You'll Drool When You See the Massive Walls of Camera Gear on the International Space Station

You'll Drool When You See the Massive Walls of Camera Gear on the International Space Station

As if being an astronaut wasn't already cool enough, you won't believe just how much high-level Nikon gear is on board the International Space Station. It's basically a photographer's dream, unless you shoot Canon, of course.

Astronaut Alexander Gerst is currently on board the International Space Station, orbiting Earth at about 17,500 mph. He recently tweeted a couple of photos of him getting a haircut, but what's more intriguing are the massive walls of camera gear behind him, some of which includes some very expensive glass.

Of course, another advantage of being on the ISS is how easy it is to handhold all those heavy supertelephoto lenses. No monopod necessary! I was able to pick out at least 5 camera bodies and 17 lenses in the shots, though there might be more, and that's not including the video cameras also there. 

Want to have some fun? See how many pieces of gear you can name in the pictures. 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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15 Comments

Wow, a Nikon camcorder!

Well, I am withdrawing my astronaut application, there is no way I will be using Nikon gear ;)

When NASA pays to shoot heavy glass into space that really is a sign that "micro 4/3" is just as capable, only lighter" is pure nonsense. I do not think they made the choice because of the bokeh...

Good point. I would have never thought about that but, given the fact NASA is run by the government, I'm not sure they put a lot of thought into it. ;-)

Haha yeh! Government is so dumb!

"NASA didn't put thought into it" - we have a genius here!

Well, my mother always said I was gifted! ;-)

Wow, do you feel unsecured ? We are talking about ISS and you managed to comment about m43 being less good than FF ! The ones telling that m43 is as good as FF are either 1) dishonest or 2) ignorant. And I'm a m43 shooter...DxO can prove that d850 is 2-3 stops better with 2 times the number of pixel, sure (I don't know the exact numbers but something like this). So when you need the best (I expect NASA wanting the best, maximum dynamic and resolution is probably needed for these kind of shots) and you can afford 1) to buy 2) to carry the huge equipment, just go for it !

Tanks for elaborating on your feelings about the topic. I feel much less unsecured now.

The question is, is it really the wall? Or maybe the ceiling?

A wall of amazing gear, literally out of this world scenery and we get haircut shots. They could use a few fstoppers tutorials.

Fstoppers presents “Photographing the World 5: No Like, Photographing the *World*”

Haha! Outtakes on lugging gear up are hilarious

nikon flag is high even higher than blue sky.

Curious as why they chose Nikon. Whoever in charge of that just happens to be a Nikon shooter? Nikon provides it free? Rigorous testing and qualification done on several camera systems to chose Nikon?