NASA reveals 'generational' Earthset photo taken on a Nikon D5 — the decade-old DSLR with one secret weapon over modern cameras for space photography

Up in the darkness of space, sometimes newer isn't better

07 Apr 2026, 17:19 by https://www.techradar.com/uk/author/sam-kieldsen · TechRadar

News By Sam Kieldsen published 7 April 2026

(Image credit: NASA)

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NASA has released new Artemis II photos taken on its Moon fly-by
The 'Earthset' image was again taken on a Nikon D5
The D5, released in 2015, is NASA's choice for Artemis II's most important photographs

NASA has released some stunning new photos taken by the Artemis II crew during its Moon fly-by — and the key shots were once again taken on the ten-year-old Nikon DSLR.

The series of incredible photos (scroll down to see them) show some unique sights, including a solar eclipse from the other side of the Moon. And the signature 'Earthset' shot, described as "generational" by one observer in NASA's Flickr gallery, was taken on the Nikon D5 (settings were f/8 at 1/1000s, ISO 400, in case you were wondering).

This has become something of a theme. When the eye-popping first images from NASA's Artemis II mission began beaming back last week, photographers online did what they always do: they looked at the EXIF data. And what they found raised a few eyebrows.

Those stunning shots were captured on the Nikon D5, a DSLR that launched over a decade ago and, frankly, wasn't exactly met with universal adoration at the time. Shouldn't the astronauts aboard the Orion craft be using something a little more, well, space-age than that? Was this really the best camera for the job of capturing these historic photographs?

But NASA's choice makes plenty of sense when you take a closer look, and it says something interesting about what "the best camera" means when the stakes are so high.

An unlikely hero?

All four of the shots above were taken on the Nikon D5. That DSLR arrived in 2016 with a spec sheet designed to make noise — because of how little noise the camera's photos actually exhibited.

The standout spec was the camera's maximum ISO of 3,280,000 — a number so lofty it prompted immediate skepticism from camera experts, most of whom concluded that the upper reaches of that range were essentially unusable. They turned out to be correct, but they still missed the point.

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