Britain's most powerful speed camera hits the M4
Discussion
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/brit...
"Dubbed 'The Long Ranger' police have unveiled the new weapon in a drive to clamp down on tailgating and speeding".
Can someone please explain to me how a super long paparazzo style lens will help in detecting tailgating?
That's all.
"Dubbed 'The Long Ranger' police have unveiled the new weapon in a drive to clamp down on tailgating and speeding".
Can someone please explain to me how a super long paparazzo style lens will help in detecting tailgating?
That's all.
speedking31 said:
ecause it's such a long lens it will foreshorten the image making the cars look closer together than they really are, so anyone can get a ticket, backed up by incontrovertible 'proof'.
Exactly! Perspective compression on a telephoto plus placement head on to traffic at only a slight elevation make 'detection of tailgating' an almost impossibility. Absolute porky pies. Shame on them.Does that have a variable ND on the end? Wonder if you can hire the rig for natural history shows - to make sure pandas aren't speeding when they are mating?!
Edited by Ken Figenus on Saturday 17th November 18:03
charltjr said:
The lens doesn’t change the range or capabilities of the laser.
The lens allows for higher quality footage at a longer distance to capture detail such as mobile phone use or a clear image of the driver.
It’s not new and has been used by other forces. It doesn’t change the law or what actions the police can take under the law, so the usual combination of advice letters, awareness courses, points and fines will still apply.
This is just a media push to make drivers think twice about their behaviour, isn’t that a form of education?
We don’t get to pick and choose which laws we obey and we all know the odds of actually getting caught are minimal. Maybe if so many of us didn’t routinely ignore the law on speed they could direct those enforcement resources elsewhere.
Having recently been nabbed on the A417 myself I’m not exactly some hand wringing speed hater, but I accept I broke the law so that’s that.
I’m sure they’d love nothing more than to not have to waste their time catching drivers who lack self control, but given how many people flag speeding as a priority for roads policing what else can they do.
Agree with a lot of what you say but maybe some of us smell BS in their PR guff, Those of us that have ever handled a super telephoto for video maybe! Every single one of us on PH would be all for the stated side-aims and would be applauding every clown caught on a hand held phone or puffing on a Camberwell Carrot (!) - but we know what 99.9% of its use is going to be... And some of us know how difficult it is to track and follow focus a small moving object using any super telephoto lens - even with a £10k fluid head high end tripod helping dampen your wobbles. Its very hard and hence the BS factor just doubled! I look forward to seeing the footage in court The lens allows for higher quality footage at a longer distance to capture detail such as mobile phone use or a clear image of the driver.
It’s not new and has been used by other forces. It doesn’t change the law or what actions the police can take under the law, so the usual combination of advice letters, awareness courses, points and fines will still apply.
This is just a media push to make drivers think twice about their behaviour, isn’t that a form of education?
We don’t get to pick and choose which laws we obey and we all know the odds of actually getting caught are minimal. Maybe if so many of us didn’t routinely ignore the law on speed they could direct those enforcement resources elsewhere.
Having recently been nabbed on the A417 myself I’m not exactly some hand wringing speed hater, but I accept I broke the law so that’s that.
I’m sure they’d love nothing more than to not have to waste their time catching drivers who lack self control, but given how many people flag speeding as a priority for roads policing what else can they do.
Graveworm said:
Loads of times, I am currently sitting in Rio having just finished shooting wildlife in the Amazon with what most would consider long telephotos. This is nothing to do with that though. The long lens would compress apparent distance between vehicles but I wasn't talking about that. If the viewer uses the same reference point and neither viewer nor the reference point move then parallax and compression are nullified and timings between vehicle A and Vehicle B passing the same point are unaffected by the focal length of the lens. In fact the better the magnification the more accurate the reading would be.
What's your video framerate for these forensic accuracies at 70mph? How steep an angle do you need for the camera to see properly? How many milliseconds or sub frames apart is tailgating? How do you measure the gap between the arse of a car you (which you cant really see) to the bumper of the trailing car (which you also cant see) - or do you measure tailgating from the front? Cant see this working! Copacabana cocktails nice? charltjr said:
Good to see that video. Huge perspective compression on it though - the Golf looks like it cuts up the Nissin truck and that white SUV on the right looks like its nailed to the back of that flat bed truck. NICE TO SEE RED CAR HAS IT ON DASHCAM!!! They prosecuted him for speeding only btw...handpaper said:
Some seriously stupid signage on that bit of motorway, too.
Taking the biscuit are matrix signs in Welsh. In that part of Wales I'd guess that less than 5% of drivers can actually read them - and that none, anywhere in Wales, can't read a sign in English. So at best they're a waste of time; at worst a distraction hazard.
Or maybe they are indicative of parity for both languages of Wales and are respectful and inclusive of all its citizens? Or would you just prefer to wipe out a huge part of heritage and culture as you are not very tolerant of it and prefer it all on your terms and anglo centric? The signs are always in BOTH languages not just one (albeit maybe not always on the same display) and if Switzerland can cope with 4 languages without one trying to be the default alpha with big sharp elbows, it is only fair and inclusive to include both here too. If you have a problem with that its your world view/mindset problem as its actually law not to discriminate and marginalise...yes...even against minorities in their own country...Taking the biscuit are matrix signs in Welsh. In that part of Wales I'd guess that less than 5% of drivers can actually read them - and that none, anywhere in Wales, can't read a sign in English. So at best they're a waste of time; at worst a distraction hazard.
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