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PIN protected camera

Disable camera when traveling
  (+19)(+19)
(+19)
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against]

My Canon 5D cost a good chunk of cash. I wish there was a lock feature that could be activated to render the camera useless until a PIN was entered. It wouldn’t necessarily prevent theft, but if adopted industry wide would make a thief think twice. Come to think of it, it would be nice to be able to store the owner information internally. If it was “lost” it could be traced.
grieger, Jan 22 2006

[link]






       Just threaten to smash your camera up with a hammer should any muggers attempt to wrestle it from you. That'll learn 'em.
zen_tom, Jan 22 2006
  

       "If I had a hammer", better to use it on the mugger..
grieger, Jan 22 2006
  

       thought it might be a suit of sharp pins that converted the camera into a hedgehog like ball when activated - but it's a good idea +
xenzag, Jan 22 2006
  

       panic pin for cameras.
po, Jan 22 2006
  

       Cameras that get sad when stolen?
AbsintheWithoutLeave, Jan 22 2006
  

       [Absinthe]Bugger sad. Get Even!   

       Cameras that put rude messages on the pictures when they're stolen... If you haven't validated its PIN number for a while the messages get bigger and more fruity
Dub, Jan 22 2006
  

       I was doing my best to review this idea as is.   

       <pedant alert>It's not a PIN Number! PIN I'll accept, even at a push PI Number, but never PIN number.   

       Ooo, and [Dub]? The plural of camera is cameras, not camera's.</pedant alert>   

       + though [grieger]. As an owner of a 350D, I'm jealous of your 5D, but I'd still welcome some way of protecting my investment. Possibly biometric technology is the way forward as found on iPaqs.
jonthegeologist, Jan 22 2006
  

       [jontg]ta, mate. It was early in the PM for me... and my apostrophe finger's a bit keen. I usually like to think of (potential) improvements / alternatives whenever I read any post... Is that a bad thing? It's nice when there's a fully formed idea, but it's very rare. I find it nice to discuss some further elegance or twist.
Dub, Jan 22 2006
  

       "Oh my God! It's Elvis! And Lord Lucan! And Shergar! All coming out of an alien spaceship!!! - ...bugger, I can't remember the PIN!"
hippo, Jan 22 2006
  

       I think everyone knows that digital cameras wouldn't work if spaceships were around anyway. Probably best to carry an old film one around with you - just incase.
fridge duck, Jan 22 2006
  

       An all mechanical one at that. Getting hard to find but Nikon still builds one in the FM2 (or have they stopped building that, too? Maybe all that's left is the impossible-to-get FM3A)   

       (Of course there are the Contax S2, Leica R6 and some expensive Olympus mechanicals floating around).
bristolz, Jan 22 2006
  

       //<pedant alert>It's not a PIN Number! PIN I'll accept, even at a push PI Number, but never PIN number.</pedant alert>// Unfortunately "PIN number", "ATM machine" and other acronym abominations are in common use in (spoken) English.
drefty, Jan 22 2006
  

       Shove a good chunk of face-recognition software into it, and have it replace every person's head with that of Bill or Hillary Clinton. Unless they put in the PIN.
DesertFox, Jan 23 2006
  

       Finger print detector on the shutter release button?
Ling, Jan 23 2006
  

       [+] .. the password would probably have to be hardcoded in a hardware chip. Software/firmware solutions are too simple to hack
ixnaum, Jan 23 2006
  

       // Unfortunately "PIN number", "ATM machine" and other acronym abominations are in common use in (spoken) English. //   

       True of course, but like stray apostrophes, their common usage doesn't make it right. They should be eliminated whereever possible [Drefty], we mustn't be complacent ...   

       [grieger] has edited his posting now. Splendid news.
jonthegeologist, Jan 23 2006
  

       //whereever [sic] possible [Drefty], we mustn't be complacent // No, we musn't.
coprocephalous, Jan 23 2006
  

       oh, tosh!   

       <aside> can I say tosh to a moderator?   

       language is an ever evolving, er um, thingy.   

       why have you no spaces in between jon the geologist?
po, Jan 23 2006
  

       //No, we musn't.// Indeed.
Ling, Jan 23 2006
  

       Hah! I shall now have to resign from Pedants Anonymous.
coprocephalous, Jan 23 2006
  

       [po] should I be hypenated? I dunno.
jonthegeologist, Jan 23 2006
  

       Possibly [jon], but then, so should "ever-evolving". Hyphenated, that is.
coprocephalous, Jan 23 2006
  

       but I'm NOT a pendant.
po, Jan 23 2006
  

       ooo... you got me.
jonthegeologist, Jan 23 2006
  

       then when Bigfoot shambles across the road in front of you, you will be typing in your PIN.
bungston, Jan 23 2006
  

       The PIN is only required when you activate the lock. Bigfoot captured on CF.
grieger, Jan 24 2006
  

       Under what circumstances do you imagine yourself locking it?   

       It seems to me that the times I'm most likely to lose the camera correspond closely with the times I'm most likely to use the camera.
half, Jan 24 2006
  

       This gets my vote, however, I am sure that someone somewhere could find a way to hack the pin or just reset the camera to the default settings.
Jscotty, Jan 24 2006
  

       I met a person recently that, when he finds an unattended camera, photographs his ass. Now that I've been made aware of such a person, I believe this sort of thing is a necessity!
Seven, Jan 24 2006
  

       I photographed my armpit on my mates unattended phone-camera... He didn't have a clue what it was.
Dub, Jan 25 2006
  

       eewwww!
po, Jan 25 2006
  

       Funny-That's just what he said!
Dub, Jan 25 2006
  

       It would be a detterent, but dont count on it if someone ever does put this into effect. I had a PSP get stolen during my gym class (which is why I dont bring anything to gym class anymore) I had a lock code set on it, but whoever stole it must have figured out how to get around it, because I never saw it again. :(either that or he smashed it when he found out it was locked:)
Dickcheney6, Apr 14 2008
  

       maybe it could display a "Return to (insert adress) (for $$ if offered) when someone tried to turn it on after it hadn't been used for a set-by-user amount of time, or when the batteries were removed, and the camera wont work without entering the pin number. Even if someone got it before it locked itself, he/she would eventually be locked out of it when the batteries ran out. and no, they couldn't go into the menu and un-do it BEFORE it locked, cause you need the code in order to disable the timer
Dickcheney6, May 22 2008
  

       The first picture on my camera, that is never erased, is of a piece of paper with the words "The owner of this device can be contacted on..." and then my cellphone number. It's also saved as a file on all my memory sticks, etc.   

       Naive optimism, maybe, but it makes me feel slightly more secure.
egbert, May 22 2008
  
      
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