Anti Flash Number Plate Protection

[MercBoy05]

Just found a site that is selling it for £60 for 6 cans. £10 a can.

Still dont know if they work or are legal though!

Just add the .co.uk to the end of 'photostopper'

 

[prprandall51]

Whilst I can understand that a highly reflective coating may throw enough light back into a camera lens to cause a "white out" of the number plate, as far as I can see, this would require the light source (the flash) to be directly in line with the face of the number plate so that the light was reflected straight back to the film to burn it out.

But a speed camera is offset significantly from the vehicle direction of travel and so light from its flash would pretty much be bounced over to the other side of the road by the reflective coating??

So, how do you test if this all works? You would need to trigger an actual camera in a real speeding offence - and then see if you get the NOP through the letterbox.

Scary...

Has anyone ever bought this stuff and then whipped past a camera whilst going Harry Flatters? I suspect not! That would require considerably proportioned sweetmeats.

Philip

 

[Spinal]

OK, let me add my 2 pence worth

I have bought a can of "photoblocker" off eBay for £14. It was meant to coat 4 plates, and 4 plates I did coat. I then took a digital camera and took some pics of both plates with and without.

Now, although the ones with did NOT totally white out, they did reflect more than sufficient light to over-expose one or more numbers on the licence plate, thus making the picture worthless for recognition.

The law stated that a licence plate must be kept clean and legible from so many meters away to the naked eye, and so it is with the spray. Now I have heard rumors that this has been ammended to include the words "and not reflective" but cannot vouch for that.

If you want to run your own test, do not take a camera and stand in front of the car and snap, it wont work. Take you car, drive it near a gatso, and park it on the side of the road near the stripes. Get out of the car, LOCK IT, and go stand near the gatso. Now take a picture of your car. (obviously all at night).

So my conclusion? Does the spray work? well, yes and no. It works, but only against gatso's and only at night. Would I buy it again? Definetly!

Michele

EDIT: Phillip, yes I have done precisely that! I recently had "access" to a car registered in Italy, and although the car receives a fine, the driver holds an Italian licence and hence cannot be given points. Also, the driver in question has never (ever) paid a fine he received from the British police, and apparently they don't seem to be too bothered to follow up. "He" went pass a 30mph gasto at 3 in the morning, doing 40-something. The gatso did the regular 2 flashes and he finished his vacation here. He never did get that fine...

 

[R2D2]

I drove past a car the other day and head on its number was visible but as we went around a junction at one point his number vanished as it reflected light???

 

[Spinal]

I drove past a car the other day and head on its number was visible but as we went around a junction at one point his number vanished as it reflected light???

Did it reflect light or did it have a lense? I saw some lenses for sale on eBay a while back, basically they limit the viewing angle of the plate...

 

[Steve_Perry]

I remember watching a Roadwars episode (programme on SkyOne) a few weeks back and a couple of uniformed officers happened to be following an oldish Golf (Mk II or III I think) and the driver was driving perfectly legally, the cops didn't even have any cause for concern until the passenger copper looked into the onboard TV monitor and the Golf's number plate looked a fairly uniform yellow with some black smudging but to the naked eye the plate looked normal. The PC's followed said Golf into a petrol station, no driving offences were comitted en-route, in fact the Golf driver was fairly sensible. As the driver went to pay for his petrol the coppers had a look at his rear plate and it had some sort of spray applied to it and they nabbed the driver as he came back to his car. The video footage ended there but the narrator went onto say that the driver had the book thrown at him, i.e. hefty fine and points on licence.

IMHO whether these products work or are the proverbial snake oil, they are not worth using given the punishment if caught using them.

*EDIT* I knew I had recounted this before
http://mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=16411&highlight=SkyOne

S.

 

[mickl]

as I said before. Better to invest the money on a sat nav that has a camera database or a detector itself seeing as the spreay has to be re-applied frequently.

The spray won't stop you from getting nicked by a mobile site either.

 

[Spinal]

I remember watching a Roadwars episode (programme on SkyOne) a few weeks back and a couple of uniformed officers happened to be following an oldish Golf (Mk II or III I think) and the driver was driving perfectly legally, the cops didn't even have any cause for concern until the passenger copper looked into the onboard TV monitor and the Golf's number plate looked a fairly uniform yellow with some black smudging but to the naked eye the plate looked normal. The PC's followed said Golf into a petrol station, no driving offences were comitted en-route, in fact the Golf driver was fairly sensible. As the driver went to pay for his petrol the coppers had a look at his rear plate and it had some sort of spray applied to it and they nabbed the driver as he came back to his car. The video footage ended there but the narrator went onto say that the driver had the book thrown at him, i.e. hefty fine and points on licence.

IMHO whether these products work or are the proverbial snake oil, they are not worth using given the punishment if caught using them.

*EDIT* I knew I had recounted this before
http://mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=16411&highlight=SkyOne

S.

I'm really sorry for bringing such an old topic up, but on my flight back from China this popped into my head. I was wondering how such a spray would work, then I thought; how did the cops on-board camera not read the plate, but the tv camera did (or did I miss something? sorry, I've never seen road wars)
Michele

 

[GSMGuy]

They DO NOT work!

Try taking a poic of one with your digital camera and flash....

Mike

 

[GSMGuy]

In fact.. When I went to the Gmex bike show in Manchester in Feb this year, they had some "PhotoShy protector" plate covers on disply... I took the opportunity to ask if I could take a pic... with my phone on my hand... The guy said no prob, and I whipped out my Sony DSC T7 with a proper Gatso like flash... - the result???


See for yourself..

Mike

 

[scumbag]

In fact.. When I went to the Gmex bike show in Manchester in Feb this year, they had some "PhotoShy protector" plate covers on disply... I took the opportunity to ask if I could take a pic... with my phone on my hand... The guy said no prob, and I whipped out my Sony DSC T7 with a proper Gatso like flash... - the result???


See for yourself..

Mike

what does it say. i cant see any numbers? is that a legal spaced plate

 

[Spinal]

If you want I can take a piccy or two of a "friends" plate... he has some "PhotoBlocker" he got on eBay, and when it was applied last year it worked a charm. Not at short distances though, the distance between the camera and the plate had too be well over 5 meters.

Again, I'm not sure of the law, but doesn't the law state that a plate has to be clean and visible from a certain distance? The plate IS clean and visible from a certain distance, as long as you don't look at it for that fraction of a second that the flass goes off for....
Michele

 

[saorbust]

http://www.ukspeedtraps.co.uk/

Have a look at his test of the number plates - its v good and done with the police.

Frankly I wouldn't bother. The most interesting bit is that no matter the results of the product test - the company who makes it, is no longer trading...