Worst Hoax In Modern Day Photography?

About 10 days ago I received an email asking me to check out a video showcasing a new invisible camera. Initially I thought it was probably some crazy technical exercise but about half way through it became blatantly obvious that the whole video was a complete joke. Instead of reaching for my Haterade, I decided to have some fun with it and share Chris Marquardt’s story with you.

Was Fstoppers really getting a demo model of the camera? No! Was it going to be on sale “a week from this Friday”? Not quite. However we were right that you would probably be hearing some news about the camera in the beginning of April. Why did Chris create this hoax? According to this release, “We did not do this to mock you. The Invisible Camera is our humble attempt to bring back wonder and amazement.” How do you feel about The Invisible Camera? Hoax gone wrong or a fun journey back to your childhood filled with wonder and amazement?

April 1, 2011

Patrick Hall

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http://www.danzaland.com Chris
I was taken in too… But I do like the comment about appreciating those that do let themselves go for the wonder and amazement. No harm no foul. Maybe this will spur somebody to actually do it!
Anthony
I am really disappointed in Chris for doing this elaborate hoax. i had followed him and his podcasts for a while with interest, but since I read this today, I have since unsubscribed to his podcast and deleted the bookmark to his blog. I feel that I can no longer trust the information he posts and communicates. I am sure there are many others that will feel this way and others that will say it was only in the fun of April Fools. Let Chris prank on, but this will cost him in his credibility.
http://www.rlmorrisweddings.com Lee
Cost him his credibility? Come’on… this was the most harmless video ever.
If they had made a little bit less “out there” I would have believed it too.
http://www.markdunlapphoto.com Mark Dunlap
I have to admit, I was completely taken in by it, but it’s not a disaster for me. The behind the scenes video is great. The whole thing was very creative.
Eric
I think it’s a great video. Emphasizes the point that just because it looks good doesn’t make it true.
http://www.imagineur.net Felix
Wow. Sorry to say – but f*** them! I wanted to participate and HELP people to achieve something great! This is how trust and helpfulness is treated today. Not a bit funny. I am so angry right now! Who gives me back my 15 minutes of life i wasted on this dumb joke? Nice going…
Daniil
This has made my day! Too funny :)
Guillermo Molina
MOTHAF!@#$ jajajaj I fell like a little baby XP … unbelievable … BTW keep on with the good work I really like the blog
Nick
@Felix, You were juste gaven your 15 mins of life back but you wasted it writing this comment. Love this prank… and no it doesn’t alter it’s credibility, haven’t you ever watched the news guy embark in a prank just for the fun of it! this is just that! if you think this person lost credibility to the point of ignoring him, sorry, but it’s you that loses here!
Peter
Great fun, and clearly a joke from the start. @Felix, wow. Hopefully your reply is an April Fool’s joke as well ;). I’m with @Lee, this was harmless and just fun to watch. Good on Chris and Allan for producing it so well.
Scott
f’n hilarious!
http://anthonykurtz.com Anthony Kurtz
Hahaha come on people. Why is everybody so butt-hurt. It seems that the people who are upset about this are the same ones who are waiting for the next piece of technology that will supposedly make their photos better, instead of working on their own skills…
This is funny…because most of us fell for it…like today when my friend made me believe his girlfriend was pregnant. hahaha
Rich Maher
Good joke, should have saved it for today, April Fools Day. How did they keep a straight face?
DJ
By NOT watching every single video that appears on this site the minute it’s uploaded, I saved 15 min. of my life for more productive money making avenues. Question everything.
http://www.facebook.com/skalskiphotos Matt Skalski
I was naturally a little upset at first, but then I realized how stupid I was for buying into it. Looking back it’s clearly a joke, and touché to them for getting me good. Now I have to bear the embarrassment of letting everyone I told about the camera know that I was owned by the best April fools joke i’ve been a part of. It’s hard to get me this good, and they did it. I give them props and am now having a laugh at my own (and probably your) expense.
Tristan Boyer
what da F***! I followed your blog as a fun an educative resource and you BS with your audience?
I think this is a terrible sign of TOO MUCH FAME IN too little time for you guys.
Very disappointed!
I was fool enough to bite that accent, dramatization. Fuck me, I took your blog serious!
Bye bye!!!
http://shaneparkerphoto.com Shane Parker
LOL, I can’t believe people are getting bent out of shape about this. It’s a very_obvious prank the second you watch the video. You guys truly believed it was a camera made of clear plastic with a pin-hole lens that does the things he claimed it could do? Yikes. I feel sorry for you when you receive your first email from Nigeria requesting money. (*hint* that’s a scam too). Even if you did fall for it, why the heck get so bent out of shape about it??
@Lee – Of all other blogs, I’ve noticed you guys have the, erm, weirdest audience :)
http://www.patrickhallweddings.com Patrick Hall Admin
@Tristan Boyer, is this post an April Fools joke too? I thought my write up for the initial post was pretty sarcastic, and I even said it looked like an April fools joke to begin with. Lots of people found it “fun” and even if you didn’t like this one viral video going around, that doesn’t make all the other content on here not “serious”.
keri ivy
Dammit. Good one, you got me. How cool would that have been…..
http://www.AdamPendleton.com Adam Pendleton
Love it! I was taken also. No harm done, I should have been out shooting instead of watching endless videos anyway!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/christopherbelcher/ Chris
I saw it, watched the video, googled it and for about 10 minutes I was interested. Until I saw this article I had totally forgotten about it. It will be out of my mind by the time I lay my head down tonight.
Kyle
Just an observation, anytime you engineer something twice as good as what is on the market, that is absurdly amazing. The D3 made just such a splash when it came out for such noise improvements. When an unknown company / group / individual comes out with something that claims “football fields” of resolution, it’s vapor-ware.
As far as credibility goes, it’s a cultural difference in humor and delivery – they can be a bit more dead-pan on the other side of the pond. It’s the difference between hyperbole and simile.
http://www.morningroad.nl joop
Come on, anyone gullible enough to fall for this obvious prank deserved it!
Lighten up people :-)
mark
This isn’t a real camera!? damn it! I already sent my money to an african prince that said he could get me 50!
Spencer
This would have been better if Chris and his accomplice had not wrote what they did on their website for this invisible camera. I do admit I fell for it a little bit. The talk about shutter speeds and super low ISO’s were confusing because I did not know exactly how they would achieve such things with that analog camera. But to come out and admit it was a hoax THEN play it off with a story about how this is a chance for people to be “part of something”. Come on, that’s ridiculous. The only thing we were “part of” was a dumb joke between some people with too much time on their hands
Plus, it was not a good “April Fools” to begin with.
Chris: “We’ve got a new type of camera with innovative advancements. Would you like to try it for us?”
Us: “Yeah sure, that sounds interesting, I don’t know how you did it but I’ll try it out.”
Chris: “Pfffft Haha psych, there’s no camera!”
Us: “….okay? That was a waste of time.”
Chris: “But..uhm..You were just part of something that will be talked about in the future. It’ll be one of those ‘remember-that-time-when..’ stories!”
Us: “No, it won’t.”
Spencer
Chris: “We’ve got a new camera with innovative advancements never been seen before! Would you like to sign up to be a field tester!?”
Us: “Uhm, yeah sure. How do you get fast shutter speeds and low ISO’s with….you know what, nevermind. Sure we’ll try out your camera.”
Chris: “Pffft, psych! There’s no camera! Ha ha ha”
Us: “….okay. That was a waste of time.”
Chris: “But.. Uh.. But wait, you were just a part of something big that people will be talking about in the future as one of those “remember-the-time-when” stories.”
Us: “….No, they wont.”
Spencer
*it posted twice* Sorry!
scroll_lock
I think the people here live in the land of the gigapixels.
Juan Carlos
Ok, so given the lengthy list of comments, I’d say this was a very, very successful April Fools joke. Google, move aside, this one takes the biscuit. I was taken in for the first few minutes and moderately disappointed it wasn’t true, however in the end, a great piece of comedy all-around. Nice job.
John
You people who are actually mad about this are seriously more ridiculous than any prank or joke. Do you refrain from using Google because every year they have an April Fool’s joke? I doubt it.
Get a life.
Claudius
we all are nostalgic about film and medium format camera but just some of us have so deep sense of humor
Claudius
is ok to spend time and resources but try to find something coherent
Bill
It was funny. Lost credibility?…….c’mon man, lighten up a bit. Can I send you a box of tissue?
http://chipsprague.com Chip Sprague
UPTIGHT MUCH, INTERNET?!
http://www.JettFoto.com Corey Melton
I don’t think anyone believed this did they? It’s blatantly fake
mark
First of all, no matter how stupid this concept sounded, I was taken in!
Bravo to them for sucking allot for people in and creating an interesting video.
To all you uptight people…. it’s ‘JUST’ photography, Laugh a little!!
http://www.bigredbutton.com.sg Wally Tham
You know, Peter Jackson did this to a whole country with his mockumentary ‘Forgotten Silver’, before he made Lord of the Rings.
He conned an entire nation into believing that they had a man who could have invented colour photography decades before the rest of the world.
We all know where this got him, angry people everywhere refusing to watch his films.
: )
http://markforephotography.com Mark Fore
I fell for it, and I applied to get one the day that they were taking applications DOH!
http://www.lol.com lol
This comment box has been most entertaining. It reflects on the mental state of a lot of uptight photographers. Please, cry some more, we’re only laughing at you for every nonexistent emotional tear you shed.
wolf
It’s funny but normally an April’s fool joke doesn’t start 2 weeks early in the middle of March. Releasing the initial video on April 1 would have been the old-school way of doing things. I agree no harm was done but maybe the “Marquardt International Pinhole” at http://www.internationalpinhole.com/ is just a joke too? Who knows? Are you sure it will work?
Carlos
Wow! I can’t believe people are this upset at this joke. Falling for it is one thing, but getting your panties in a wad about it is pretty ridiculous. I mean, many had already mentioned that this was likely an April Fools joke, but some of you chose to ignore that? Haha…
http://profiles.google.com/mscsphoto Mike MSCS
OK Ill confess I wanted to participate in this too. But I found this the first time I was ever on the site… so after viewing a few very cool vids this was very cool to find. Interesting it me. Because I was talking to my 8 year old about building a pin hole camera for us to play with earlier that day.
OK so big deal … its not real
so Its a prank… I have done some killer April fools jokes
well done ….
http://profiles.google.com/hamtons junyang chen
I thought it might be true.. but how does 1/500 ISO take photos at incredibly high shutter speed is beyond me.. and gigapixels in analogue…?? good thing it’s revealed as a hoax
Anonymous
I was willing to believe it was real but always skeptical.
http://profiles.google.com/nmjessica Jessica A
Well I for one am both sad and mad. Sure I’m probably just a huge idiot right? Yes, my head did fill with wonder, and I did tell others about it, so I’m embarassed. But, this is exactly why I hate April Cruel’s Day … what’s wrong with a little wonder — am I now going to find out every TED video I’ve watched is about something that isn’t real?! Maybe everyone here at FStoppers was ‘smart enough’ to figure it out, but this ‘dumb girl’ isn’t impressed.
http://profiles.google.com/cttrc.com Jeff P
Great video, you kinda had me going a bit with the sense of wonder and awe. The film you could hold in the light was a bit of a red flag and the terapixel comment kinda blew it too since film has only been limited by scanner technology so pixels are irrelevant. It was hilarious and good to know someone can still pull off a good joke. And the people that can’t take a joke need to cancel their internet and TV since the news media lies to us everyday and we accept that, but can’t take a gag?

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