Unusual space Nikon F4

I have picked up a Nikon F4 that is a bit different and wondered if anyone else has heard of it. I bought it from Government of Canada surplus and it came from the Canadian Space Agency.

The bottom grip is modified and is full of circuitry, there are no batteries in the grip. There is a small screen on the outside, and the battery check lights are missing. The back is permanently wired into the grip, and it looks like there is something that can expose on the sprocket portion of the film, as there is a hole in the pressure plate and something on the back under the hole.

It's still a film, camera, not digital, but clearly designed to be tethered to a computer and powered externally. I'm wondering if it was a one off, as it's serial number 001?

Has anyone else seen anything like this? I did contact the Swedish Space Corporation in Sweden and they didn't know anything about it.

What a find, looks like the battery grip is custom made in Sweden, the wheel that hold the grip in place is metal, my F4 it is black plastic, the turn key to open the battery compartment is also part metal, mine is all plastic.

Swedish Space Corp: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_Space_Corporation

That serial number is certainly exciting. At first glance, it looks like any other F4s, but it clearly isn't. They may have just wanted an external power source to avoid constantly changing batteries?

Info on a modded F4 for Nasa: https://www.timmchapman.com/gallery/nasa-nikon-f4s/

Found it first about the F5: https://www.timmchapman.com/gallery/nasa-nikon-f5/

Edited: Rereading the pages, it seems there's less info than I thought but it confirms that the Nikons were well used in space.

momus said:

They may have just wanted an external power source to avoid constantly changing batteries?

Click to expand...

You can do that with the MB22- grip and the MA-4 power supply that Nikon already made.

Wondering if that's an interface to print data from an external source on the film - e.g. a fancy data back.