eli5 why is military aircraft and weapon targeting footage always so grainy and colourless when we have such high res cameras?
In: 8218
The U2 spyplanes have the most incredible cameras, imaging onto a 4ft square piece of chemical film.
I almost bought one of the decommissioned lenses on eBay. Incredible piece of machinery. All considering the $25,000 asking price was incredibly cheap. Size of an industrial washing machine.
Same with the stuff the geospatial agency put on satellites… the quality is doubtless obscene. 1mm resolution from near earth orbit, clean photographic quality from space… and that was 20 years ago. That’s Amazing.
So in a word, the nice looking stuff is classified, and what we see is deliberately restricted in terms of quality, particularly the recording kit, and comes from older machines. It’s often night vision.
The stuff you see on live leaks is done with antiquated machines, but it’s tried and tested, and is relatively impervious to electronic warfare systems.
I would not doubt that the most expensive stuff the spooky types use is way better than what your smartphone has got on it, and that the spooks were running 4k for video surveillance as standard in the ’80s.
As they say, “the devil’s in the details”.
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