Returned-Film Camera Systems

The highest quality images of the Earth and Moon have come from returned film, taken automatically or by astronauts. In America, the civilian space program was forbidden to develop automatic returned-film camera systems, a matter of some dispute during the planning of Landsat. In the Soviet Union, the division between military and civilian space programs was less distinct. With high resolution returned-film imagery from Resurs-F available for topographic and Earth-resource applications, Soviet linear-scanning satellites like Resurs-O were designed for wider coverage than Landsat

The world's first surveillance satellite was the Zenit-2, developed concurrently with the Vostok manned missions, and using the same spacecraft. Since 1961, over 700 Zenit or Resurs-F satellites have flown, carrying a variety of camera systems and returning them in the spherical landing capsule. The original Ftor-2 camera system, consisting of a 200 mm and 1000 mm camera, was designed by Iu.V. Riabushkin.
The Zenit-8 capsule above shows two telescopic KFA-3000 cameras, with a folded 3000 mm focal length. It probably held about 1800 frames of film, each 30 × 30 cm, yielding 2-3 meter resolution. The camera systems were used an average of three times, before worn out by repeated launching and reentry.
The Resurs-F1 capsule above shows five cameras. Two KFA-1000 cameras shot 30 × 30 frames of b/w or spectrozonal film through 1000 mm objectives (4-6 meter resolution). Three KATE-200 cameras shot 18 × 18 cm color film through 200 mm objectives (15-30 meter resolution). Spectrozonal film recorded 570-680 nm and 680-810 nm wavelengths in separate emulsion layers.

Examples of Soviet returned-film imagery are impressive. The Resurs-DK camera has a resolution of 1 meter. Russian companies now sell returned-film imagery from regions outside their national boundaries

Zond-5 through Zond-8 returned film images of the Moon and Earth from 1968 to 1970. The camera system was developed at the Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography (MIIGAiK) under Boris N. Rodionov. Zond-6 and 8 carried a 400 mm camera using 13 × 18 cm frames of panchromatic film. Zond-7 carried a 300 mm camera shooting on 5.6 × 5.6 cm film (both color and panchromatic). The original Zond-8 negatives have been digitized in Moscow to about 8000 × 6000 pixels, and are still among the best close images of that planet.