Pentax k10d in space

[RipDaJacker]

WOW. Congrats and thank you, you made me from proud, beyond proud
Im sorry that the last experiment went wrong, I hope there will be no problems next time Im waiting for the next batch of photos

[Jodokast96]

Bad news for you guys, but pretty good for Pentax, lol. Survives fall from 3000ft. with only minor injuries! Would have been great if you'd nailed a shot just at impact though.

[Marc Langille]

Wow, I guess I am very late to the party on this one... oops...

Excellent and well done PentaxPoke! These are absolutely beautiful images taken with Pentax gear well outside it's "operating temperature". Well done and proof that it's a great camera system!

I'm off to the other post...

Regards,
Marc

[vievetrick]

It deserves the honor's in the year end honors post for sure. Not sure how the heck I missed this but wow! is an understatement. Great work and now off to read your other post.

[pentaxmz]

Originally Posted by PentaxPoke

Thanks for the comments. I chose the k10d for the photographic payload system on an experiment by Oklahoma State University to measure cosmic radiation with a new sensor.

The payloads are attached to a sounding balloon which climbs to over 100,000 ft. The balloon is tracked with GPS telemetry systems. When the balloon is launched, it is about 12 ft. in diameter. At peak altitude it is between 40-50 ft. in diameter before burst (or commanded cut-down).

The results are a testament to the quality and ruggedness of the Pentax gear. The camera was exposed to the harshness of the space environment (essentially a vacuum, and below -60F temperatures) and it never missed a beat. The only protection for the camera was a foam box which really doesn't protect it from the pressure changes or cold (there were no heaters on board) The box primarily protects the camera on impact since the payloads hit the ground at about 22mph.

As I mentioned, the camera took well over 300 pictures. In fact, I went back and counted and the actual number is 563. All in PEF RAW format. The only ones that are unuseable are the ones after the camera landed. Since the camera and lens were so cold from the extreme altitude, condensation started forming on the lens shortly before landing. (It was a very humid day here since it rained the day before) The camera and lens were soaked with condensation, but kept happily fireing away with no problems other than you couldnt see through the water on the lens. By that point, there was nothing left to see.

Now as to exposure; the camera performed better than my wildest dreams. We put it in Tv mode at 1/3000 to freeze motion (since the ride is quite violent at times). Auto ISO, and multi-segment metering. Out of those hundreds of photos, there are maybe 5 or 6 that were overexposed when the camera was facing the sun. The biggest "problem" is that we have too many good photos!

We will eventually post all the photos, but we have to process them for the website (which is under construction). In the meantime, I posted some of the photos of the fight on my Flickr site. (Please excuse the single C@non shot on the site which was taken by a colleague while we were launching ) There are descriptions under each picture so you can follow the process. These are only a very small fraction, but you can at least follow the general process:
ASTRO-09 - a set on Flickr

Very nice indeed. I wish I had access to such equipment.

Have you considered contacting Pentax about your work. Perhaps they would be interested in featuring it as a testament to the quality of their equipment. I would be very disappointed if they showed no interest in your work.

[Billgscott]

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(Basicaly speechless)

[m8o]

Originally Posted by Billgscott

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(Basicaly speechless)

did you see the follow-up?

[janneman]

Originally Posted by PentaxPoke

Lens was the DA 18-55 II kit lens. We set the lens to 18mm, and focus to infinity. Then we used electrical tape to lock the focus and zoom in place, and set focus to manual.

No Pentax adveture without....


TAPE!!!!

[Duck Dodgers]

The in-flight pics from Astro-13 weren't nearly as impressive.

[Ash]

Awesome series.
Timeless captures.
Very few people in the world can say they did what you did, AND captured with a Pentax!
Thanks for sharing.

[lesmore49]

Originally Posted by tcom

That's strange. I did an extended walk last winter with the K10D in the mountains here. On the shots taken during the first 1 hour, the temperature recorded in the photos was constantly decreasing and ended finally around -16°C.

I live in the Canadian Prairies, near a few areas of Boreal Forest. We get winter here for 5 1/2 months and usually I'm out every other day with my K10d. It's not unusual to have temps of -25 to -30 Celsius when I'm out .

I can stand the cold for about an hour...the K10D and Pentax lenses are functioning with no difficulty and seem to be ready for more.

[Dr_who]

I had no problems attempting my first HDR Project a couple months back and it was around -20C + wind chill.

I had no problem taking the 5 exposures for the HDR x about 12 or 14 rotational changes for the 180 degree panorama. The camera didn't seem to have any problems, and when I got home I left it in the bag to thaw slowly. I certainly wouldn't feel worried doing the same thing again in the future.

p.s. my 2nd post on the forums, first one adding a image so I hope it doesn't put it as original size in the forums or I might get heckled....

*edit as it indeed adds it original size...



Steven

[Donald]

awesome space series!!!!!

I'm a designer, so unsolicited advice....

Your beatiful camera box could probably benefit by adding instrument handles to left and right of the lens protuberance. Said handles screw mount to box and are taller than lens and mounted out of field of view. If another accident occurs your lens or lens hood won't take direct impact.

Low temperature's usually affect batteries, constricting ion channels which changes current flow, and many quality electronic devices have current sensing and/or limiting with suspended performance failure modes. It's really surprising you had continuous performance for hours at these reduced temperatures. Display's too don't like temperature extreme's, but that's only relevant if over zealous engineers put in display sense-failure shut down mode, which they love to do.

[Jodokast96]

Not a big HDR fan, but that's a nice looking shot.

[Duck Dodgers]

Nice shot!

And welcome to the forums.