Get a Load of This Melted DSLR That Got Too Close to a Rocket Launch

We’ve seen some damaged camera gear before but this photo of a scorched DSLR takes the cake. No, it didn’t fall into a pit of lava while capturing the erupting Kilauea volcano in Hawaii. It actually encountered something equally as fierce: the blast of a rocket launch.

The image of a partially melted Canon EOS 5DS was shared yesterday in a tweet by CBS News correspondent Peter King. The Canon DSLR is actually owned by NASA photographer Bill Ingalls who was using it as a remote camera to shoot the launch of the Grace Follow-On spacecraft onboard a Space X Falcon 9 rocket.

“NASA photographer Bill Ingalls is one of the best. He tries to get his remote cameras as close to the launch pad as possible for great results,” King wrote in his tweet. “This would illustrate the unfortunate result of an attempt at an extreme close-up. Not sure this is covered by warranty.”

But as Ingalls describes it in a Facebook post, the camera was actually not that close to the launch, proving how powerful these rocket blasts can be. Here’s one of the surviving images from the memory card of the damaged DSLR, which shows how far away he was.

Photo © NASA/Bill Ingalls

If you’re interested in rocket photography, you should check out our interview with Ben “The Rocket Man” Cooper, and this story with tips on how to shoot a rocket launch.

Via PetaPixel and Canon Watch

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