Toronto Photography Meetup Group

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/ ... ant-yacht/

[quote]


Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has a rather curious new addition built in to his latest oversized yacht. The 557-foot boat Eclipse, the price tag of which has almost doubled since original plans were drawn to almost $1.2 billion, set sail this week with a slew of show-off features, from two helipads, two swimming pools and six-foot movie screens in all guest cabins, to a mini-submarine and missile-proof windows to combat piracy.

It might not seem like somebody with such ostentatious tastes would crave privacy, but along with these expensive toys, Ambramovich has installed an anti-paparazzi

WOW! To be stinking rich.... lol

Good reason to shoot film

Likely to be X KGB or X military high ranked officer or X government official same in China.

[quote="Burlap Jacket"]Good reason to shoot film [/quote

first thing I thought of when I read that anti-ccd crap

Missile proof windows huh. Should've made the yacht harpoon proof, that'll probably work better.

gizmodo.com had the same story. Their guess is that a CCD hunting laser is bulls**t and what likely happens is that the boat detects something like the infrared autofocus assist and responds with the laser to overexpose any pictures taken.

"Arm the Frickin' Laser"

He shouldn't be allowed to walk the Earth or sail the Ocean

What is a CCD and is one emitted if one focuses manually?

yeah, how could it detect a sensor? I assume it just sends out waves of laser beams everywhere that flashes on camera sensors randomly making shooting difficult, but then again, wouldn't' that also shoot into your eyeballs too? Do i smell countless lawsuits coming up?

Sounds like a unworkable "phony" option to me that he paid millions for that wont work.

If you're going to spend that kind of money, just hire a smaller boat to follow you with "celebrities" on board partying behind your yatch that will draw all the attention away! ha ha

The sensor is detectable via reflection on a P&S camera or a m43 type camera, but not with a DSLR or rangefinder.

In other words the technology is almost assuredly useless against paparazzi unless it's designed to fool metering or AF, and is defeatable in those cases.

I agree, a fabricated story.

A laser is not a tool to hunt and detect an optoelectronic device, hidden behind multiple optical shields and IR mirrors, that are randomly moving in a handheld grip. A ccd does not have any unique characteristics that a distant reflective detector could identify. Probably, the authors are mistaking a ccd for a dmd - digital mirror device - used in some projectors.

The sentence "Lasers sweep the surroundings and when they detect a CCD, they fire a bolt..." implies the lasers both detect and then destroy using light.

This is not possible nor safe, it might as well say machine guns search and spray bullets at the ccd's. Attenuating a laser to detect something at random distances, then shooting at random distances would occasionally miss and cause serious damage to humans and other fixed objects. Further, lots of errors such as reflections from jewelry, sequins on clothing, etc. would result in the Russian VIP's getting lasered.

A very simple system would just detect flashes and flood the area instantly with back-flashes obliterating exposures.

I disagree a beam expanded collimated laser could be eye safe and still track and blind the camera. Usually people of this sort do not take kindly to being ripped off. Now days ordinary security camera systems can easily lock on and track selected people. It should be no problem for a more sophisticated system. You might want to check out his prior business partners.

Anyone that has been flashed by a mirror and sunlight or light painted with a laser should know it is possible http://how2dostuff.blogspot.com/2008/05 ... laser.html

It would of been cheaper to have a bunch of kids with a laser pointer from the dollar store shooting anyone with a camera with the laser pointer.