Hard task! (Almost spy-like)

a20010494 · Joined: 15 Feb 2010 Posts: 396 Location: Perú.

Hi, i just received this phone call from my uncle asking me this:
How to take a picture from a truck (!!!??!?!?) from a hundrer meters away, while i'm in a moving car, in the middle of the night, and he can't be noticed!! It's to take the car number from guys of the black market i think. He doesn't have a camera, (not even a small one) but i guess he's not spending much money for that. So i gave him the option of a film reflex with IR sensitive film, with an IR-converted flash. Or, a film reflex with an ASA6400 film. The other choices i gave him were digital, sigma sd14 for ir-sensitivity and nikon d700 for high iso. But, there are more ways to do this? Will the flash (eg: sigma dg st 500) hold on for 100 meters, while converted? Safety's first and those sounds like REAL bad guys, so security's first.

LucisPictor · Expire: 2013-12-03

What about informing the police instead of taking the risk?

Arkku · Joined: 28 Feb 2007 Posts: 1416 Location: Helsinki, Finland

Video camera with a nightshot mode might be one option, possibly supplemented with IR illuminators. The camera could be running constantly and so would not require aiming or timing, and post-processing (e.g. frame stacking) could be used to enhance stills from the video.

a20010494 · Joined: 15 Feb 2010 Posts: 396 Location: Perú.

indianadinos · Expire: 2011-12-05

+1 for the Arkku suggestion ...

marty · Joined: 09 Apr 2009 Posts: 767 Location: Italy

Hello.
Some random thoughts.
First of all is to be seen what the level of illumination will really be. In a urban area probably there'll be street lights which will help a lot and thus not needing particular things.
I think a Metz 60 with the telephoto attachment (you can find 'em used) should reach 100 meters, but also, using a flash is out of question if one wants to stay invisible. A Nikon DSLR, or even Canon, can be remotely controlled by a laptop if needed. Film Canons and Nikons can be triggered with IR remotes in case of necessity.
A long long telephoto lens will come handy, 300mm +.
Using a consumer movie camera, as suggested before, might be a good idea as long the lens can reach as far away as needed. A pro model, which would allow interchangeable lenses, would be, I think, way too expensive.

Cheers, M.-

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

kansalliskala · Expire: 2016-12-30

ZoneV · Expire: 2011-12-02

Very late answer:
I made some tests with an old russian Cyclop night-vision scope. Without the IR illuminator I could see better with the adapted eye.
With Ir illuminator it gets better.
But the I took a picture with my IR modified EOS 350D - and that was much, much better.

So I think he should test if viewing with a astro telescope with ~ 150 mm mirror diameter could do the task - but with dark adaptet eyes - so only dim redlight (bet LED redlight) is allowed 20 minutes before that - no other light.

Or, if he have to take photos:
A good infrared flash - I think some of the IR conversions of IR flashes are still visible in the night - the used filters don´t defeat 100,0000% of the white light.
And then a DSLR camera (with large pixel size), best with live view, probably video output, modified without IR-cut filter inside. And a telephoto lens on it - probably a mirror lens.

vulko · Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 8:24 am Post subject:

If he doesn't own a camera, the best would be to get a video camera with night mode. They also got nice zoom, like 15x w/o reducing size and like 30x when you shoot a 640x480 video.