The defacto standard for medium format cameras is the Hasselblad. So it shouldn’t be surprising that NASA turned to them. But the article is an intesting adn sometimes indepth look at how they where used.
The date was 20 July 1969. It is already a quarter of a century ago. Most middleaged people still remember exactly where they were when the television pictures from the moon were first broadcast around the world. Over 500 million spectators followed this historic direct transmission.
Neil Armstrong, commander of the Eagle, was the first man to set foot on the moon. He was shortly followed by the pilot, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin. One of the many memorable images taken at the time was that of Edwin Aldrin, a solitary man on an alien planet.
Since then this image has been printed millions of times in thousands of contexts. Among others it appeared on the covers of those international publications, TIME and National Geographic.
Take another look at the photograph. The man stands in the centre, above his head the infinite blackness of space, the moon’s horizon leans suggestively, the sloping plane continues through the gilded visor, which reflects the scattered instruments, the photographer, the subject’s shadow and the moon lander.
Neil Armstrong took this photograph using a Hasselblad Data Camera, the moon camera, a modified Hasselblad 500EL.
[Hasselblad Space Camera - Part 1 Continues]
Tags: Article, camera, History, story, Technology
