Digital cameras CAN see buried gold

[Midas]

2) You say "In extensive field trials cameras located buried metal over two feet (610mm) deep and could discriminate between different metals. ". Were these double blind tests? Countless people have been tested who have claimed to have located metals by various means. But that is only because they already knew where the metals were to begin with. If you have evidence from true scientific studies that employ acceptable tests then please share it. If you do then I'd be happen to listen to your ideas on the subject.

I have attached the first picture that alerted me to the fact that buried metals could be seen by digital cameras. I was actually looking for a cache. I dug down and 2 feet 3 inches below the surface I struck an iron utility pipe. The pipe was supposed to be on the other side of the hedge, outside the field. It seems that 50 years ago, when the pipe was laid, the contractors took a short cut across the field, without telling anyone. It certainly wasn't on the landowner's plan. I am afraid there wasn't a bunch of scientists looking on but I think that is a pretty good double blind test. In case you are wondering why there is a distinct bright spot, instead of a line, that is a large flanged joint in the pipe, where there is more metal and it is slightly closer to the surface. When I backed-off and took pictures, you can actually see the line of the pipe as a light 'streak'. I then set out a test bed using different metals to try and understand the process. I have carried out a successful single blind test on my test bed and I am busily researching cache sites to do some more double blind tests as well as recover the caches, of course.

 

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[Midas]

Midas,

This is awesome information that I for one would like to try. Could you tell me the make and model of camera that you used, and what you used for the filter?

Don't get hung up on make and model of camera, a range of cameras have produced auras and I'm getting reports almost daily of different cameras producing good results. I wouldn't bother with a cellphone camera but if you have a reasonable digital camera, you can quite easily try it out on a buried metal sample (preferably gold or silver). You will also need an IR pass filter to fit over the lens, you can make a rough and ready filter from the black section at the end of exposed traditional colour film. Fit one sheet of film in front of the lens (approx 720nm) and take a shot of your sample at the hottest part of the day, with the Sun behind you. You will probably need to process the image with your camera's software, using enhance, fix or increasing gamma. If you get a 'false colour' infrared image, the filter isn't strong enough, so add another sheet (850nm) or two (1000nm) of the film material. Once you have found the correct amount of filtering to get an aura, buy the equivalent commercial filter.

 

[jb7487]

"Midas", I see that you failed to answer my other questions but thanks for your response to one of them.

but I think that is a pretty good double blind test.

Unfortunately, I don't find this to be a very valid test of "auras". As I said before it could simply be that this area was damp or had been disturbed which caused it to "look different" to the camera. Also, this is a very common problem encountered when talking to dowsers. They get a strong signal somewhere and start digging. When they find something they announce success. Yet they could have passed over hundreds of other real treasures on their way to digging up some unknown item. They also never tell us how many failures they have had on their way to making that one discovery. I can dig randomly without using a camera and likely find metal in the ground at least 10% of the time depending on where I am digging. That doesn't mean that I have special powers of deduction.

I find it lacking in validation by actually finding unknown buried treasures. The book is "must have" reading if you simply want to change colours of objects in the photographs.

You will probably need to process the image with your camera's software, using enhance, fix or increasing gamma.

These quotes tend to confirm my suspicions that your "process" entails taking IR photos that have very little true light input to work with. You haven't removed the internal IR filter that removes a significant portion of the IR input so the pictures must be very dark and filled with noise. Then you bump up the gamma, saturation, and apply coloration over photographs to create areas of false coloration that could mean anything.

For the record, I do think that it could be possible to use photography to find buried caches. But not because metals have an aura. I think that you would instead be looking for areas of disturbed ground that you couldn't otherwise see with the naked eye. This could potentially point you to a cache. But it probably wouldn't be useful for finding natural gold deposits or small items.

 

[Midas]

"Midas", I see that you failed to answer my other questions but thanks for your response to one of them.

but I think that is a pretty good double blind test.

Unfortunately, I don't find this to be a very valid test of "auras". As I said before it could simply be that this area was damp or had been disturbed which caused it to "look different" to the camera. Also, this is a very common problem encountered when talking to dowsers. They get a strong signal somewhere and start digging. When they find something they announce success. Yet they could have passed over hundreds of other real treasures on their way to digging up some unknown item. They also never tell us how many failures they have had on their way to making that one discovery. I can dig randomly without using a camera and likely find metal in the ground at least 10% of the time depending on where I am digging. That doesn't mean that I have special powers of deduction.

I find it lacking in validation by actually finding unknown buried treasures. The book is "must have" reading if you simply want to change colours of objects in the photographs.

You will probably need to process the image with your camera's software, using enhance, fix or increasing gamma.

These quotes tend to confirm my suspicions that your "process" entails taking IR photos that have very little true light input to work with. You haven't removed the internal IR filter that removes a significant portion of the IR input so the pictures must be very dark and filled with noise. Then you bump up the gamma, saturation, and apply coloration over photographs to create areas of false coloration that could mean anything.

For the record, I do think that it could be possible to use photography to find buried caches. But not because metals have an aura. I think that you would instead be looking for areas of disturbed ground that you couldn't otherwise see with the naked eye. This could potentially point you to a cache. But it probably wouldn't be useful for finding natural gold deposits or small items.

My apologies for my tardy reply to all your questions - I'll do my best to answer this one.

To some extent, I accept your ground disturbance idea. This is how false colour infrared photography works, where you can usefully distinguish old trails and the like, showing up as a different colour or shade. These metal auras do not show up if the camera is set up for false colour IR photography - I guess they are drowned out by too much IR. The filtering needs to be at a higher wavelength than for false colour, where the buried metal then shows up as a bright area, with possibly a haze above it (particularly noticeable on gold and silver). You can actually see the bright area on the camera's screen if the target is large. With any treasure hunting instrument, including metal detectors, you never know what you don't find. However, I can say that whenever I get an aura image I can usually find the buried metal that produced it, so it is almost as positive as a metal detector.

Digital cameras are extremely sensitive to near infrared radiation, hence manufacturers have had to fit internal IR blocking filters to subdue the amount of IR reaching the sensor, as you say, this filter has to remain in place. I believe also digital cameras can use something like 70% of available light compared to 2% for film cameras, so although the image produced is very dark it is possible to see the aura on large targets without enhancing. However enhancing the image does give a clearer picture to work with and brings out the colour so you can get an idea of the metal composition of the target. Accepting that science now has a problem, since it has been proven that the observer influences the results, I can take pictures, day after day, in different conditions and using the same setup, I get the same colour aura, relating to a specific metal, in the same place, every time - in other words, the results are repeatable. I'm also getting feedback from other treasure hunters' having success, with the method, so it is not unique to me.

I agree that is is not the most suitable method for small targets, most of the time, however it is a very viable method for large targets like caches and large natural gold deposits.

 

[jb7487]

These metal auras do not show up if the camera is set up for false colour IR photography - I guess they are drowned out by too much IR.

Thanks for the reply Midas. I'm curious though about the above statement. How is a false color IR setup different from what you are doing? Different filters? Removing the internal IR cut filter? Other?

 

[Midas]

These metal auras do not show up if the camera is set up for false colour IR photography - I guess they are drowned out by too much IR.

Thanks for the reply Midas. I'm curious though about the above statement. How is a false color IR setup different from what you are doing? Different filters? Removing the internal IR cut filter? Other?

If you remove the internal IR cut filter the camera will be so sensitive to IR that you will not see any aura. In brief, you need to filter the camera beyond its false colour capability. If I can illustrate with three photos of the same area containing buried targets of 1 ounce gold; 2 ounces silver; quarter ounce gold, taken with an old digital camera that has a less effective IR cut filter than many. The first is taken through a 720nm IR pass filter, not enhanced, resulting in a false colour IR image. The second is taken through an 820nm IR pass filter, not enhanced, resulting in a more or less grayscale image. I cannot see any aura or ground disturbance in either of these photos, although I reckon significant ground disturbance would show up on one or both of these. The third is taken through a 1000nm IR pass filter and enhanced. You should be able to see three circular or ball auras, which correspond to the buried targets (there are also some reflections, which are probably caused by the filter holder). These circular or ball auras occur with low-end cameras and lenses and are one of the reasons I am fairly sure that we are looking at auras or electromagnetic radiation as opposed to ground disturbance.

 

[MD Dog]

Please answer the most important question of all. If this works then why write books or post about it here, why aren't you out finding treasure all over the place ? Have you ever found treasure ? Did you find the treasure using this technique ?

 

[Midas]

Please answer the most important question of all. If this works then why write books or post about it here, why aren't you out finding treasure all over the place ? Have you ever found treasure ? Did you find the treasure using this technique ?

Thanks for your searching question. I love to treasure hunt and I love to write (particularly about treasure hunting) so I do both regularly. When I find the 'big one', I will still do both - you have to do something with your life. I posted here because I enjoy helping my fellow treasure hunters and I can't find it all on my own. As a result of posting here, behind the scenes, one very smart guy has taken my ideas and literally overnight adapted them to a camcorder, so I now have a further useful development to this technique and a new friend. I am finding treasure all over the place, you will find me and my treasure finds in most British Treasure Annual Reports and at present I have a cache of gold coins going through the system. The cache is a further cache from the same site, where I successfully used my old Polaroid SX-70 to find gold coins. I am currently lining potential treasure sites up to use my digital camera technique on, when the conditions (crops) allow. Watch this space, as they say.

 

[MD Dog]

How can I identify you and your finds in the Annual British Treasure report ? You say you have a cache of gold coins going through the system, care to disclose what type of coins and how many ?

 

[Kentucky Kache]

With all that time and effort, why not just try the technique and see for your self.

 

[MD Dog]

What time and effort ? you mean the two minutes of posting I've had to do so far ?

Is there a problem with wanting to see a treasure that some one has reported to find ?

 

[jeff of pa]

What time and effort ? you mean the two minutes of posting I've had to do so far ?

Is there a problem with wanting to see a treasure that some one has reported to find ?

No Problem I see.

I would like to see it also.

However with all the Posts that
Crop up Saying
"Don't" I'd be surprised if many
would.

 

[MD Dog]

I wouldn't either Jeff as you know I never post my finds. But Midas says he's already declared these finds and there in the British Treasure report, so I just hope we can track down some pics if this is true he should get a banner spot. And I'll be the first to tear apart and mod my Digital cam.

 

[jeff of pa]

I wouldn't either Jeff as you know I never post my finds. But Midas says he's already declared these finds and there in the British Treasure report, so I just hope we can track down some pics if this is true he should get a banner spot. And I'll be the first to tear apart and mod my Digital cam.

Well I Can Guarentee it won't get a Banner spot
Simply because I'm sure He wasn't a member when he found it
and it's not recent, however, He is Definately Welcome to post it here
or in Best Finds.

Jeff

 

[jeff of pa]

I wouldn't either Jeff as you know I never post my finds. But Midas says he's already declared these finds and there in the British Treasure report, so I just hope we can track down some pics if this is true he should get a banner spot. And I'll be the first to tear apart and mod my Digital cam.

Well I Can Guarentee it won't get a Banner spot
Simply because I'm sure He wasn't a member when he found it
and it's not recent, however, He is Definately Welcome to post it here
or in Best Finds.

Jeff

I Take it Back on him not Being a member

he's been here since '05

But how Recent ?

Maybe BEST OF with a good account of the find

 

[jb7487]

You should be able to see three circular or ball auras, which correspond to the buried targets

I see them. But they aren't reddish in color. Didn't you say that gold auras are red and silver auras are orange? Or am I not looking at the correct circular balls in the picture?

 

[Midas]

How can I identify you and your finds in the Annual British Treasure report ? You say you have a cache of gold coins going through the system, care to disclose what type of coins and how many ?

Most of the Treasure Reports used to be downloadable from the DCMS website but they seem to have disappeared except for 2002.

The 2002 Treasure Report can be downloaded from here:
http://www.culture.gov.uk/reference_library/publications/4621.aspx/

I am on page 92 with a gold medieval finger ring.

I'll post pictures anyway.

The recent gold coins are nine Iron Age Staters, c.50BC, recovered jointly with the landowner.

 

[BIG61AL]

I remain unconvinced of the validity of finding gold via "auras". i do believe this warrents further investigation and perhaps much easier to understand photos. A grouping of photos all from the same angle showing regular light, "aura" light, and after digging to check the cause of the "aura" would certainly clear the confusion.

 

[MD Dog]

How can I identify you and your finds in the Annual British Treasure report ? You say you have a cache of gold coins going through the system, care to disclose what type of coins and how many ?

Most of the Treasure Reports used to be downloadable from the DCMS website but they seem to have disappeared except for 2002.

The 2002 Treasure Report can be downloaded from here:
http://www.culture.gov.uk/reference_library/publications/4621.aspx/

I am on page 92 with a gold medieval finger ring.

I'll post pictures anyway.

The recent gold coins are nine Iron Age Staters, c.50BC, recovered jointly with the landowner.

Pictures we need pictures and explanations the who's and where's etc... In fact how about a video showing your camera technique in action ? With all the gold you must be finding, I'm sure you'll be able to afford some traveling around, how about a personal demonstration for some of us insiders. I could hide some of my own Gold coins and rings etc... Then you come hunt my 25 acre farm for the buried Gold. Whaddya say ?

 

[Minstrel]

I read and re-read every post to this point---I have heard of this concept several times before, I find it extremely interesting but I also am the "show me" type of person. I will not doubt the poster's statements that this works, in fact I would really like to have it work. If anyone in New Mexico reads this subject, has tried this for themselves and feels it is a valid way to find precious metals, I would like them to PM me and I really would like to see this work in action. I would spend the money needed for a camera set up for just this very thing if I could see good results from photos I was personally involved in taking.
Thanks again for the article and photos.
Minstrel