London bans DSLRs from derelict station tour, because they're too good

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

London bans DSLRs from derelict station tour, because they're too good

Here's a bit of a head-scratcher for you: the London Transport Museum, the authority that administers tours through the historic Aldwych Station, has this past week advised visitors that they can't enter the former tube stop with their digital SLR cameras. Because of their "high-quality sensor and high resolution," DSLRs are seemingly being qualified as professional equipment, which the tour's Terms and Conditions explicitly prohibit. The reason this is befuddling to us is because we've actually seen and used a Sony NEX-5N camera. And a Samsung NX200. Oh, and Panasonic's GF series isn't so bad, either.

In the presence of those quite terrific little cameras, whose sensors are either the same APS-C size as you'll find in cropped-sensor DSLRs or only a little smaller, this decision from the Transport Museum strikes us as arbitrary, or if not that, then worse, ill-informed. Hopefully someone at the Museum wises up to the fact that professional-quality photography (and video!) can be obtained from devices that don't have to have a pentaprism. Speaking of which, how would Sony's Single-Lens Translucent cameras be classified under this system?

Source: The Verge

[Vice]

Incredibly stupid. Makes me sad to be a Londonite with asinine rules like this being instated on the public.

[Japlabot]

It's not the size that counts, it's what you do with it!

[crazzy88ss]

Well that's sure dumb. It'll just be a matter of a few years before P&S and M4/3 are just as good as today's DSLRs. Then what? What happens when cell phones eventually have cameras just as nice?

*face palm*

Sometimes, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but I sometimes feel like UK is full of "officials" that sit around and come up with new laws/regulations/rules just for the sake of laws/regulations/rules.

[richardsim7]

So urr, why don't they want decent pics being taken? If people publish them for profit, do what the National Trust do and sue them. It's ridiculous they're banning "professional equipment" for personal use :s

Oh and these guys already beat them to it :p

http://www.silentuk.com/?p=3115#more-3115

[FMH]

Is Nokia's N8 allowed?

[Argote]

Is Nokia's N8 allowed?

Yeah, if Point and Shoot cameras are allowed then Cell phone cameras will be too... at least for now...

[Malisk]

So stupid, especially given the emerging mirrorless cameras which shoots higher quality stuff than DSLR's 5-10 years ago. Telling of how much these lawmakers know about photography. Heck even an iPhone 4S would take you far in that environment.

[Dick Montage]

DLSR's are not allowed in the station or THE USE OF DLSR's???

[SQ1]

Ok, i'll just record some 720p video with my mobile phone :)

[c3ntury]

Eh? That's a bit stupid surely, although I can understand why they went down this route in the first place.

[Phouchg]

Due to their combination of high-quality 3D sensors, high resolution* and high contextual memory capacity, human eyes are unfortunately not permitted inside the station.

* - I've read it to be 576 Mpix, assuming 120 degree field-of-view

[Muhammad Farrukh]

:rofl:

[Julius Caro]

Well, this isnt the first place with this policy. I think the kremlin tour does not allow cameras with lenses past a certain size either. In madrid, the main museum just banned cameras altogether. A lot of museums have these policies of not allowing people to use "professional grade" cameras or even tripods.

it sucks.

[LittleNeutrino Veteran]

Not really sure why they would not want you taking photographs unless they think that it will lead to terrorist plots.

[leesmithg]

It's a case of bare-faced b.s. and terrorism laws.

[Malisk]

I'm pretty sure a terrorist organization may have funding for a high quality compact camera.