Aldrin radios for exposure.

Here’s a fascinating piece from Alexis Madrigal at The Atlantic, showing the conversation right before Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon. In the exchange, Buzz Aldrin asks Mission Control for the right exposure to catch the moment.

The “sequence camera” referred to is not one of the Hasselblad 500ELs used for the high quality images on the lunar surface. The lenses used on the 500EL were limited to f/2.8 (the standard 80mm Zeiss Planar) and f/4 (the 150mm Zeiss Sonnar). This was all on July 21, 1969, not that long ago. Imagine asking someone for exposure settings today!

Click the picture for the article.

Click the picture.

By the way, it figures they would give the photography duties to the nerdy one. Aldrin turned down a full scholarship offer from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and went to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

You can read about the moon Hasselblads here. And yes, you can still fit a digital back to one of those bodies and bang away today without the inconvenience of film.

Digital back for Buzz Aldrin’s camera.

You would, however, do far better with a Canon 5D/II or Nikon D700 at a fraction of the cost.