Getaway special for 9-11 conspiracy theorists

[grmcdorman]

Yeah, I overlooked that. Spectography only works on actual materials; a reproduction of an image is necessarily altered (it only produces an approximation of what the human eye would see, and even then there's the issue I mentioned above of colour fidelity in the entire capture, processing, and reproduction chain). It also may use non-visible light, such as infrared. Pointing it at a screen or other reproduction is basically a non-starter.

[bknight]

Actually I was referring to videos, not film.  It seemed likely that the color signature would be recorded and then be able to analyze the spectrum.  But if you guys don't think it would work, ok by me.

[Abaddon]

Actually I was referring to videos, not film.  It seemed likely that the color signature would be recorded and then be able to analyze the spectrum.  But if you guys don't think it would work, ok by me.

Same argument applies. The video recording device, codecs applied and screen reproducing the video will not accurately reproduce anything spectrographic.

[ka9q]

Actually I was referring to videos, not film.  It seemed likely that the color signature would be recorded and then be able to analyze the spectrum.  But if you guys don't think it would work, ok by me.

A spectrometer looks for lots of discrete wavelengths characteristic of specific materials. Film or a color TV camera can be thought of as a spectrometer, but one that (like the eye) looks only at three very broad spectral ranges (red, green, blue). In some cases this might be enough to identify a material, but certainly not in general. Consider how hard it can often be to distinguish brass from bronze from gold just by eye.