Along with all the hardware to get to the moon and back, the Apollo 11 mission also brought along three Hasselblad 500EL cameras. With video and audio equipment to beam sound and moving images back in real-time, NASA also wanted to preserve the history in crisp, high definition photographs.
Two of the Hasselblads were taken to the moon's surface: one was a Hasselblad Data Camera with a Zeiss Biogon 60mm lens, which was attached to Neil Armstrong's chest to document what he was seeing during his stroll on the lunar surface; the other, a Hasselblad Electric Camera (HEC) was used to shoot from inside the Eagle Lunar Module.
There were the photos of Armstrong's first footprint and fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin and the American flag. But considered the most iconic shot of the mission is Armstrong's straight-on image of Buzz Aldrin, which somehow looks both like pure science fiction and a casual shot of your buddy at the beach.
In addition to training on the Reduced Gravity Walking Stimulator, in Neutral Bouyancy and G-Force, Aldrin, Armstrong and fellow astronaut Michael Collins all received a crash course in photography in preparation for the Apollo 11 mission. They were encouraged to bring training cameras on vacations to hone their photography skills. For the record, both Hasselblad cameras were left on the moon along with other items in order to meet the weight requirement for successful return. Fortunately for us, the two rolls of Kodak film were taken back and developed. Here's a closer look in our One Shot video to mark the 50th anniversary of the historic moment.
OneShot is a new digital format to tell the story of a single photograph in an immersive one-minute video.
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