UNDER THE CAMERA'S EYE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 75, 30 March 1932, Page 6

UNDER THE CAMERA'S EYE

As a record of still life, the camera has already done a considerable amount of detective work. In recent years it has frequently been employed to record conditions existing at the scene of a crime after the crime, and has various recognised technical uses in the art of criminal investigation, which has benefited considerably by what the eye of the camera and the microscope can reveal. But as a record-in-motion of ..incriminating acts the moving picture camera seems to be a novelty. Where accidents of time and circumstance enable a moving picture to be taken, its evidential value should be considerable—and no doubt would be if the camera could be introduced at the right place and time, as in.the running of a horse race. Not many malpractices, however,, are carried out in full view, in daylight, and in circumstances which compel the offender to act where and when the camera can be trained on him: The Auckland experiment is interesting because it should. test whether the eye of the camera is much superior to the human eye in recording evidence of the actions (and, inferentially, the intentions) of jockeys in a horse race. Ordinarily, human vision is discounted by speed or by number of contestants, whether the event be a race or a fight or a football match. As a check, the camera should be accurate and certainly dispassionate. Some day, perhaps, it will record motives as well as deeds, and then many mysteries will be cleared up, in consequence of which society will either explode or alter profoundly. ...