A professional photographer's camera lens died when shooting the rocket at a close range

An article saying that a professional photographer wanted to shoot a launch photograph of a rocket beautifully, because the camera was brought too close to the rocket and the lens became unusable is published in the blog PetaPixel on the photo.

This is the result of Placing My Camera Lens 300 Feet from a Rocket Launch
https://petapixel.com/2018/03/02/result-placing-camera-lens-300-feet-rocket-launch/

John Kraus, a photographer based in Florida, USA, posted that the camera lens was unusable due to the launch of the rocket. Mr. Kraus is shooting rocket launch, Florida landscape, aerial photographs and so on.

On March 1, 2018, Kraus had two Nikon D 7000 cameras to shoot the launch of the rocket 'Atlas V'Cape Canaveral Air Force Base No. 41 Launch Facilitywent to. The two cameras are installed away from Mr. Kraus and both are designed to be able to zoom out and shutter by remote control. In order to protect the body, we both put them in a plastic bag, drilled a hole in the center of the bag, taken out the lens from there and photographed it. In addition, Mr. Kraus said that he is using the latest camera he has when shooting a rocket.

Of the two cameras, the camera installed in the distant place was installed at the launch pad of the rocket at a distance of 500 feet to 600 feet (about 150 meters to 180 meters). At the same time as the rocket was launched, the camera installed far, it operated normally. Mr. Kraus zoomed up the camera remotely and the lens attached to the camera, "Nikon 80-200 mm f / 2.8" was able to perfectly capture the combustion of the four solid rocket boosters equipped in the rocket .


The incident happens with the camera installed near the other. Rokinon's 8 mm fisheye lens is attached to the closer remote controlled camera, and it is 300 feet (about 90 meters) from the rocket launch pad which is about 90 meters from the launch pad, about 60 meters from the launch pad It was installed in. However, this place is near the groove called "frame trench" of the rocket launcher, and the momentum generated by the rocket engine concentrates in the direction of this groove. When the rocket was launched, Mr. Kraus photographed the camera remotely and the position was good so photographs could be taken with the light produced by day sun, Kraus said he was satisfied with the photos. The following image is the picture.


Unexpected happens 5 seconds after taking this picture. Born by the launch of the rocket, exhaust and dust gathered strongly towards the camera set up dancing grass and earth.


11 seconds after the first photograph is launched the camera lens is covered with dust and grass etc. born from the exhaust of the rocket closely.


After that, Mr. Kraus collected the dirty camera and lens etc by the rocket. According to Kraus, the engine used in this rocketAJ-60AIt is said that acidic hydroxyl group-terminated polybutadiene is used as fuel. Mr. Kraus who touched the camera on which the fuel dust arrived said in the space for the press of the launch base to not touched the face by the hands of the NASA guides for safety and to wash their hands immediately It was.


Mr. Kraus returned home and washed the damaged camera lens with water and gently wiped it dry with a cloth. The following picture is the camera lens. According to Mr. Kraus, the white dust adhering to the lens is a system where water is blown out from the launch padSuppression SystemOf water and rocket evacuation caused by chilling.


The camera body was safe. Kraus thought that the lens was okay after drying the lens. However, when looking carefully with light, the lenses are largely depressed by the exhaust momentum of the rocket, so it was in a state where it can not be reused by the lenses as it is. It seems that there are also cracks when looking at the pictures.


Earth and twigs are attached around the lens.


According to Kraus, it seems that you can use it again if you replace the parts in the center of the lens, but since you purchased this lens for about $ 100 (about 10,000 yen), it is new rather than repair expenses I will buy it. Kraus decided to retire this lens at this launch. The reason why Kraus does not attach the UV filter to any camera lens is that when installing the camera at the position where the current rocket is launched with UV filter attached, condensation easily occurs on the lens,GlareIt is because it will ruin the reflected picture.