Lowestoft Unknown Aircraft Sighting

RavenOne

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Last night local of East Anglia thought they saw some boomerang shape and posted it on mil aviation FB Group.

Cheers
 

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We have cameras now with ridiculously high ISO. There is just no excuse not to take pictures of anomalous craft in the sky.
 
sublight is back said:
We have cameras now with ridiculously high ISO. There is just no excuse not to take pictures of anomalous craft in the sky.

Most people are relying on the cameras in their phones, which are notoriously bad at low-light.
 
TomS said:
sublight is back said:
We have cameras now with ridiculously high ISO. There is just no excuse not to take pictures of anomalous craft in the sky.

Most people are relying on the cameras in their phones, which are notoriously bad at low-light.

No, they have a lot of noise in low light but they'll still get a lot of details and an outline of "something" as opposed to absolutely nothing.
 
Not everyone has a phone with a camera. Not everyone has the wit to use such a camera if they have one. Not every situation lasts long enough to get a phone out and use it. You are making a ridiculous demand.
 
Be that as it may, but showing one blurry blip of light against a pitch black screen background with a drawn overlap of a supposed object more than two orders of magnitude larger in acreage is almost worse than having no visual evidence at all. I'm open minded, but I'll reserve judgement.
 
The key to getting good pictures of flying aircraft is using an actual camera with a long focal length lens.

According to an article about 2018 iPhone cameras ( https://qz.com/1395779/the-amazing-sorcery-of-the-iphones-newest-cameras/ ), the actual focal length of its tiny telephoto lens is 6mm but achieves an equivalent focal length of 52mm through advanced hardware and software technology. 52mm is good for taking pictures of things you can walk up to or very large items at a distance.

My digital SLR with its 300mm telephoto lens takes passable pictures of airliners 25 miles out on approach to DFW and you can see details like windows and control surfaces. It only gets the airliner’s shape at contrail altitude. It is a wasted effort to use a phone camera with a focal length far under the several hundred millimeters needed to take useful pictures of flying aircraft. Serious aircraft photographers use much longer lenses from the ground.

Only real cameras with long focal length telephoto lenses can capture decent pictures of flying aircraft.
 
Most people going from a to b are just going from a to b. Not going out with the intention of finding/spotting unusual UFO. Why would I for example EXPECT to see specialised or secret new/black project aircraft and is it really worth taking high def camera equipment everywhere I go just hoping? Most of us have better things to do with the time between B and D.
 
I do use my phone for aircraft. It’s fine for big stuff down low, but anything high and small it has trouble focusing. The attached were taken in Newcastle in December. The Atlas was flying at about 5,000ft (checked ABS-B) it was shot on a Howay P20 Pro at the 5x setting. The first shot is uncropped, but reduced in size for the forum. The other shot is what you get when you crop for detail. Not great, but not too bad.

Chris
 

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This lot was shot from my back garden in Washington CD with a Sony A6000 and a 210mm lens. The formation was 20 miles away (checked ADS-B). The UFOs aren't UFOs they are dust bunnies. I agree with Richard N that you can't beat a DSLR for aircraft and this kit isn't my weapon of choice for such snapping, it was handy.

Chris
 

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Foo Fighter said:
Most people going from a to b are just going from a to b. Not going out with the intention of finding/spotting unusual UFO. Why would I for example EXPECT to see specialised or secret new/black project aircraft and is it really worth taking high def camera equipment everywhere I go just hoping? Most of us have better things to do with the time between B and D.


I was stating the technical reason phone cameras are not good for capturing useful images of flying aircraft and offering a way to get better pictures of them. Cameras with telephoto lenses are to flying objects as telescopes are to seeing planets--you will not be able to capture detail without the proper equipment.

You say you never expect to see an aircraft or possibly something else worth taking a picture of. If you never have the right equipment, you deny yourself the opportunity of ever getting a good picture of that UFO or interesting airplane you might chance upon.

Every image ever taken happened was because someone had the right equipment at the right place at the right moment in time to get that picture. Think about how the Secret Projects Forum would be diminished if there were fewer pictures because no one cared enough to take a picture when they were in a unique place and time and share it on the forum. Pictures beat words every time when it comes to an objective description of an object or event. The best result is a combination of high quality images with an accompanying well written description.

Someone has to be there to get the picture. They may not have been looking for the picture they got, but if they had not been there, history would have been lost.

Zapruder was only expecting to get a home movie of JFK's visit to Dallas. A film crew was doing a routine shoot in New York City on a beautiful September day. Robert Capa risked his life to return with the first images of the D-Day landing.

Pictures don't happen without someone taking the time, effort, and even risk to get them.
 
sublight is back said:
No, they have a lot of noise in low light but they'll still get a lot of details and an outline of "something" as opposed to absolutely nothing.

Even the best phone cameras are nowhere near modern DSLR iso levels. Most also have very aggressive noise reduction and that coupled with the typical compressed jpeg output means there isnt going to be much there, even if the camera is technically capable of capturing something.

CJGibson said:
I do use my phone for aircraft. It’s fine for big stuff down low, but anything high and small it has trouble focusing.

Get a camera app that lets you manually control focus and lock it to infinity.
 
Would be nice to have access to high quality infrared scopes or cameras, would be able to get good pics of unusual objects/aircraft.

https://youtu.be/cI6gqbolsI0
 
If I was going to seriously persue photography of high flying aircraft and distant objects, I would be very tempted to get a Nikon Coolpix P1000. Here's the first text of its feature description:

"Mind-blowing 3000mm zoom. 4K Ultra HD video. RAW (NRW), macro, time-lapse and so much more.

Imagine being able to zoom far beyond the reach of standard telephoto lenses, to capture not just the moon, but the craters, peaks and valleys of its surface. Imagine being able to view the International Space Station in flight, even the rings of Saturn—not with a telescope, but with a one-of-a-kind Nikon camera. Introducing the COOLPIX P1000, the most extreme zoom Nikon ever, and a game-changer for birders, sports and wildlife enthusiasts, travel photographers and even those aspiring to venture to the moon and beyond without leaving their backyard."

Nikon Coolpix P1000 product page: https://www.nikonusa.com/en/nikon-products/product/compact-digital-cameras/coolpix-p1000.html

What P1000 user did with one near the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force Base at Chichijima when a Shin Maywa US-2 was coming in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI8_X8K5icI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa4l6Ey-prA&feature=youtu.be
 

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There is something pretty basic that gets in the way of the average human being carrying high quality camera equipment around everywhere they go. It's called 'life', lugging high quality camera equipment everywhere could even be called obsessive compulsive, especially as you may only get one chance in a lifetime. Carpe diem. Have a great week.
 
Nothing showing up on flight radar around that time anywhere near lowestoft, not that military stuff tends to show up anyway.
 

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