How Do Spy Cameras Work?

[Markxxx]

I was walking to the gym and I go pass a “spy” store on Fullerton (at Western) in Chicago. They had a big display in the window with spy pens and watches.

I was wondering how do those work? I mean with a camera you look through something and take a photo, but if the camera is in a watch or on a pen, how could it work? I mean how would you know what your aiming at?

Or do you just point wherever the lens is and hope you’re getting the result?

[beowulff]

@Markxxx

Or do you just point wherever the lens is and hope you’re getting the result?

This.

[Ruminator]

@Markxxx

I mean how would you know what your aiming at?

Or do you just point wherever the lens is and hope you’re getting the result?

The ones I’ve seen have wide-angle lenses. Similar to the peephole of a hotel door. (Maybe smaller than that.) They give you a lot of “margin for error” in pointing the device.

[Markxxx]

Interesting, even more interesting is an “ad” for spy cameras pops up when I read this

[aruvqan]

@Markxxx

I was walking to the gym and I go pass a “spy” store on Fullerton (at Western) in Chicago. They had a big display in the window with spy pens and watches.

I was wondering how do those work? I mean with a camera you look through something and take a photo, but if the camera is in a watch or on a pen, how could it work? I mean how would you know what your aiming at?

Or do you just point wherever the lens is and hope you’re getting the result?

i have a friend who is geeky about spy toys, and he practices aiming the different types so he can use them with competence=) He seems to be able to get the image he wants normally, so I guess it works=) I like his wireless pen camera - it transmits a very short distance so it need to have a recording unit in his pocket/briefcase. He sort of fiddles with it like fidgiting to get the picture he wants, and it looks natural =)

[YogSothoth]

@aruvqan

i have a friend who is geeky about spy toys, and he practices aiming the different types so he can use them with competence=) He seems to be able to get the image he wants normally, so I guess it works=) I like his wireless pen camera - it transmits a very short distance so it need to have a recording unit in his pocket/briefcase. He sort of fiddles with it like fidgiting to get the picture he wants, and it looks natural =)

Does he use it in women’s locker rooms?

[aruvqan]

@YogSosoth

Does he use it in women’s locker rooms?

not that I know of =) he does stuff for the local tv news people like spy on businesses to catch them screwing with customers, stuff like that - though he did have a gig training the local cops how to do certain surveillance stuff.

[code_grey]

would a camera that is incorporated into eye glasses fix this problem? I recall seeing in Sky Mall an ad for a device that, I believe, had a lens right above the nose, between the two glasses.

[xash]

The coolest spycam I’ve seen was at the Spy Museum in DC. I forget the specifics of the story, but basically when America built an embassy in the USSR, the Soviets bugged the embassy with spycams during construction of the embassy. The Americans later found out. So when the USSR was building an embassy in the US, the Americans decided to bug the embassy. But they knew the place would be scanned for bugs, as it was during and immediately after construction was completed.

The interesting thing about the spy cam, though, was that it was hidden inside a wall and drilled itself out after about a week or so. So it was a cam attached with a timered drill, to prevent detection during and immediately after construction. And this was in the '70s or something. I can only imagine spy tech today.