Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Moon Landing: One Small Click on the Release Button One Giant Set of Images for Mankind

10/07/2019

OBERKOCHEN/Germany, 10.07.2019. Even though 50 years have passed since the first Moon landing on 20 July 1969, the images have lost none of their fascination. The main reason this event become so firmly entrenched in our collective memory is that it gave us the iconic images captured during the Apollo missions. These were not only the first photographs ever taken of the Moon's surface the image of the Earth as seen from the Moon also continues to inspire people of all generations to this day. And all these missions used cameras with lenses developed by ZEISS.

The first Moon landing was also the first global media event. According to media reports, audience ratings amounted to 50 per cent throughout the world, which means that more than 500 million people followed the event live on television. Many of them still know exactly where they were when the Moon landing took place. Newspapers and magazines published special issues that often featured the first color images these publications ever printed. Together with the first stills of the footage shot on the Moon, these photographs are highly coveted collectibles today, among connoisseurs and ordinary people alike.

The history of photography in space took off with the Mercury (1962) and Gemini (1964) program that preceded the Apollo missions. Increasingly, camera lenses were used in the Earth's orbit. During these years, the ZEISS laboratories further refined their technology and designed camera lenses ready to meet the challenges posed by space.

A camera lens custom-made for the Moon



In October 1968, ZEISS received the order for a camera lens to be used during the Moon landing, which was scheduled to take place a mere nine months later as part of the Apollo 11 mission. The time for development was extremely brief, says Dr. Vladan Blahnik who works in research and development at ZEISS. The optical data for the preceding model the ZEISS Biogon 4.5/38 still had to be calculated manually, an extremely time-consuming process. However, a mainframe computer helped to determine the mathematical parameters for the ZEISS Biogon 5.6/60, the camera lens designed for the Moon landing, in a mere couple of weeks. Dr. Erhard Glatzel (1925-2002), a leading mathematician from the optical design department at ZEISS, received the Apollo Achievement Award for this and the development of other special camera lenses for space photography.

The customized ZEISS Biogon 5.6/60 Moon lens (see Info-box) had to meet a number of requirements. While it was supposed to work within an easy-to-use camera, it also had to precisely map the lunar surface around the landing site. They decided on a camera fitted with a Reseau plate, which created a grid of cross-marks on the images. These made it possible to calculate the distances between individual objects on the Moon, explains Blahnik. The special symmetric design of the camera lens provided an excellent correction for distortions and all other image errors. A straight line remains a straight line. The images have great definition and edge-to-edge contrast.

Research that inspires the present



Apart from the ZEISS Biogon used on the surface of the Moon, ZEISS designed a number of other special camera lenses for space photography in the 1960s, among them lenses that could transmit UV-waves or extremely fast lenses such as the ZEISS Planar 0.7/50. The engineers at ZEISS continue to benefit from this research until the present day. Some examples are the development of fast lenses for professional movie cameras, lenses for aerial photography used in surveying the Earth's surface and lithographic lenses employed in the production of microchips.

The camera lens was a small but significant contribution to the Apollo 11 lunar mission. And, incidentally, the cameras with the ZEISS lenses are still up there on the Moon, because on the return journey the astronauts wanted to save every gram in order to take back as many samples of Moon rocks as possible. Only the valuable exposed film made it back to Earth.

Expert Interview

Image Download

The customized ZEISS Biogon 5.6/60 Moon lens

Original Image

Original Image

J rg Nitschke

Group Spokesman

ZEISS Group

Phone: +49 7364 20-3242

Fax:

joerg.nitschke@zeiss.com

About ZEISS

ZEISS is an internationally leading technology enterprise operating in the fields of optics and optoelectronics. In the previous fiscal year, the ZEISS Group generated annual revenue totaling more than 5.8 billion euros in its four segments Industrial Quality & Research, Medical Technology, Consumer Markets and Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology (status: 30 September 2018). For its customers, ZEISS develops, produces and distributes highly innovative solutions for industrial metrology and quality assurance, microscopy solutions for the life sciences and materials research, and medical technology solutions for diagnostics and treatment in ophthalmology and microsurgery. The name ZEISS is also synonymous with the worlds leading lithography optics, which are used by the chip industry to manufacture semiconductor components. There is global demand for trendsetting ZEISS brand products such as eyeglass lenses, camera lenses and binoculars. With a portfolio aligned with future growth areas like digitalization, healthcare and Smart Production and a strong brand, ZEISS is shaping the future far beyond the optics and optoelectronics industries. The companys significant, sustainable investments in research and development lay the foundation for the success and continued expansion of ZEISS technology and market leadership. With approximately 30,000 employees, ZEISS is active globally in almost 50 countries with around 60 of its own sales and service companies, more than 30 production sites and around 25 development sites. Founded in 1846 in Jena, the company is headquartere
LINK: http://applications.zeiss.com/C1256A770030BCE0/WebViewTopNewsAllE/CFBE...
See more stories from zeiss

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

17/07/2026

SVG GameDay, Ep. 24: Mercedes-Benz Stadiums Cole Gallagher - Supporting Shows in the ATL

In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...

17/07/2026

Brooklyn Bowl Williamsburg Stagehands Vote to Join IATSE Local 4

Production workers at Brooklyn Bowl's Williamsburg location voted 15-1 to join IATSE Local 4. The bargaining unit covers 24 production workers at the venue,...

17/07/2026

DAZN and ADI Predictstreet Announce Exclusive Global Prediction Market Partnership

DAZN and ADI Predictstreet have announced an exclusive global strategic partners...

17/07/2026

Zixi and Comcast Technology Solutions Announce Integration for C-Band Satellite Replacement

Zixi and Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) have announced a strategic integrati...

17/07/2026

Professional Fighters League Announces Multi-Year Partnership with ESPN in Brazil

Professional Fighters League (PFL) has announced a multi-year partnership with E...

17/07/2026

Spectrum Business Launches Spectrum TV Control Pro for Multi-Screen Venue Management

Spectrum Business has announced Spectrum TV Control Pro, a centralized app-based...

17/07/2026

Clark Wire and Cable Appoints Rick Fernandez as Latin American Representative

Clark Wire and Cable has announced that Rick Fernandez, Managing Director of Axxion Consulting, will serve as Independent Manufacturers Representative for Centr...

17/07/2026

TikTok, NBA, and WNBA Announce Multi-Year Global Content Partnership

TikTok, the NBA, and the WNBA have announced a multi-year global content partnership covering highlights distribution, creator access to marquee events, live-ga...

17/07/2026

MSG Entertainment Files Defamation Lawsuit Against Wired Over July 9 Article

Company alleges article contained false and misleading claims regarding customer data...

17/07/2026

Ratings Roundup: Argentina-England Semifinal Breaks Records for FOX; MLB All-Star Game Is Most Watched Since 2018

Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...

17/07/2026

American Pachuco Gives a Legend of Stage and Screen His Due

(L-R) Edward James Olmos, Luis Valdez, Lou Diamond Phillips and Lupe Valdez attend American Pachuco: The Legend Of Luis Valdez Premiere during the 2026 Sundan...

17/07/2026

Sonuscore introduce Elysion Elements

Full engine access with reduced soundset Sonuscore have steadily been introducing a selection of reduced-cost and free versions of their flagship products r...

17/07/2026

Arturia AstroLab Silver & KeyLab Mk3 Ultra

Two new special-edition models revealed Over the past week, Arturia have launched special-edition versions of both their premium MIDI controller and stage p...

17/07/2026

Dirk Ulrich reacquires Plugin Alliance & Brainworx

Original founder now back at the helm In a message posted on his personal social media accounts, Dirk Ulrich has announced that both Plugin Alliance and Bra...

17/07/2026

Legendary presenter Anton Enus to sign off from SBS World News after 27 years with the network

Legendary presenter Anton Enus to sign off from SBS World News after 27 years wi...

17/07/2026

Millions rise before dawn to watch FIFA World Cup 2026 semi-finals on SBS

Millions rise before dawn to watch FIFA World Cup 2026 semi-finals on SBS 17 July, 2026 Media releases England v Argentina attracted a Total TV reach of a...

17/07/2026

Spectrum Simplifies Control Of Multiple TVs At Bars, Restaurants

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

17/07/2026

Foundry Releases SmartRoto for Nuke

Foundry Releases SmartRoto for Nuke Brie Clayton July 17, 2026 0 Comments Spline-based AI powered plugin accelerates time-consuming rotoscoping, helping...

17/07/2026

A Short Documentary About a Giant Pencil Edited with DaVinci Resolve Studio

A Short Documentary About a Giant Pencil Edited with DaVinci Resolve Studio Brie Clayton July 17, 2026 0 Comments SBIFF jury award winner finished fro...

17/07/2026

Wheatstone to Feature Virtual Mixing Platform at IBC 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

17/07/2026

Trump Threatens Networks Over Speech Coverage

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

17/07/2026

Lightware Sustainability Report Details Product Efficienc...

Lightware has published its second voluntary Sustainability Report, showing how energy efficiency, product longevity and responsible material use are increasing...

17/07/2026

Foundry Unlocks Professional-Grade AI for VFX with Gripta...

Creative software developer Foundry today announced Griptape Enterprise, a new tier of the Griptape AI workflow orchestration platform, extended to meet the str...

17/07/2026

Foundry Releases SmartRoto for Nuke

Creative software developer Foundry today announced the availability of SmartRoto, a new AI-powered plugin upgrade for Nuke, NukeX, Nuke Studio, and Nuke Indie ...

17/07/2026

The Final Release of Blackmagic Fairlight Live is Now Available!

The Final Release of Blackmagic Fairlight Live is Now Available! Brie Clayton July 16, 2026 0 Comments Fairlight Live is a new audio mixer designed fo...

17/07/2026

Leveraging All of Entertainment's IP

Leveraging All of Entertainment's IP Andy Marken July 16, 2026 0 Comments Nobody ever wins the games. Period. There are survivors. There\s no win...

17/07/2026

Few mics are trusted on an antique Stradivarius copy 4099 is

From intimate acoustic settings to large-scale festival stages, her focus has remained constant: preserving the true natural voice of the violin in every perfor...

17/07/2026

RT Radio 1 continues its summer of stories, music, sport and conversation

New and returning series, live festival broadcasts, powerful documentaries and major sporting moments headline RT Radio 1's summer schedule RT Radio 1 is...

17/07/2026

NVIDIA Vera Rubin Maximizes Intelligence per Dollar for Post-Training Workloads - a Key Metric for Agentic AI

Think of a professional athlete. What separates elite performers is what happens...

17/07/2026

Dith, Jacqui and Louise bring hurling fans together ahead of the All-Ireland Finals

Up For The Match - Live From Croke Park this Saturday at 8pm on RT One and RT ...

17/07/2026

DiscoverIreland.ie announced as official show sponsor of The Traitors Ireland series 2

RT Commercial has today announced DiscoverIreland.ie, as sponsor of The Traitor...

16/07/2026

Business Innovation Synergizer: Grants of up to 30,000 for media organisations

Media organisations with tested plans for new products, services or revenue models can now apply for grants of up to 30,000 through the Business Innovation Syn...

16/07/2026

SVG Students To Watch: Kaden Sherman, Albany State University

This recent graduate and Georgia native has turned an early fascination with live production into a growing passion for camera work In the live-sports-video in...

16/07/2026

TNDV Marks First Year of Aspiration 35 Cinematic Production Truck

TNDV is marking the first anniversary of Aspiration 35, a mobile production truck built around ARRI Alexa 35 Live camera systems. Over its first year, the truck...

16/07/2026

ATSC Releases First Major Revision to A/85 Audio Loudness Recommended Practice Since 2013

ATSC has completed a major revision to its A/85 Recommended Practice: Techniques...

16/07/2026

FloSports Named Exclusive Global Media Partner for 2026 CrossFit Games

FloSports has announced an exclusive global media partnership with CrossFit for the 2026 CrossFit Games, presented by Air National Guard, beginning July 21 in S...

16/07/2026

Sennheiser Releases Spectera Firmware 1.4 and Command Button

Sennheiser has released firmware version 1.4 for its Spectera wireless system and announced the Spectera Command Button (Cat. No. 701014). The update adds comma...

16/07/2026

ESPN and Southwestern Athletic Conference Announce Multi-Year Media Rights Agreement Through 2030-31

ESPN and the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) have announced a multi-year...

16/07/2026

Audio-Technica Releases 20 Series Control Application for Elgato Stream Deck

Audio-Technica has announced the 20 Series Control Application, a Stream Deck plug-in for compatible Audio-Technica USB microphones. The application is compatib...

16/07/2026

SSL Live L550 Plus Consoles Power Audio Production for The Voice France Season 15

The fifteenth season of The Voice - La plus belle voix on TF1 used four Solid St...

16/07/2026

Gray Media and Atlanta Hawks Announce Georgia-Wide Broadcast Partnership for 2026-27 NBA Season

Gray Media and the Atlanta Hawks have announced a broadcast partnership that wil...

16/07/2026

SVG Sit-Down: Quarterback Showrunner Joe Zucco on Cinematography, Building Trust, Carrying On the NFL Films Legacy

Season 3 of Netflix's docuseries, which dropped this week, follows Jayden Da...

16/07/2026

Texas Rangers Switch Direct-to-Consumer Streaming Partner to BZZR

The Texas Rangers and Rangers Sports Network presented by Progressive (RSN) have announced BZZR as the new direct-to-consumer distributor for Rangers game broad...

16/07/2026

FIFA World Cup 2026: BBC Sport on Moving Across the Pond to Bring the Atmosphere of the Final Matches to Fans

With England's FIFA World Cup 2026 team getting ready to fly home after losi...

16/07/2026

With 36 Unilateral Cameras, NBC Sports Shapes 154th Open Championship Coverage for U.S. Viewers

In a return to Royal Birkdale, the team enjoys partnering with ETP and Gravity M...

16/07/2026

Altitude Sports & Entertainment's Tim De Lay on New SkyCam Digital Feed, Upgraded Studio Space

Along with a new studio at Ball Arena, the Colorado-based RSN is working with XR...