Photoblocker Spray...Bought some off eBay, waiting for them to arrive.

[O J Simpson]

Sorry but you got screwed into buying snake oil. It does not work.

[TSi+WRX]

I'm of the opinion that, for the time being, there's no good way to defeat RLC/speed-cameras.

Yes, badmannersgod, such GPS-based devices (either a GPS-device capable of marking "points-of-interest," or specialty devices such as GPS-based, mark-location capable radar detector [i.e. Escort 9500i, etc.], or even more specialized items such as the Cheetah GPS-Mirror or the NavAlert) can serve as a *proactive* pre-location warning device and allow for corrective action and/or extra caution to be taken, but it's still not going to protect you if you do somehow run afoul of the camera's capture parameters.

Like the others here have said, depending on the particulars of the camera used - and even varying ambient conditions or road-conditions - pretty much any current "spray" product or plate "cover" device can lead to either partial protection or simply unacceptable protection. Furthermore, the latter - the covers - can even precipitate their own worries of enforcement pull-overs (and here, I'm not even giving consideration to the citation, which may or may not be issued; to me, avoiding the enforcement-stop scenario is the true "win") due to "equipment violation" or plate-visbility laws.

As such, IMveryHO, no-one can truly make a recommendation for any of these devices.

In so far as active, driver-triggered "plate flippers" (or other "plate-obscuring" devices) are concerned:

To-date, aside from a few one-off/"boutique" products sold by private parties, there have been, sadly, *NO* commercially-made, mass-marketed device that has been brought to-market.

Yes, I still hold-out hope for the FoxPlate, but it's now been 6+ months since it was first sighted by members of our hobby/enthusiast community, and still, I don't know of anyone who actually has the product. Even hobbyists from our community "local" to this device's maker have been unable to obtain further information. Similarly, another device which had us all drooling - the Hideaplate - using electronically polarized liquid crystals to visually obscure the plate, sadly turned out to simply have been vaproware.

Even with such systems, as some of our good brothers have pointed out above, they're still useless if the driver either forgot to engage the device (or was unfamiliar with the camera-enforced area, and did not know that a camera existed at that location), or did not have sufficient time to engage the device.

Perhaps active-protection systems such as Cheetah's ActiveStealth could be made to integrate with these RCL/speed-camera protection systems?

-----

Also, undoubtedly, as you're looking more and more into this, you'll find some photoflash-based systems such as "VF-PhotoJammer" or "Gat-so-Gone."
While these items, which utilized a precision-timed photoflash over the vehicle's license plate(s) to overexpose said area (upon sensing the flash from the camera) worked against the first-generation of the RCLs/speed-cameras, they were also eventually defeated by the evolving camera technology (i.e. Redflex).

Currently, these "photoflash" based countermeasures are what I would consider to be "incomplete" protection, at-best.

As with the sprays and covers, if your local/most-traversed area's cameras are amenable to being defeated with these items, then yes, I'd say to give them a shot - but honestly, given the variables involved, along with the likelihood that you'd eventually trespass upon a camera which did NOT respond to your countermeasures, I do not personally consider such an "investment" a worthy one.

--

With that said, what's to do?

I'd go with the database-linked systems, such as the NavAlert or Cheetah GPS-Mirror (which itself will also open you up to further detector/jammer integration possibilities) - and just be more careful when entering such a location.

And if, for some reason, you just *had* to run the light (and believe me, I've had, in just my short time on this planet, two instances of 18-wheelers in complete lock-up behind me, at traffic-lights; so you see why I *hate* these RCLs/speed-cameras, where I, as a law-abiding citizen, would need to justify my actions), then suffer through the hassle of going to court to contest it.

[badmannersgod]

Originally Posted by TSi+WRX

I'm of the opinion that, for the time being, there's no good way to defeat RLC/speed-cameras.

Yes, badmannersgod, such GPS-based devices (either a GPS-device capable of marking "points-of-interest," or specialty devices such as GPS-based, mark-location capable radar detector [i.e. Escort 9500i, etc.], or even more specialized items such as the Cheetah GPS-Mirror or the NavAlert) can serve as a *proactive* pre-location warning device and allow for corrective action and/or extra caution to be taken, but it's still not going to protect you if you do somehow run afoul of the camera's capture parameters.

Like the others here have said, depending on the particulars of the camera used - and even varying ambient conditions or road-conditions - pretty much any current "spray" product or plate "cover" device can lead to either partial protection or simply unacceptable protection. Furthermore, the latter - the covers - can even precipitate their own worries of enforcement pull-overs (and here, I'm not even giving consideration to the citation, which may or may not be issued; to me, avoiding the enforcement-stop scenario is the true "win") due to "equipment violation" or plate-visbility laws.

As such, IMveryHO, no-one can truly make a recommendation for any of these devices.

In so far as active, driver-triggered "plate flippers" (or other "plate-obscuring" devices) are concerned:

To-date, aside from a few one-off/"boutique" products sold by private parties, there have been, sadly, *NO* commercially-made, mass-marketed device that has been brought to-market.

Yes, I still hold-out hope for the FoxPlate, but it's now been 6+ months since it was first sighted by members of our hobby/enthusiast community, and still, I don't know of anyone who actually has the product. Even hobbyists from our community "local" to this device's maker have been unable to obtain further information. Similarly, another device which had us all drooling - the Hideaplate - using electronically polarized liquid crystals to visually obscure the plate, sadly turned out to simply have been vaproware.

Even with such systems, as some of our good brothers have pointed out above, they're still useless if the driver either forgot to engage the device (or was unfamiliar with the camera-enforced area, and did not know that a camera existed at that location), or did not have sufficient time to engage the device.

Perhaps active-protection systems such as Cheetah's ActiveStealth could be made to integrate with these RCL/speed-camera protection systems?

-----

Also, undoubtedly, as you're looking more and more into this, you'll find some photoflash-based systems such as "VF-PhotoJammer" or "Gat-so-Gone."
While these items, which utilized a precision-timed photoflash over the vehicle's license plate(s) to overexpose said area (upon sensing the flash from the camera) worked against the first-generation of the RCLs/speed-cameras, they were also eventually defeated by the evolving camera technology (i.e. Redflex).

Currently, these "photoflash" based countermeasures are what I would consider to be "incomplete" protection, at-best.

As with the sprays and covers, if your local/most-traversed area's cameras are amenable to being defeated with these items, then yes, I'd say to give them a shot - but honestly, given the variables involved, along with the likelihood that you'd eventually trespass upon a camera which did NOT respond to your countermeasures, I do not personally consider such an "investment" a worthy one.

--

With that said, what's to do?

I'd go with the database-linked systems, such as the NavAlert or Cheetah GPS-Mirror (which itself will also open you up to further detector/jammer integration possibilities) - and just be more careful when entering such a location.

And if, for some reason, you just *had* to run the light (and believe me, I've had, in just my short time on this planet, two instances of 18-wheelers in complete lock-up behind me, at traffic-lights; so you see why I *hate* these RCLs/speed-cameras, where I, as a law-abiding citizen, would need to justify my actions), then suffer through the hassle of going to court to contest it.

So there is really nothing at the moment than can reduce the visibilty of the RLC/Speed Camera's?

Also, they Speed Camera's much use some sort of Radar which means it can be picked up from a Radar Detector, right?

[The STIG]

There are some in Europe like in the UK that can be picked up by a detector.

[TSi+WRX]

Originally Posted by badmannersgod

So there is really nothing at the moment than can reduce the visibilty of the RLC/Speed Camera's?

Well.....

Like I said, no, there's no really good solutions - yes, various plate-covers (physical covers) can work, but you have to keep in-mind that some will only work under certain conditions (i.e. the "distortion lens" pieces may work against a particular camera angle, but if the camera is a motion-capture item which either takes repeated pictures as your vehicle traverses the enforcement zone or is a video-camera, than no, you may not have complete protection as the plate's "angle-to-camera" will change as you pass through the intersection) or, alternatively, can incite enforcement action from, say, a following (or "bystander") enforcer.

Also, they Speed Camera's much use some sort of Radar which means it can be picked up from a Radar Detector, right?

To a degree, yes.

But again, this would be "circumstantial" protection.

Certainly, if you're following a train of traffic that's preceeding you, you should be able to pick up the radar output, but if you're the only vehicle in the area, I honestly don't know whether if you may or may not be able to pick up the detection output before it's too late.

If you routinely travel an area with such enforcement, I'd say that you should memorize those critical areas.

If you have a couple of areas you travel where you know such cameras are used, you'd be well-served, I think, to "mark" such intersections using, say, a GPS-based device.

If you routinely road-trip, I would then recommend a database enabled, GPS-based system, such as NavAlert - so that you may be alerted to such critical junctions without the need for you to actively input such points-of-interest, as you might not be able to do so frequently/diligently ( hey, after all, we're all only human, right? ) enough, particularly if you're a frequent road-warrior or are otherwise always on-the-go.

[badmannersgod]

Originally Posted by TSi+WRX

Well.....

Like I said, no, there's no really good solutions - yes, various plate-covers (physical covers) can work, but you have to keep in-mind that some will only work under certain conditions (i.e. the "distortion lens" pieces may work against a particular camera angle, but if the camera is a motion-capture item which either takes repeated pictures as your vehicle traverses the enforcement zone or is a video-camera, than no, you may not have complete protection as the plate's "angle-to-camera" will change as you pass through the intersection) or, alternatively, can incite enforcement action from, say, a following (or "bystander") enforcer.



To a degree, yes.

But again, this would be "circumstantial" protection.

Certainly, if you're following a train of traffic that's preceeding you, you should be able to pick up the radar output, but if you're the only vehicle in the area, I honestly don't know whether if you may or may not be able to pick up the detection output before it's too late.

If you routinely travel an area with such enforcement, I'd say that you should memorize those critical areas.

If you have a couple of areas you travel where you know such cameras are used, you'd be well-served, I think, to "mark" such intersections using, say, a GPS-based device.

If you routinely road-trip, I would then recommend a database enabled, GPS-based system, such as NavAlert - so that you may be alerted to such critical junctions without the need for you to actively input such points-of-interest, as you might not be able to do so frequently/diligently ( hey, after all, we're all only human, right? ) enough, particularly if you're a frequent road-warrior or are otherwise always on-the-go.

Yea, I like to road-trip occasionally, and I'm not driving at no 110km/h so I need all the protection I can get.

One time, I was driving down to Washington with some friends and I was doing about 190-200km/h and I had a Cobra XRS-9775 with me mounted on my dash, not my windshield. It was about 11pm and suddenly it went off to KA Level 4, so I jammed both feet onto my brakes instatenously but it was too late. The cop was following me with no lights on and turned on his radar for a speed confirmation.

I got nailed with a $540 Ticket.

[TSi+WRX]

^ Yep....

Unfortunately, the old but still deadly art of pacing is one which no detector can help avoid.

[badmannersgod]

Originally Posted by TSi+WRX

^ Yep....

Unfortunately, the old but still deadly art of pacing is one which no detector can help avoid.

What about Night Vision, would that work?

[TSi+WRX]

Unknown - I've never driven with NV gear, and unfortunately also have had no experience with anything better than commercial third-generation gear.

While I can walk around in the woods just fine, and even am an OK shot with one, I honestly don't know what driving with it would be like.....

And as I've said in another thread, I've also always wondered about what the previous-generation Caddy/GM IR-forward-assist would show when there's say, a cruiser, with its engine running but lights off, on the shoulder.

[crazyVOLVOrob]

The GPS camera detectors work pretty well especially if you keep the data base updated.

Look at the speed cheetah mirror which can interface with many jammers and detectors or the NavAlert which is a basic GPS camera detector