🚀 Film Camera vs. Rocket Launch: Capturing the Ultimate Ascent

In the last edition, I shared the nerve-wracking experience of dealing with sudden launch date changes and the struggle to get to the launch spot in time.

This time, let’s talk gear for photographing a rocket launch.

Table of Contents

• 🧃 How Should I Capture a Rocket Launch?

• 🧰 What Focal Length for a Telephoto Lens?

• 📸 You Need a Camera with Burst Mode

• 🚨 Limited restock of 50 copies

🧃 How Should I Capture a Rocket Launch?

Once the launch date was announced, I went into research mode, looking up rocket launch photos on Google and Pinterest to get some ideas.

On launch day, the area within a 3km (1.86 miles) radius of the launch site is off-limits. That means I need to capture the rocket from at least 3km away, and to make it look powerful, a telephoto lens is a must.

Besides the rocket itself, I also wanted to capture the reactions of people watching the launch. So, I figured I’d need two cameras: one with a telephoto lens for the rocket and another with a 50mm lens for the crowd.

🧰 What Focal Length for a Telephoto Lens?

Since I’m usually shooting street photography, I don’t know much about telephoto lenses— I usually go with a 21mm for street photography.

But after some searching, I found a website that calculates the ideal focal length based on the distance to the subject and its size. (I used a Japanese website, but if you search for "focal length calculation," you’ll find plenty of options.)

Turns out, I’d need a 300mm lens to get the kind of shot I envisioned from 3km away. And this was just 2 days before I was supposed to head to the launch site.

Ordering a lens online wasn’t an option with so little time, so I scoured sites for local used camera stores and found one about an hour away in Yokohama. The next day, I made the trip and grabbed a 300mm lens just in time.

📸 You Need a Camera with Burst Mode

I went with a Nikon lens because I already own a Nikon F-601 film camera with burst mode. And yes, I was planning to shoot the launch on FILM!

A rocket heads to space in just a few seconds, so even with film, a manual wind camera would be too slow. The Nikon F-601’s burst mode made it ideal for this kind of quick shooting.
And for capturing people’s reactions around launch time, I also brought along a Nikon FE as a second camera.

To be continued.
Stay tuned for the next episode!

🚨 Limited restock of 50 copies

To everyone who’s already purchased “404 not found Issue 02”, thank you so much!
The first edition of 100 copies has sold out. However, due to requests for a restock, I’ve added 50 more copies. These are truly the final ones!