*Blink*
NASA Just Ordered 53 Nikon D5 DSLRs

NASA just placed a hefty order for 53 unmodified Nikon D5 DSLRs. The cameras currently cost about $6,500 each, so if NASA paid full retail price for each camera, they just spent at least $344,500 on this purchase.

NASA’s 2017 budget is $19.5 billion, so the agency just dropped about 1/56,604th of that on these cameras.

Nikon says that the D5 cameras will be delivered to the space agency without any special hardware modifications — they’ll be exactly like the camera found in camera stores. NASA previously purchased a batch of unmodified D3S DSLRs from Nikon in 2009.

NASA’s choice of camera “confirm[s] the incredible reliability of Nikon products, as well as their ability to withstand even the harshest of environments,” Nikon writes.

My Nikon buddies are not going to let this Canon guy live this down anytime soon. ;-)