How cameras can record nuclear explosions?

Question

I was watching some videos in youtube of nuclear explosions, and when that wave (i don't know of what it is) comes, it destroys everything but the camera stands still and keeps recording. How does it keep recording?

Here's a link:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8XVaOVydD4U&feature=related

Answer 1

Those cameras were completely encapsulated in concrete and lead sheeting to keep the radiation from fogging out the film.

The close in shots of ground zero WEREN'T recovered, the nuclear blast incinerated the cameras and the film within, utterly. The older cameras were better for filming Hbomb explosions than modern digital cameras are anyway: You could shield to prevent the film from being ruined, you cannot shield a digital camera from the nuke's attendant electro-magnetic pulse.

But most of the most popular films of H Bomb detonations are the ones taking film from very far away from ground zero. You get too close and you cant tell what youre looking at anymore.

Answer 2

Some are a long distance away from ground zero. The close in shots are from cameras that were destroyed in the blast, but were using a feed to a remote recorder to record the events up to the time the camera was hit. Some were built in blast resistant shelters. Nukes don't destroy everything, just in the actual ground zero area. Outside of a couple of hundred yards, some things do survive.