Monday, December 15, 2008

Some cameras and computers can't stand orbit!?

More to the point - micro gravity or free fall. This is something that I just never considered. You know, if it worked on Earth as a general rule, it should work in space. I mean we have been seeing electronics of all types doing their thing in space for decades now...so when I heard that some high end equipment gives it up even on something like the vomit comet let alone the real thing, I thought it was a joke. But then I read this article in Gizmodo about a guy plunking down $3,500 for a ticket on a Zero G vomit comet plane ride, taking his high end Sony SR1 along to film the ride and could not shoot frame one. Why? Well according to the article - it had nothing to do with the cameraman and everything to do with zero gravity (actually, microgravity). Because an object in microgravity is actually falling towards the Earth, the camera's hard drive drop-protection kept kicking in, rendering the expensive device useless. Seems like they took 15 tries to get some action and nada. The fix is like a DUH and NASA more than likely has already had this problem fixed, but the suggestion is to use flash supported devices.... Though I got to wonder about someone that goes all over the world just to film himself doing foolish dances and then spends 35 hundred to do it in zero G needs to maybe think about getting a life?

<- Gizmodo article ->

No comments: