Stolen camera finder

[Drake]

Some of you probably have already seen it, but I've just discovered a url worth bookmarking.

Stolen Camera Finder - find your photos, find your camera

It's basically a webpage that searches the internet for photos taken with a camera with a given serial number. You can also upload an image with EXIF data and it will read the SN itself. If your camera was stolen then it's probably worth giving a shot, right?

 

[sierramister]

I'd be interested to see where it searches. On the FAQ, they are talking about Flickr scrapers. I wonder if that's the only place they search right now because I have thousands of photos online (none on Flickr, and EXIF data still intact) and it couldn't find any of mine.

 

[Samerr9]

Which serial no. shall we use?

 

[mikehaugen]

I always thought that they should offer sort of a "lojack" system for higher end dslr's. It would be fairly cheap to have some sort of gps tracker and we definitely have the technology to do it, what with the tiny cell phones with gps capabilities. All it takes is a theoretical "call" to a given number to be activated when needed (no monthly bill) and it should be able to send back gps coordinates. If I had the abilities I would have already invented this.

Now if anyone takes this and becomes a billionaire, I at least want a 1ds mkiii for my idea

Edit: Maybe this has already been done and I am a little behind the times.

 

[Josh66]

Which serial no. shall we use?

Does your camera have more than one?

(Use the S/N of the camera body, not the lens - it that's what you meant.)

 

[KmH]

The Stolen Camera Finder only works if the EXIF data for the photos is intact, and the EXIF data hasn't been edited with an EXIF writer like www.photome.de

 

[Samerr9]

Which serial no. shall we use?

Does your camera have more than one?

(Use the S/N of the camera body, not the lens - it that's what you meant.)

lol.. I was looking for that in the photo details I found it now.. thanks

 

[Josh66]

The Stolen Camera Finder only works if the EXIF data for the photos is intact, and the EXIF data hasn't been editied with an EXIF writer like www.photome.de

And also only if your camera records the S/N in the exif data (mine doesn't).

It does however record the S/N of the lens. Weird that it records the lens, but not the body...

 

[Drake]

Of course there's no guarantee you will find your camera with such a site. Not everyone shows their photos on the internet, and not everyone leaves the EXIF data intact. I usually set LR to wipe out the metadata while exporting. But for someone who had their camera stolen, it's worth trying.

 

[Garbz]

I always thought that they should offer sort of a "lojack" system for higher end dslr's. It would be fairly cheap to have some sort of gps tracker and we definitely have the technology to do it, what with the tiny cell phones with gps capabilities. All it takes is a theoretical "call" to a given number to be activated when needed (no monthly bill) and it should be able to send back gps coordinates. If I had the abilities I would have already invented this.

Now if anyone takes this and becomes a billionaire, I at least want a 1ds mkiii for my idea

Edit: Maybe this has already been done and I am a little behind the times.

Given how I have fully comprehensively insured my DSLR and 8 nice and shiny lenses against not only theft, but fire, flood, and even accidental damage for the mindbogglingly expensive price of $200 per year, not only would I not bother lojacking my camera, but I wouldn't even bother trying to find who stole it.

 

[otterbox]

Mike that's an excellent idea. I haven't bothered searching to see if anything like this already exists but this sort of technology shouldn't be too expensive to produce. Especially if someone is alreayd investing thousands in gear..

 

[SNBniko]

I always thought that they should offer sort of a "lojack" system for higher end dslr's. It would be fairly cheap to have some sort of gps tracker and we definitely have the technology to do it, what with the tiny cell phones with gps capabilities. All it takes is a theoretical "call" to a given number to be activated when needed (no monthly bill) and it should be able to send back gps coordinates. If I had the abilities I would have already invented this.

Now if anyone takes this and becomes a billionaire, I at least want a 1ds mkiii for my idea

Edit: Maybe this has already been done and I am a little behind the times.

Given how I have fully comprehensively insured my DSLR and 8 nice and shiny lenses against not only theft, but fire, flood, and even accidental damage for the mindbogglingly expensive price of $200 per year, not only would I not bother lojacking my camera, but I wouldn't even bother trying to find who stole it.

And if everything gets stolen, your insurance company fights you about paying it (regardless, they will, it's what they do) and then they promptly drop you.... now what? Insure through another company? (fwiw, every electronic in my apartment is insured.)

 

[Garbz]

Funny you must have a bad insurance company.

I have had something stolen before, no problem not questions asked. Given that all insurance is through the same company, the value of the claim for my camera would be worth less than 2 years worth of insurance. Sounds like good business sense to piss off a customer who's paid more money to you than they are claiming back right? ;-)

But since we're talking about possibilities what happens if the Lojack system is somehow disabled when it's stolen? What happens if the identifying markings are removed? There's an IF with every security system.