Nikon and NASA Are Putting a Mirrorless Camera on the Moon (theverge.com) 21
Nikon is working with NASA to make a mirrorless camera that astronauts will use during the agency's incoming Artemis III mission to document their return to the Moon. From a report: On Thursday, NASA announced that it had entered a Space Act agreement with Nikon to develop the Handheld Universal Lunar Camera (HULC), a camera system designed to capture imagery in low light and survive the harsh lunar environment. The crewed Artemis III mission -- which will launch "no earlier than September 2026" -- aims to explore the lunar south pole, a region of the Moon that contains water ice within permanently shadowed craters.
That makes it an area of scientific interest, but the extreme lighting and temperature conditions pose particular technical challenges for operating equipment within the lunar south pole region. Nikon's full-frame Z9 flagship has already been used in thermal, vacuum, and radiation testing before the agreement, with a modified version of the camera forming the base of the HULC system alongside Nikkor lenses. The HULC design also implements thermal blankets designed by NASA to protect the camera from dust and extreme temperatures and modified electrical components to minimize potential issues caused by radiation. A custom grip with modified buttons has been used to make it easier for suited crew members to operate the camera system while wearing gloves.
That makes it an area of scientific interest, but the extreme lighting and temperature conditions pose particular technical challenges for operating equipment within the lunar south pole region. Nikon's full-frame Z9 flagship has already been used in thermal, vacuum, and radiation testing before the agreement, with a modified version of the camera forming the base of the HULC system alongside Nikkor lenses. The HULC design also implements thermal blankets designed by NASA to protect the camera from dust and extreme temperatures and modified electrical components to minimize potential issues caused by radiation. A custom grip with modified buttons has been used to make it easier for suited crew members to operate the camera system while wearing gloves.
Moon vampires (Score:4, Funny)
The moon is a good place for them (Score:5, Interesting)
I have been nothing but frustrated with the mirrorless cameras, the video display is always laggy compared to either mechanical or electronic shutters. Everyone tells me the next one has fixed the problem, I get it, its the same thing again.
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Sports and wildlife photographers use mirrorless cameras. If you can't then really at this point it's your problem adapting to the technology. Yes there will always be lag. But really that lag is not only slight compared to the past, but easily compensated for by the far more technically advanced technology you have in your hand.
The idea of lag and timing matter when I was shooting 5 fps, not the 120 fps in full RAW that for example a Nikon Z9 shoots.
I don't complain about my EV not having gears, or my keyb
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My solution was to use a DSLR for action. Mirrorless is fine for static situations - but then again, not as good as any number of other technologies, like a field camera.
You do you, I will do me. I was mostly reacting to the slashvertisment for Nikon
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You realize that the DSLR "live preview" mode is basically mirrorless mode right?
In fact, that's why mirrorless cameras are basically taking off - people aren't using the viewfinder as much anymore and instead just using live previews on their DSLRs. So a mirrorless just gets rid of all that mechanical nightmare and just operates in the live preview mode always.
I don't see the problem with mirrorless - their live previews are faster than a phone in general
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I never use the "live preview" for exactly that reason, same issue.
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My solution was to use a DSLR for action.
The issue with clinging on the to past rather than adapting is that you find more and more the world will leave you behind. You can see that everywhere, not just in cameras and cars, but right here on Slashdot where people talk about Windows 11's updates and reboot cycle when it is perfectly clear they are using Windows 10 and have no experience otherwise.
The issue is not a solution that is good for you, it's that the solution will progressively get less and less good. You will only be able to buy so many s
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Mirrorless cameras can now have negative lag, thanks to "pre-capture". You half-press the shutter and it starts recording stills into memory at a high rate (up to 120fps). If you then fully press the shutter, up to the last second's worth of these images are saved to your media. Obviously this requires the use of a purely electronic shutter, but sensors with a global shutter make this much less of a problem. It looks like Nikon's implementation currently limits pre-capture to JPG although I think Sony's
Check The Tripod. (Score:3)
Don't want it falling over.
Assuming it doesn't fall over during landing... (Score:2)
Seems to be happening a lot lately...
In this case ... (Score:2)
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The Hasselblad 500e/l used for Apollo didn't have any viewfinder, they aimed it without any aids at all.
Not Going To The Moon (Score:2)
People won't believe we are landing on the moon until they see a spaceship touching down. So NASA will emplace a camera to record this event.
Come on, they're not even trying. All those recent "lunar landings" of probes are just as fake the original Moon Landing. This time they show sideways bad scenes, because the probes "landed" upside down or whatever. The future manned "return" to Luna will be better than before -- because now we have full CGI. They might as well encounter Dr. Spock when they land there;
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the only people who believe the moon landings were faked, were conned by charlatans.
As evidence for the moon landings, we have:
- 382 kg of moon rock,
- hours of live TV and film,
- more than 8000 photos,
- scientific results from every experiment they did,
- thousands of technical documents that show how they did it.
We can analyze this evidence, and have been doing that for 50 years now, In all that time, not one of these items has been found to be falsified. The Apollo videos show they're in 1/6 g gravity, whi
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Whoosh!
An article like this means (Score:2)
3 lens cell phone is easy (Score:2)
A fancy 3 eyed iPhone or Android gets even better results for amateurs than a full frame Nikon or Canon (for the money). The Apple/Google/Samsung "special sauce" software with 3 eye HDR multiple exposure on the fly simply does a better job than one frame exposure. Frankly, after the complex mechanics of DSLR manufacture are no longer on demand, I'm astonished at how much they continue to charge for these new mirror-less full framed point and shoot status symbols. Particularly since the just can't beat th
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Provide really great pics of the moon when substituting Samsung's picture for yours.
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The term "amateur" describes a very wide spectrum. "Average Joe" might be a better choice to make that assertion true.
so what? (Score:2)
I believe the Hasselblad cameras carried on Apollo did not have mirrors.