F5: Sony F5 stolen in Montreal,

I know that the FBI asks all digital cameras and video cameras to embed the serial number into the actual image (not simply metadata) but woven into the image itself so that lets say a kidnapping video is shot, they can retrieve the information embedded in the video, trace it to the store, to the credit card used - and see the video footage of who purchased it.

Even if you buy the camera on ebay, whomever owned that camera will be visited by the feds - the investigation will take them to who it was shopped to. So unless the person buying the item on ebay shipped to a false address, and then intercepted it, using a prepaid credit card that he wasn't seen purchasing at a store - it can be traced and the people get caught.

When it comes to a 19,000 dollar camera it may not be the FBI's (or equiv) most important case, but if you bark at the right people - they can do an investigation looking at all the 4k footage as it comes out (all done via computer, automatically) - and when it flags a video from your cameras serial number - BLAMO- hand cuffs!

If it were a kidnapping case where the video is sent as proof of life and to make demands at least you have the video to do the trace- given- this is much much harder to do- and it may take a few years for their computers to get a hit - but when they do - at least eventually you can get your camera back... if you even want it at that point - because your insurance will have already paid you for the item - and if you got your camera back they will want their money back -

So forget everything I just said

Jason

LOL
 
captainjman said:
I know that the FBI asks all digital cameras and video cameras to embed the serial number into the actual image (not simply metadata) but woven into the image itself so that lets say a kidnapping video is shot, they can retrieve the information embedded in the video, trace it to the store, to the credit card used - and see the video footage of who purchased it.

Even if you buy the camera on ebay, whomever owned that camera will be visited by the feds - the investigation will take them to who it was shopped to. So unless the person buying the item on ebay shipped to a false address, and then intercepted it, using a prepaid credit card that he wasn't seen purchasing at a store - it can be traced and the people get caught.

When it comes to a 19,000 dollar camera it may not be the FBI's (or equiv) most important case, but if you bark at the right people - they can do an investigation looking at all the 4k footage as it comes out (all done via computer, automatically) - and when it flags a video from your cameras serial number - BLAMO- hand cuffs!
Click to expand...

Forgive me, but this sounds ridiculous. Can you provide documentation of this?
 
captainjman said:
I know that the FBI asks all digital cameras and video cameras to embed the serial number into the actual image (not simply metadata) but woven into the image itself so that lets say a kidnapping video is shot, they can retrieve the information embedded in the video, trace it to the store, to the credit card used - and see the video footage of who purchased it.

Even if you buy the camera on ebay, whomever owned that camera will be visited by the feds - the investigation will take them to who it was shopped to. So unless the person buying the item on ebay shipped to a false address, and then intercepted it, using a prepaid credit card that he wasn't seen purchasing at a store - it can be traced and the people get caught.

When it comes to a 19,000 dollar camera it may not be the FBI's (or equiv) most important case, but if you bark at the right people - they can do an investigation looking at all the 4k footage as it comes out (all done via computer, automatically) - and when it flags a video from your cameras serial number - BLAMO- hand cuffs!

If it were a kidnapping case where the video is sent as proof of life and to make demands at least you have the video to do the trace- given- this is much much harder to do- and it may take a few years for their computers to get a hit - but when they do - at least eventually you can get your camera back... if you even want it at that point - because your insurance will have already paid you for the item - and if you got your camera back they will want their money back -

So forget everything I just said

Jason

LOL
Click to expand...

Let's hope not. Even as someone who has had $50k+ worth of gear stolen in the past, I wouldn't want something like that. That'd just be one more step towards "Big Brother" knowing everything you do. It sounds all well and good when they say it is to be used for something "good" like recovering someone involved in a kidnapping, but what's to stop them from using that embedded technology for any purpose they want?

Supposedly printers have a unique ID specific to each individual machine that is embedded on every page it prints that can allow the FBI, etc. to trace back a printed document to that unique, specific, individual printer.

I know everyone has read the articles about what the NSA and government in general can and has been doing. Where does it stop? Does everyone just say, "Oh it's ok. It's in the name of safety and 'freedom'."?

But back to the stolen gear. I hope that it's recovered and they catch whoever did it. None of my stolen equipment was ever found or the thieves caught. I did get my vehicle back that it was all in, but it had been picked clean except for a few c-stands. They even took the sandbags...
 
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My friend who is in very high-level information security says/suspects that the NSA is coercing computer manufacturers to create back-doors on your PC so big-brother can watch/look/scan. Privacy is a past ideal.
 
Hi André,

I can't imagine what it would be like to lose a kit like that. Hopefully, your insurance was good and you can get a Cabrio replacement without waiting too long.
 
Hmm. Do you know who stole it? That might be a way to pursue this. Usually, unless it's a crime of opportunity (f.ex. you set the cam on the ground, and turned around to get something, and a passerby swipes it), you can trace down who was there who had the opportunity. Don't be shy about reporting this to the administration, for example if it happened on a soundstage. One time I was working with a guy who left his cam on a tripod in the soundstage and went to lunch. When we got back, the cam was gone. He immediately reported it to the people running the stage business and they traced it to a shady guy who wanted a tour of the stage for a future project... a tour that happened during the lunch hour. He came in with a camera of his own to film around, and simply swiped the other cam and walked out. They got him in the parking lot... sweet!

So my recommendation is to try to find out who stole it, and take it from there!
 
any info on the situation that lead to it getting stolen? Any accessories that would help identify your package? It sucks that over 50k worth of gear can fit inside a backpack and be stolen in a moment's notice. Too bad there isn't something like find my iPhone built into these high end cameras. Good luck, hopefully we can help find it if it pops up on a internet marketplace.
 
Do I have documentation of this? no... I am not a repository of documents on everything I have read, seen, heard, etc etc.

The FBI has actually said that on a video about some of their techniques that I saw a few years back. Most people don't even know theta there is metadata - which records a lot of information itself - but there are parts of the data that embed the info in the part of they image you don't really see. Is it possible to edit out the top or bottom or sides where the data is (if you knew where it was) - probably...... I don't know the exact location of the embedded information. But trust me when I say that whatever technology you use in a crime will be a way for the FBI, ATF, - I am not going to list them all, lets just say the "alphabet soup" to find you.

I am not some conspiracy theorist either. I don't think that Katrina was on purpose, or that JFK was killed by the CIA, or that 911 was done as an insurance cover up - I am not a wacko- but facts are facts.

I am sure if you search the internet you will find the information, maybe not all of it - I am sure they withheld some info so that bad guys can't disable the tracking capabilities unless some wikileak discusses it somewhere.

It's like asking me for documentation that area-51 exists - the federal government denied it existence up until Clinton - and of course that is where jets like the F117, the SR-71, the F22 were tested, assembled, whatever. And there are other "secrets"

Sorry I can't direct you to some CFR and show you codified law that discusses it - but it's true. Just like they put tracking info inside of some bullets so that when you shoot there are little "tags" that go everywhere the gunpowder goes microscopically. It's nothing more than a tracking number, but that will show what batch of bullets it was, tracking it to the store in which it was purchased and ultimately to the guy buying the bullets on CCD on security video.

You're being tracked - period. Sorry - but it is a "big brother" world - and yes it's scary that there is no such thing as privacy anymore.
 
Jason;

any chance you might just be refering to userbits in the VITC on standard def camcorders? and someone dressed it up to sound like something that's a secret sauce?
 
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