"The Nikon D5 remains the camera of choice for the Artemis II mission and will be assigned primary photographic duties. It is a proven, highly-tested camera that the Artemis II team knows will excel in the high-radiation environment of space. However, as Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman explained ahead of yesterday’s launch, he successfully fought to have a single Nikon Z9 added to Artemis II’s manifest."

https://petapixel.com/2026/04/02/a-nikon-z9-made-it-aboard-t...

There are more interesting details in the PetaPixel article, such as: "'That’s the camera that they’ll be using, the crew will be using on Artemis III plus, so we were fighting really hard to get that on the vehicle to test out in a high-radiation environment in deep space,' Wiseman said."

H/t to "SiliconEagle73" who linked to that PetaPixel article in the thread linked below.

https://old.reddit.com/r/nasa/comments/1sbfevm/new_high_reso...

> Wonder why they didn't go for the Z9 which is its modern mirrorless equivalent.

From [0], "The D5 was chosen for its radiation resistance, extreme ISO range (up to 3,280,000), and proven reliability in space." (

[0] https://www.photoworkout.com/artemis-ii-nikon-d5-moon/

They did bring the Z9: https://petapixel.com/2026/04/02/a-nikon-z9-made-it-aboard-t...

But yeah the grainy photo of the Earth with the D5 at ISO 51200 shows the shortcomings of the ancient DSLR. Still, great shot.

From what I recall reading its more or less, "we have established and validated processes for using the D5." Its less about getting the best possible photo, more about making sure what they do take looks fine and doesnt waste a ton of time.

The D5 has flight heritage to use the industry term.

It might be the newest thing on the ship.

Zero point in measuring camera sizes (or other sizes haha) when JWST is floating there.

Government budgets man…