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Hasselblad on the moon


graham_martin2

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<p>With the 40th anniversary of the Apollo lunar landing, NASA has released transcripts of recordings of the crew in the Lunar Module. There are some interesting conversations going on between the astronauts about the right settings and lenses to use on their Hasselblads. Here is a link. The transcript is quite long, and you will have to scroll through many pages, but it is quite interestting.</p>

<p>http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/mission_trans/AS11_CM.PDF</p>

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<p>It is as marvelous to consider a spaceship and three brave men going to the moon on what amounted to as much computer power as is in modern day cell phones, as it is to consider early ships crossing the oceans to come to America. The story of cameras in space is a fascinating one, from the first camera, a 35mm Ansco made by Minolta, to the collaboration of Hasselblad in Sweden with Nasa to create cameras like the 500 EL, to Ed White's Zeiss Contarex 35mm camera.</p>
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<p>I love it.<br>

"I've lost a Hasselblad... Has anybody seen a Hasselblad floating by? It couldn't have gone very far- big son of a gun like that."...<br>

..."Well that pisses me off. Hasselblad gone."<br>

..."Everybody look for a floating Hasselblad"...</p>

<p>Don't you hate it when you're in the middle of a job and you start losing track of things?</p>

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<p>I'd love to perform an experiment. Let a Hasselblad EL float in space and trigger it via remote control. Will it vibrate visibly, float off a little in a certain direction? In vacuum I would for sure miss the sound...<br>

Ulrik</p>

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<p>OT: Consider this conundrum of the street photographer working in space:<br /> Both the Hasselblad and the Leica will be effortless to carry in a zero-gravity enviroment - and both will make no discernible sound when firing.<br /> This would make the choice of what camera to use for street shooting even more difficult, although perhaps not as difficult as finding suitable subject matter. Lengthy and tedious forum threads could be written debating these important questions.<br /> Back on topic: I understood that the Hassleblad EDC and the later ELS (Space Shuttle) cameras, while based to some extent on the 500EL design concept, were considerably different cameras from the commercial product in many important ways. They were designed exclusively for NASA use, were they not?</p>
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<p>They were 'based on' the EL.<br>

The cameras used on-board were more like the 'normal' EL(...)s. The Lunar surface models were modified more.<br>

Most of the features of the lunar surface camera returned in the Mk 70 photogrammetric cameras.<br>

So eventually not quite exclusive (but yes: originally redesigned to meet NASA's demands), rather an extensive and expensive modification.</p>

 

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<p>There are around a dozen 'Blad bodies on the moon just waiting to be picked up. Only the<br>

film backs were returned to save weight. Somewhere I have a picture of an astronaut<br>

holding a pistol grip with 4 'Blads attached around it.<br>

Best regards,<br>

/Clay</p>

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<p>Q.G., I know there is a lot of different information about the 500 EL, but Wildi, as well as some NASA articles I've read, indicated the EL was created out of requests by NASA for such a camera.</p>

<p>Not quite floating around: at one point they experienced problems with either the camera or a timer they stowed away in a space suit to take a picture of both lunar astronauts next to the Surveyor craft. They wanted to get a rise out of the team when they brought back the first shot of both astronauts in the same image. They arn into problems, Conrad grabbed Bean's 500 EL with 60mm Biogon, after they removed the film back, and hurled it away into the distance. There are 12 Hasselblad still on the moon. One will be less easy to find.</p>

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<p>Michael,</p>

<p>That's not so.<br>

The EL was made because bird photographer Victor Hasselblad wanted a camera that could be remotely operated.<br>

The 500 C already was meant to take a motor (that's what the little holes in early 500 C bodies are for), but Hasselblad decided against such an add-on winder, and built the EL.<br>

Work on the EL started as early as 1960, before NASA thought about using Hasselblad cameras.</p>

<p>After using a modified 500 C, NASA did ask to modify (!) the EL for them, yes.<br>

And that's the way round things happened: the NASA cameras are modified ELs. Not the other way round; ELs are not modified NASA cameras.</p>

<p> </p>

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<p>"The EL was made because bird photographer Victor Hasselblad wanted a camera that could be remotely operated."</p>

<p>The inspiration no doubt came from Crawford Greenewalt, director of DuPont, and fellow bird photographer. <br>

Greenewalt had made a number of modifications to his Hasselblads, among which was a motor winder. That was in the early 1950s, the cameras still being 1000-series Hasselblads.<br>

That was what led to the idea of making provisons for a motor winder on the later 500 C, which rejected idea in turn led to a better idea: the EL models.<br>

In 1957, after the 500 C was launched, Greenewalt (by now he and Victor Hasselblad were good friends) did the same. Now Victor decided set up a task force and start doing serious work on making a motorized camera. That was late 1957.<br>

A first field test of the EL was on a trip to photograph birds in Brasil, which Victor and Greenewalt made together.</p>

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