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Ghost Hunting Equipment AMA

P

Pro Ghost Hunterr

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
Joined
Sep 30, 2015
Messages
7
Hey Guys! I wanted to create a seperate thread from the other ghost hunting thread to talk about equipment. If anyone needs any advice when deciding what kind of equipment they need, feel free to ask me
 
Do you think using equipment is actually any good? has any evidence that will stand up to scrutiny been captured by equipment? i say that even though i troop about in the dark with my camera, digital thermometer and voice recorder....:oops:
 
@Pro Ghost Hunterr , may I ask you which (if any specific) item in your stock seems to be the most-popular seller?

And what type of transducer does it have? (eg microphone, thermocouple, photocell etc)
 
Hey guys,

I should have clarified. We don't sell any of our own equipment. What we do is review the best ghost hunting equipment on Amazon. You can check out our reviews to see our thoughts.

I believe that some of the equipment out there is rubbish, so we point people to the equipment that we know works. If you guys have the budget, I would totally recommend this FLIR thermal imaging camera. Its expensive, yes, but we have observed best results with a high quality thermal carmera like the FLIR. We also reviewed the one that we think was the best value (read: not the most expensive) for our unique needs.

@Ermintrude Like I said, we don't really sell our own stuff, but our readers prefer to buy EVP recorders the most. I think its because its not prohibitively expensive and you can use a high quality audio recorder for many other real world puposes. Obviously, the transducer is a mic. After that, we find EMF detectors to be the most popular. I believe it gives hobbyists the closest thing to the 'Ghost Busting" experience. They don't have the patience to set up an FLIR camera overnight and wait patiently. But EMF detectors are of course, really cool.
 
I wish people wouldn't called "EMF" meters that, when all they do is measure magnetic fields. Knock off the "E". Most people don't know how to interpret the results or even to handle the devices correctly.
 
DrPaulLee said:
I wish people wouldn't called "EMF" meters that, when all they do is measure magnetic fields. Knock off the "E". Most people don't know how to interpret the results or even to handle the devices correctly.
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I've got to disagree with that! It was Faraday who first showed that electricity and magnetism are just different aspects of the same force.

Faraday was an excellent experimentalist who conveyed his ideas in clear and simple language; his mathematical abilities, however, did not extend as far as trigonometry or any but the simplest algebra. James Clerk Maxwell took the work of Faraday and others, and summarized it in a set of equations that is accepted as the basis of all modern theories of electromagnetic phenomena. On Faraday's uses of the lines of force, Maxwell wrote that they show Faraday "to have been in reality a mathematician of a very high order – one from whom the mathematicians of the future may derive valuable and fertile methods."[3] The SI unit of capacitance is named in his honour: the farad.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Faraday

So there may be ghosthunters who don't undertand EMF, but don't knock Faraday and Maxwell!

Even a magnetic compass, which some might think reacts only to the direction of a magnetic field, can be deflected by a nearby DC electrical current. (That used to be taught in schools when I was a teacher - I sincerely hope it still is, as it derives from Faraday's original experiments!)

Electicity and magnetism are the warp and woof of electromagnetism!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warp_and_woof
 
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If thats so, why are all "EMF" meters labelled in "Tesla" or "Gauss" - the units of magnetic field strength? Its very rare to find a member that measures volts/metre or newtons/coulomb - these are the units of ELECTRIC field strength. What people are measure is the magnetic field not the electrical field.

A moving electrical charge causes a magnetic field; likewise, a magnetic field will cause a moving charge to experience a force (With caveats.).

I should also mention that I have a PhD in physics :)
 
DrPaulLee said:
If thats so, why are all "EMF" meters labelled in "Tesla" or "Gauss" - the units of magnetic field strength? Its very rare to find a member that measures volts/metre or newtons/coulomb - these are the units of ELECTRIC field strength. What people are measure is the magnetic field not the electrical field.

A moving electrical charge causes a magnetic field; likewise, a magnetic field will cause a moving charge to experience a force (With caveats.).

I should also mention that I have a PhD in physics :)
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I guess it's a bit like the blind wise men trying to describe an elephant by touch!
Here electromagnetism is the elephant, and how you describe it depends which end you approach! :D
(With caveats.)

(When I studied A-level physics my year was the first to be taught in SI (aka MKS) units, as opposed to cgs units. I felt sorry for the teacher - after decades of teaching the old system, he had to wrap his head around all this new-fangled stuff. o_O)
 
Fair enough!
If it was electromagnetic fields that are being described, we should ask what units they are being measured in? And what is being measured? Electromagnetic radiation? As I said, the meters measure magnetic fields, not electric fields and certainly not electromagnetic fields.

And in physics, EMF = electromotive force!
 
DrPaulLee said:
Its very rare to find a (meter) that measures volts/metre or newtons/coulomb
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Yes and no (I mean the rarity aspect). Field Strength Meters are fairly common in telecommunications and broadcast engineering, less so within the QA/test arena for EMC checks (eg automative/aeronautical testing). Apologies, you'll know this aleady, I don't mean to be in any way disrespectful.

Here's a puzzle for you Dr Paul Lee (this does, I suppose, relate to the thread topic). I've often wondered why a field strength meter is calibrated in, say, millivolts per meter (mV/m).....why is it per-unit-of-linear-distance, which seems counter-intuitive? Why not, say, microvolts per square meter? Or even microvolts per cubic meter, both of which feel as if they would represent voltage within an area (or volume of space)....almost analogous to density in terms of mass-per-unit-volume, but with volts substituted for grams.

Hopefully I'm making myself clear (mV/m sounds like the variation in strength levels as a function of the distance from a source, I get that, inverse square and suchlike....but it doesn't feel like the intrinsic spot-value 'strength')

I should also mention that I have a PhD in physics :)
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Excellent, we have a doctor in the house!! Please do have a look at my very-shaky theory as to the possible reasons behind an apparently-photographed human halo anomaly....a rare visual capture of accoustic waves, supernatural fields or digital camera artifact?
http://forum.forteantimes.com/index.php?threads/halo-folks.60267/page-2#post-1536904
 
I actually have a Zoom H1 digital recorder which would probably serve for ghosthunting as well as the more expensive H4N recommended on the site (I doubt you'd need the multitrack mixer or the other bells and whistles for that.) It's really simple to use and gives a lovely clear sound. It also has a line in socket and adjustable record level rather than just the auto record level you get on really cheap digital recorders, so it's good for digitising your vinyl or cassettes. Transferring the MP3/WAV files to your PC is a simple matter of drag and drop. It's not rubberised though, so probably not a good idea to drop it.

You can pick one up for £100 in Maplin - the H4N is about £170 or so.

I should also mention that I have an 'O' level in Physics. I've forgotten it all, though, and I have no idea what the rest of you are talking about. :)
 
Its all greek to me....so i shouldn't bother buying an emf meter? they seem a bit dubious when i have seen them being used in ghost hunts.
 
I manufacture kit that accurately tells you if there's a monster under your bed. While it may LOOK like a Swan Vestas matchbox with a felt tip display saying 'No', I cannot stress how much of a bargain my asking price of fifty quid is for peace of mind at night.
 
jimv1 said:
I manufacture kit that accurately tells you if there's a monster under your bed. While it may LOOK like a Swan Vestas matchbox with a felt tip display saying 'No', I cannot stress how much of a bargain my asking price of fifty quid is for peace of mind at night.
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Put me down for 2 please jimv1.
 
titchagain said:
I have found the next piece of ghost hunting gear i want, if you all chip in i should have it in no time, thanking you in advance.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FLIR-T600-Thermal-Imaging-Camera-with-25-Degree-Lens-NEW-55903-1022/141529451716?_trksid=p2047675.c100009.m1982&_trkparms=aid=222007&algo=SIC.MBE&ao=1&asc=20140328180637&meid=5a54424fbb3a48a999db015f14c91e84&pid=100009&rk=6&rkt=10&sd=141763350285
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I've seen one of these things (not the exact same model) in the flesh. Three RAF radar technicians used to stay at the hotel I worked at and we went ghost busting with it one night but didn't capture anything. It was part of their job equipment.

They told me about a more pervy use for it though ... they'd sneak it into a nightclub and one of the blokes would start chatting up different girls ... they told me that when one of the girls fancied the bloke, the machine was so sensitive it would show her thighs glowing on screen. The machine also had a laser pointer on it so his mates would press the button so the stalker could see the green dot on her tummy and work out which one's fancied him. Seeing it work for myself in the hotel, I think they were probably telling the truth ..
 
titchagain said:
I have found the next piece of ghost hunting gear i want, if you all chip in i should have it in no time, thanking you in advance.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FLIR-T600-Thermal-Imaging-Camera-with-25-Degree-Lens-NEW-55903-1022/141529451716?_trksid=p2047675.c100009.m1982&_trkparms=aid=222007&algo=SIC.MBE&ao=1&asc=20140328180637&meid=5a54424fbb3a48a999db015f14c91e84&pid=100009&rk=6&rkt=10&sd=141763350285
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We use a FLIR camera. We managed to buy an ex-demonstration model which still cost and arm and a leg but we had been saving up for it.
 
Ringo said:
We use a FLIR camera. We managed to buy an ex-demonstration model which still cost and arm and a leg but we had been saving up for it.
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have you had any luck with it? i bought myself a sony nightshot camcorder, £145 second hand a few weeks ago, my best friend got the exact same (but with a memory card as well) for £75 on cyber monday. :mad:
 
titchagain said:
have you had any luck with it? i bought myself a sony nightshot camcorder, £145 second hand a few weeks ago, my best friend got the exact same (but with a memory card as well) for £75 on cyber monday. :mad:
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Not yet but it's fun to play with.

I also use a Sony cam with Nightshot but unfortunately it's really old now. It's a DV camera and i can't transfer the film over to my Mac. I bought an external IR illuminator from Sony too. It cost a packet but it was so worth it.
 
Our fire marshals at work are using these funky little devices which are available for most smart phones, to scan work areas after hot works, such as welding and cutting. They will identify hot-spots and give some idea if smouldering etc is present.

For those on the FTMB who are familiar with ghost hunting and the equipment employed I was wondering if you’ve seen this type of product before and whether it would prove a suitable replacement for other, more expensive, thermal cameras?

The FLIR products in this older thread no longer seem available.

https://www.flir.co.uk/products/flir-one-pro/
 
Tempest63 said:
Our fire marshals at work are using these funky little devices which are available for most smart phones, to scan work areas after hot works, such as welding and cutting. They will identify hot-spots and give some idea if smouldering etc is present.

For those on the FTMB who are familiar with ghost hunting and the equipment employed I was wondering if you’ve seen this type of product before and whether it would prove a suitable replacement for other, more expensive, thermal cameras?

The FLIR products in this older thread no longer seem available.

https://www.flir.co.uk/products/flir-one-pro/
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l own a stand-alone thermal monocular which l use in deer stalking and carcase recovery. lt cost less than that device, and l’d be prepared to bet that it’s more sensitive.

maximus otter
 
maximus otter said:
Very much so. Mine is the cheapest one in the Hikmicro range, but - under ideal conditions - it’s picked up a roe deer at 300 yards.

maximus otter
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Could you post or PM the model number. Bit late for this season but I could look at getting one for next…if it happens.
 
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