Film and 16mm Cameras

Certainly no historic medium compares to that of simple film or a snapshot of a historic event.

The inventors of the photographic camera box in the mid 1800’s captured images over several minutes time to develop a daguerreotype, only to always expect the film development process to be quicker and quicker.

By early 1900’s, moving pictures were already in vogue.

Moving pictures consisted of a series of snapshots taken and rolled by hand or machine through simple transport mechanisms.

The mass production capabilities were enormous while the human task required was just as demanding.

Within 25 years of Thomas Alva Edison’s invention of the recording and playback phonograph, he had also developed an unusual silent movie machine which heralded a new era.

Who can forget the pictures of the Keystone Cops, Billy the Kid, and the generally lovable, but humorous, comical exposés of Charlie Chaplin?

There is an almost magnetic inclusiveness between the use of the moving picture and its implications toward recording justice or criminal events or the historic after-effects of such times.

Our local news dedicates its broadcast for the first ten minutes, in general, to: criminal activities which have occurred, historic “after facts” from the neighborhood, relatives or surroundings, the activities of law enforcement, justice commentaries, as well as gieving relatives to bring about corrective or punitive measures.

And, more popular, full video or screen shots of the actual perpetrator or event that has taken place as a now historic and archived record.

While smaller video cameras have become more ubiquitous in our modern world, the 8mm bank film camera is still utilized in almost 30% of the banks throughout worldwide.

These cameras require very little energy to run, are cheap to install, provided a permanent archive, and are always trained at the area in which a crime would occur within the bank’s facility.

What you don’t get is good resolution, color, an ability to share the film with others without complicated methods, and one fixed focus image of fairly grainy resolution.

Our expectations of technology are impressive and often go beyond the capability of normal common sense, often driven more by the sales features and glossing over of actual limitations of use.

When seeing a bank heist and wishing that the hooded sweatshirt and coat were not on to better identify the suspect (since the face was not easily seen), it’s surprising how in today’s world many users expect that by drastically changing technology to digital, we can somehow undress this individual and identify the perpetrator to within a mole on the chin.

The same limitations to film cameras occur with digital video cameras. They can only capture a small framework of the incident and certainly not identify the perpetrator to a clear and easy social security number match.

The limitations of a camera system are the same limitations that we as individuals have in witnessing an event.

The only clear difference is that the recording takes place with permanently embedded electrons vs. virtually embedded neurons.

When I was 25 years old, I witnessed a bank robbery.

Going for lunch, I was sitting in my car at a stop sign ready to make a right while in front of me was a suburban, one-story bank less than 60 feet away.

I had to stop and look both ways at which point I saw four individuals running, stumbling and half comical, falling over shrubs and almost climbing into their waiting vehicle to rush off with their bags of loot.

No faces were perceptible.

No guns easily seen.

Only ski masks, sweatshirts, and what appeared to be male figures.

So what exactly would the camera pick up that I would not have picked up? I couldn’t help the police at all.

And what did the police expect of the film footage? A sparkling image of a person’s perfect expression on their face to charge them and find the face is a perfect match?

I doubt it.

Let’s see how digital video has changed our toolbox of surveillance equipment and how we can best utilize it – legally.