Camera In Every Pocket Dilemma

[Bhoeskern]

The "Camera In Every Pocket" Dilemma

With the advances of technology for everyday devices, i.e. smartphones, those with the means to afford one of these devices practically have a high-definition camera at their disposal. With record sales of smartphones, of both the Apple and Samsung to name the biggest producers of smartphones, this proves to be the case not only in the U.S but the world.

As such, why are aren't there more UFO sightings recorded? This question has been brought up in multiple episodes of The Paracast. It's a reasonable, and troubling, question for the UFO topic.

Why haven't there been more recorded instances of UFO activity?

I have my own reasons why there haven't been more but what does the Paracast community think?

 

[ProphetofOccam]

I will disclaim my answer by repeating that I'm extremely highly skeptical of UFO's as anything but subjectively unidentifiable sky phenomena. I don't have a reason to believe that UFOs are unquestionably paranormal, or that extraterrestrials exist within the scope of physical human experience.

That said, I've seen things in the sky I subjectively couldn't identify. I see things like that all the time -- I've not dedicated any part of my life to an expertise or scholarly understanding regarding cosmology, aeronautics, aviation, ornithology, or any other relevant field of study that would make my inability to identify sky phenomena objectively compelling or interesting. As such, I almost never take pictures or video of the things I see because I generally assume it's probably nothing that's objectively interesting (not counting the instances wherein something was too unclear, visually, to make taking video or images worth the effort).

I'd think this is true of most experiencers.

I'm also just not really a picture guy.

 

[mike]

There is also the issue with modern cameras being digital, very easy to fake photos using software, and of course no negatives to examine.

So the fakes are more numerous and far better quality than the old pie tin/hubcap fakes of yester-year. The Adamski's and Meier's models and other physical props are no comparison for some of the newer fakes.

One could make the case that a camera in every pocket may be in fact detrimental to the goal of catching good visual evidence.

I imagine any serious UFO hunters wanting to photograph one would have both digital and older style emulsion film cameras on hand.

 

[DaveM]

How can people take photos of UFOs when they they have their noses pressed to the phone screen?

 

[Gene Steinberg]

Especially when crossing the street. This is especially true when I drive through Tempe, AZ, home of ASU, when I'm doing my ride hailing gigs. I have to check twice as carefully for people who are so addicted.

I suppose if UFOs all came from the ground, we'd have lots of evidence to check.

 

[Thomas R Morrison]

Here's what we should all do: let's take daytime pictures of passing fighter jets and passenger airliners with our smartphones, and post them here to look at so we can see the quality of evidence that we can collect of known aircraft.

That should give us a good understanding of the capabilities of modern smartphone technology, which is pivotal to the issue of acquiring ufo photo evidence.

My assumption is that smartphone cameras are designed to take good photos of fairly close objects, like selfies. I don't expect the quality of photos of fast-moving jets or high-altitude airplanes to be very clear, unless the user has a good understanding of the settings (which most of us never mess with) and/or they employ special lenses. But I could be wrong.

Let's find out.

 

[mike]

Especially when crossing the street. This is especially true when I drive through Tempe, AZ, home of ASU, when I'm doing my ride hailing gigs. I have to check twice as carefully for people who are so addicted.

I suppose if UFOs all came from the ground, we'd have lots of evidence to check.

Its nuts isn't it ?

They drive me crazy, Last week i was out at dinner and both children at the table had devices and were watching TV.
When i was a kid the TV was off during dinner, now you cant go to a restaurant and not hear spongebob whatsis pants while you eat.

I don't have one of these zombie devices, and people are always confused when they say whats your mobile ? and i reply i don't have one.

I have a digital camera though, nothing fancy. a Kmart cannon powershot something or other.
It takes nice pics though.

Taken in my garden a few days ago.

Its great for my model pics too. you take about 20 shots and throw out 19. Its about 1 in 20 that's the magic pic. Couldn't do that with emulsion film. Too expensive.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

Nowadays, however, the latest smartphone cameras are only supplanted by traditional digital SLRs and such. They are that good, particularly Apple and Samsung. And Apple added loads of technological goodies to the iPhone 8 series.

 

[Bhoeskern]

Here's what we should all do: let's take daytime pictures of passing fighter jets and passenger airliners with our smartphones, and post them here to look at so we can see the quality of evidence that we can collect of known aircraft.

That should give us a good understanding of the capabilities of modern smartphone technology, which is pivotal to the issue of acquiring ufo photo evidence.

My assumption is that smartphone cameras are designed to take good photos of fairly close objects, like selfies. I don't expect the quality of photos of fast-moving jets or high-altitude airplanes to be very clear, unless the user has a good understanding of the settings (which most of us never mess with) and/or they employ special lenses. But I could be wrong.

Let's find out.

I like this idea quite a bit. I have plenty of opportunities to do this myself so we'll see what comes of it.

 

[Ezechiel]

The "Camera In Every Pocket" Dilemma

As such, why are aren't there more UFO sightings recorded? This question has been brought up in multiple episodes of The Paracast. It's a reasonable, and troubling, question for the UFO topic.

Why haven't there been more recorded instances of UFO activity?

I have my own reasons why there haven't been more but what does the Paracast community think?

I'll take a wild guess and assume that it would be a challenge to photograph a craft with abilities that defy current rules of physics, as understood and tested by humans.
I'll also assume that the designers would be intelligent enough to incorporate stealth features that would distort/hide/blur working mechanical features of their craft when they need to investigate other worlds (up close and personal).

Last thing I'd want if I was investigating primitive monkeys on zeta reticuli is to have them copy my ship's configuration and find them later on my doorstep.

Chinese J-20 stealth jet based on US military plans 'stolen' by hackers makes debut | Daily Mail Online

LOL. This amounts to taking a photograph of a private investigator while he's investigating on you.

I think our best bet is footage from fighter jet camera mounts.

 

[Ezechiel]

A few more thoughts...

What would cause a superior intellect to expose itself when it doesn't need to or has technologies that allows it to operate undetected ?

Being in distress would be one. A malfunction that requires help from external sources.
Maybe a planned technology transfer like a fake Roswell crash (as per Corso).
A last ditch effort by an advanced type 0 with the minimum tech to travel to a nearby star and aiming for a potential replacement planet. (Noah's ark galactic version lol).
A full force alien invasion where stealth is not needed and humans are living their last days on earth.

Last but not least.... showing off. Demonstrating to earth's civilizations that their tech still sucks lol

 

[Angel of Ioren]

Nowadays, however, the latest smartphone cameras are only supplanted by traditional digital SLRs and such. They are that good, particularly Apple and Samsung. And Apple added loads of technological goodies to the iPhone 8 series.

I can attest that the iPhone 8 Plus takes amazing pictures - appart from a few special circumstances, it can take the place of my DSLR in most cases, and it's way more convenient. Check out the amazing picture of this chupacabra I took.

 

[marduk]

The "Camera In Every Pocket" Dilemma

With the advances of technology for everyday devices, i.e. smartphones, those with the means to afford one of these devices practically have a high-definition camera at their disposal. With record sales of smartphones, of both the Apple and Samsung to name the biggest producers of smartphones, this proves to be the case not only in the U.S but the world.

As such, why are aren't there more UFO sightings recorded? This question has been brought up in multiple episodes of The Paracast. It's a reasonable, and troubling, question for the UFO topic.

Why haven't there been more recorded instances of UFO activity?

I have my own reasons why there haven't been more but what does the Paracast community think?

There are bazillions of these things recorded. Just go look at YouTube, it’s crazy.

Hey look, there’s a light jiggling around in a frame with a black sky background.

Hey look, there’s a white speck jiggling around in the sky with a white background.

Hey look, there’s some CGI.

Myself, I think the reduction in really interesting CE3+ kind of cases might be linked to the camera in the pocket phenomenon. They keep their distance knowing all we’ll see is a fuzzy indistinct thing that could be anything recorded.

Plus, I know we have the ability to kill recordings. My first visit to Stonehenge 13 years ago included watching a black helicopter come in low, circle Stonehenge, and leave. Military for sure, no numbers, but I could see the pilot looking down at the circle. I zoomed in with my digital tape video recorder and caught the whole thing.

Only when I got home, that whole segment just didn’t exist on the tape. No static, no blank spots, it’s exactly as if I didn’t hit ‘record’ even though I remember seeing the little red dot in the viewfinder that showed it was on.

Besides, even if it were a failure of this camera this one time that never happened again, or operator error... others have reported the same thing.

If we have it, they probably do too.