NASA used Nikon F4 Electronic Still Camera
Nikon D3 has new type of image sensor which uses three small dichroic mirrors below an opening to direct red, green and blue light to separate photodiodes. This is now as covered by us in “Nikon’s new full-color RGB sensor“. But back in 1991 Electronic still photography was a new technology that enabled a camera to electronically capture and digitize an image with resolution approaching film quality. The digital image was stored on removable hard disks or small optical disks, and can be converted to a format suitable for downlink transmission or enhanced using image processing software. The standard Nikon F4 film body was converted to digital by placing a one megapixel monochrome CCD at the film plane. The battery-operated Electronic Still Camera (ESC) retained all the features of the F4 camera body and accepted any lens or optics with a Nikon mount. Nikkor lenses used on STS-48 included a 20mm f/2.8 AF, 35-70mm f/2.8 AF, 50mm f/1.2 and 180mm f/2.8 AF. This modified Nikon F4 was first flown into space on board the Space Shuttle Discovery in September 1991. more
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