this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2026
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Aside from all else, the first image was taken on film lit by daylight, the second was shot on digital at high ISO lit by moonlight with a little sunlight at one edge
Moonlight doesn't have the same colour rendering quality as sunlight
Thanks for the info, that's awesome! Based on the quality of the image, I'd guess this was a specialized camera designed to have a broader range of sensitivity. Do you know if that's right or did they just use a nice DSLR?
Also, the first image has been corrected for rayleigh scattering, either algorithmically or artistically. The second image does not appear to have been corrected. It looks similar to what we get from geostationary satellites prior to performing rayleigh scattering correction.
There is a much higher quality version of the second image on NASA's website. I think the reason the second image has so much colour ranges because it was taken in log, but that's just a normal SLR camera feature. I think there's even a way of getting my phone to take pictures in log, it just uses a lot of memory so it's not on by default
It's a Nikon D5, the shot is at 52k ISO.
Cool, thanks! That's some crazy high ISO.