May 25th, 2018: Canon Melt on Toasted Tripod with a Side of Ash

Space rockets make hot exhaust you couldn’t dream of replicating with Mexican food, hot peppers, and Chinese mustard.

NASA photographer Bill Ingalls posted this photo of his melted Canon camera after it was destroyed by a brush fire sparked by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on May 22, 2018.

The "toasty" camera was a Canon DSLR that Ingalls placed about a quarter mile (1,320 feet, or 402 meters) from SpaceX's pad, called Space Launch Complex 4E, at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It was one of six remote cameras that the photographer set up to chronicle the launch of NASA's twin GRACE-FO satellites on Tuesday.

In one photo, the camera snapped a single frame of the SpaceX Falcon 9 as it began to lift off.
The next photo was…



This is the first camera he’s lost in 29 years of taking launch photos.

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Damn. Now you've got me watching launch failures on youtube.

But the launch was a success.

All fuzzy looking. I have to wonder if the tripod fell over and the melted lens hood picked up dirt and fuzz from the ground. Also, what's that light colored stuff that looks like slug slime? I'd love to see a before photo.

Pretty intense fire will throw a lot of dirt, sand, and crap around which would stick to melty plastic.

Cromulent point.

It appears to be a $3000-$4000 Canon body plus that ain't no 50mm lens. He was deploying 6 cameras, although they may not have all been that spendy, so he had a serious commitment going on. Makes me wonder what that "perfect shot" is worth?

glatt;1009057 wrote:

All fuzzy looking. I have to wonder if the tripod fell over and the melted lens hood picked up dirt and fuzz from the ground. Also, what's that light colored stuff that looks like slug slime? I'd love to see a before photo.

I noticed the same thing. I think it's the glue that holds the rubbery overmolding onto the harder plastic or metal subframe. The camera wasn't burned, but it was definitely toasted.

Wow! That camera looks completely toast. I wonder how in the world nothing happen to this guy?

It was a remote camera.