reply to post by WishForWings
Thank you for posting this interesting video WishForWings.
Rarely (so far this year) have there been any posts worth discussing.
However this video is interesting for several reasons.
Let me start by saying that I am a skeptic, however my honest opinion is that we should all be skeptical!
However what happens a-l-l- the time on ATS (and presumably on all kinds of forums) is that people simply run off their mouths and become all
emotional, or come in with preconceived ideas. And I try to not do this.
Let's start with the "facts" as far as we can tell:
YouTube: what can we tell:
It is a video with less than 2,000 views on YouTube, so no external effort has been made to publicize this video (yet).
The person posted the video under a new account on YouTube and therefore it is impossible to tell if this person has any previous record of posting
unusual videos.
However under his account the user has favorited two UFO videos, and from his post is clearly very excited at what he has captured:
www.youtube.com...
Maybe (Maybe Not) contacted the person who posted the video and we received some basic information, and this is always interesting to me:
LG model KP500:
The device capturing the video is a relatively inexpensive LG Smartphone: model LG KP500
Specifications:
www.letsgomobile.org...
Images (including the back of the phone, showing the camera and transparent lens cover):
www.mobileburn.com...
User Manual: (large PDF! be warned):
media.phonehouse.com...
SUMMARY: A cheap Smartphone, capable of capturing 2 megapixel images, and low resolution video. The poster indicates that the video was captured at
the highest resolution possible, which would be: 320x240 pixels, presumably at 12 frames per second. Hence the data quality. I have no reason to think
that the video that we see was not captured on the device indicated.
[start of edit]
REFLECTED CELLPHONE LIGHT:
I have to add this right now... because people are clearly confused.
My first port of call with videos (especially lights captured at night!) is reflected light - such as indicated in a few posts here... however, this
is not the case here:
1. The phone doesn't have a light at the back: The LG KP 500 does not have a cellphone light or flash, as clearly described in the device
specifications (see links above).
The camera is positioned on the back of the phone, and there is (as I say) no flash.
Therefore whilst capturing a video or picture no light is emitted from the camera/phone during capture, and so no light could be reflected.
If the camera were positioned on the front of the phone, then there could possibly be some reflected light from the phone itself, as the camera is
positioned on the back of the phone... that is not possible.
Additionally - as I describe below - this video was not captured behind a window...
2. Not in Sync: Furthermore - the light does not travel in sync with the movement of the camera/phone - at times the light is ahead of the movement of
the phone, at times in sync and at times the light 'trails' the movement of the phone.
3. Clouds: Finally - the lighting up of the clouds is very clear (as I discuss below in some detail), singularly clear, reflected light would not
possibly show something even remotely like clouds being lit up... I am a skeptic at heart, but nothing in this video indicates reflected light?
[/end of edit]
LENS FLARE AND THE POSITION OF THE PERSON CAPTURING THE VIDEO:
As with most Smartphones with built in cameras, the lens has a transparent plastic shield which commonly creates lens flare when the image captured is
a light source, and we see traces of lens flare on the video, which (of course) people jump all over thinking that the video was captured through a
window... for which there is no evidence... watching the video it looks like this video was shot by someone standing up in the middle of the road,
nothing obstructs the view during the capture of this video.
SUMMARY: Video captured by a person on foot, the transparent plastic shield caused lens flare.
MUTED SOUND:
As clearly indicated by the person capturing the video, and posted by Maybe Maybe Not.. the sound was muted when the video was captured. One has to
assume that the advanced setting on the video capture screen was too difficult for the person to navigate to (those bothered can read the instruction
manual specifically see page 60 for a view of the video capture screen on the phone - linked above), and that he neglected to hit the rocker switch on
the side of the camera which maybe would have switched the sound capture back on.
SUMMARY: This of course causes all kinds of conjecture as one can see scrolling through many posts. Ultimately it is not possible to prove one way or
the other... It could of course been a ruse designed to eliminate the sound of the object, or it could have been as the poster of the video describes,
the heat of the moment caused him to ignore the audio settings. One has to err on the side of being skeptical here and give negative points because
the lack of sound leaves doubt.
FRAMING:
Several comments exist about the framing of the object... that it seems like the person capturing the object predicts where it is going to travel, and
one can indeed see some of this when you watch the video objectively. Of course it is equally possible that the person capturing the video tries to
pan slightly left to move away from the bright street lamps.
SUMMARY: I have to agree that the movement of the phone whilst capturing the image does move slightly 'ahead' of the object at times, however, anyone
capturing this object might well want to pan left to move the street lights out of the view...
CLOUDS:
The single most impressive thing captured is the lighting up of the clouds above the object, which is singularly unusual, the object is clearly below
the clouds and not 'in' the clouds. As this all happens at some distance from the camera and as others mention because of the position, this does not
result in lens flare. From what is seen this object is lighting up and evidently lighting upwards, which is something I have not witnessed from a
plane or helicopter... One can conject that a helicopter with a search lamp pointing upwards might result in such a view?
SUMMARY: Singularly unusual lighting effect, the effect has nothing to do with the Smartphone, the object itself is lighting the clouds above
itself... very unusual.
DISAPPEARANCE:
When the object suddenly disappears - or perhaps switches off its lights! - it does indeed look like the person capturing the video is confused, in
the one or two seconds after the object disappears... it looks like some confusion from the way that the camera pans around.
SUMMARY: The person capturing the video seems confused.
CGI?:
From what I see, this does not seem to be CGI in origin, I would very much like to see the file header etc from the original video, and some analysis
of the video itself (rather than anyone playing with the output on YouTube).
SUMMARY:
Does not look like typical CGI, however until any further analysis I cannot say for certain.
FINAL SUMMARY:
Whilst I cannot indicate anything about the object itself, one is left thinking that this is indeed an object moving intelligently through the sky,
lighting up clouds positioned above itself, and that a person saw this object, grabbed their Smartphone and captured the evidence. Because of no other
objective evidence, and because of the proximity to a runway/naval establishment... and without other video evidence or testimony, we are left with
what we see... unusual video of an object traveling with purpose through the night sky, lighting up the clouds above itself, and either disappearing
or switching off its lights...
I have not seen other similar videos (yet!) and would greatly appreciate seeing such videos.
askbaby OUT.
edit on 29-9-2010 by askbaby because: edited for clarity about the LG 500 smartphone and its not having a light/flash capability