Instruments for nuclear astrophysics collect photons using geometric optics, quantum optics or wave optics. Despite their disparate aperture systems, hard X- and soft gamma-ray telescopes have in common the way photons are detected, i.e. the non-dispersive spectroscopy performed in their detectors – gaz-filled counters, scintillators, and semiconductor detectors. The objective of the present short review is to focus on the status of these detectors in space-based gamma-ray instruments.