Talk about a camera platform! This sure beats shooting out the window of a Cessna 172 (which is what I usually do.)
But what really shocked me about this picture of one of the astronauts shooting out the window of the International Space Station was his obvious sheer strength. That's a 400mm f2.8 Nikkor lens he is holding and they weight a ton. And there he is hand holding it! Wow! Arms of steel. Except, of course, it's weightless up there with no gravity so holding a lens of that bulk is about as easy as holding a Kodak Instamatic. Or may a feather! For all you equipment hounds out there note that it has a 2X extender attached, so he's really holding an 800mm lens. Piece of cake. And, of course, I could have shot that picture if I had been there. I guess the "being there" is the hard part, as usual. Thanks to Nikon Rumors for bringing this to my attention. See them here: http://nikonrumors.com/ (Please note that the photo is courtesy of NASA. I did not shoot this photo, in case you were wondering what I do with all my time.) Jim
Actually, it's easier to handhold than an Instamatic.. law of inertia and such
Posted by: Adrian | December 21, 2009 at 11:00 PM
Hey!
Very interesting to see how photographs got taken in the space.
Cheers.
Posted by: Travel Photograpy | December 23, 2009 at 04:12 AM
I can't help to wonder if the VR is efficient...
Posted by: Francois | December 29, 2009 at 03:21 AM