Video footage of Neil Armstrong's first step

[Shawn1767]

I was just watching Modern Marvels on The History Channel and the subject was “60s’ Tech.” They showed them designing and making the video camera that was used on Apollo 11. My question relates to how they positioned the camera. In the footage, you see him from above, then it cuts to a shot of him from a position away from the lander and jumping down the ladder onto the moon’s surface.

Now, when I used to watch documentaries about explorer’s being the first somewhere, I would hear the narrator say something like “Now, here are the explorers first setting foot on the peak of the mountain,” and it would be a vantage point FROM the peak of the mountain. Which means the camera man really got there first.

Anyway, my question is how did they set up the camera to record his descent from the lander?

For the record, I am not a moon hoax conspiracy theorist, I just want to know the logistics involved.

[Squink]

A human first set foot on another world on July 20, 1969. This world was Earth’s own Moon. In honor of today’s 40th anniversary, NASA has released a digitally restored video of this milestone in human history. Pictured above is Neil Armstrong preparing to take the historic first step. On the way down the Lunar Module ladder, Armstrong released equipment which included the television camera that recorded this fuzzy image. Pictures and voice transmissions were broadcast live to a world wide audience estimated at one fifth of the world’s population. The Apollo Moon landings have since been described as the greatest technological achievement the world has known.

APOD: 2009 July 20 - Apollo 11: Onto a New World

[Shawn1767]

Thanks, I would hate to think that what we were seeing was actually the second “take” of the first step. (meaning he got down, set up the camera, then went back up so the camera could take the footage as he came back down)

[rbroome]

@Shawn1767

I was just watching Modern Marvels on The History Channel and the subject was “60s’ Tech.” They showed them designing and making the video camera that was used on Apollo 11. My question relates to how they positioned the camera. In the footage, you see him from above, then it cuts to a shot of him from a position away from the lander and jumping down the ladder onto the moon’s surface.

Now, when I used to watch documentaries about explorer’s being the first somewhere, I would hear the narrator say something like “Now, here are the explorers first setting foot on the peak of the mountain,” and it would be a vantage point FROM the peak of the mountain. Which means the camera man really got there first.

Anyway, my question is how did they set up the camera to record his descent from the lander?

For the record, I am not a moon hoax conspiracy theorist, I just want to know the logistics involved.

The video question has been answered. As for the “view from above”, that was taken by a conventional film camera mounted in the cabin looking out the descent window. Of course it is higher quality, but no one saw it until the film was brought back to earth and developed.

[Keeve]

@rbroome

As for the “view from above”, that was taken by a conventional film camera mounted in the cabin looking out the descent window. Of course it is higher quality, but no one saw it until the film was brought back to earth and developed.

Beside the camera angle, another way to tell the difference is that the film was in color, and the tv was black&white.

[Ximenean]

These moon documentaries often mix in footage from other Apollo missions (like that shot of the Saturn V first stage tumbling away from camera back to Earth - IIRC that footage is from Apollo 8). I’m not sure whether Armstrong filmed Aldrin stepping on to the moon, so maybe they used some footage from a later mission, taken by the first guy as the second guy disembarked.

[Llama_Llogophile]

There was a D-ring mounted where Armstrong could reach it as he climbed down the ladder. Pulling it deployed the camera.

[HorseloverFat]

and it would be a vantage point FROM the peak of the mountain. Which means the camera man really got there first.

Typically in television documentaries these kinds of things are shot much later, sometimes in a studio.

[Smapti]

Dr. Manhattan was standing on the Moon’s surface and waiting for them with the camera.

…What?