera accessories--extension tubes, filters, T-mounts and
lenses, all kinds of gadgets.
Allen

 

The Hubble uses mirror optics.
Old Bob

 

Perkin Elmer made the systematically myopic main mirror for Hubble at
Danbury, Conn. Kodak made the unused backup mirror correctly (which
didn't fly). The latter was later used in ground based system tests to
help diagnose the problem with the Hubble after it was placed in
orbit.

You do down fine US instrument makers unjustly with that throw away
line.

Regards,
Martin Brown

 

There has for quite a few decades been a proliferation
of mirror lenses for 35mm SLR cameras. Some have been
relatively good (Nikon and Vivitar come to mind as both
having sold high quality catadioptric lenses at one
time). There have been everything from 250mm to 1400mm
models, but f/8 500mm models are the ubiquitous.

Today most of them are rather inexpensive (costing less
than $130 new), and not of particularly high quality in any
way. (They are almost all made by the same manufacturer
in Korea.)

 

Thanks for broadening my knowledge of the mirror-lens subject. As I
recall, those first ones were always "wide open", so to speak, and
shutter speed was the only way to control exposure. Did any of the later
ones solve that problem? Also, f/8 was pretty small for action pictures
of animals in motion, especially birds, without going to high-speed
film. Because of the limitations of both the lenses and my bank account,
I never really seriously investigated them.
Allen

 

Hello, Aniramca:

Kodak <http://www.kodak.com> long been a leading supplier of NASA's
photographic and optical technology.

Fast Facts About Kodak Science and Technology
<http://www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/researchDevelopment/facts.jhtml>

Some selected, space-related quotes, from the above Web page:

"For the Apollo 11 mission, Kodak built the electronic camera that sent
still pictures back from the moon in 1969."

"In the 1997 Mars Surface Rover mission, Kodak image sensors captured
close-up images of Mars."

"Kodak designed the optics for the Chandra X-ray space telescope in
1999."


Cordially,
John Turco <>