Does "Rods" really exist?

[Jet2]

Long time ago I watched a TV doco talking about there might be a kind of creature / inset? which is 'rod' in shape, very small in size and fly very quickly (like shooting) so that human eyes cannot spot it normally.

That program was actually recording a man exploring a huge and deep cave and accidentally the camera captured this thing like digital noise on the film. After they enlarged the frame and replayed it in slow motion, they found this rod shape thing. And then they purposely went back the same location again to try to film it and get more evidence.

Since 'Rods' (they called it) is very small and move really fast, so far no man can catch one to study it (at that time, may be not now)...

So any updates anybody?

[Moontanman]

I thought the books had been closed on rods!

Michael

[TheFaithfulStone]

Lack of evidence never kept a good theory down.

Sure, rods are BUGS. Specifically they're an optical artifact created by the fact that all light sensitive material requires a length of exposure greater than zero.

They're blurs.

TFS

[Hill]

Originally Posted by Jet2

Long time ago I watched a TV doco talking about there might be a kind of creature / inset? which is 'rod' in shape, very small in size and fly very quickly (like shooting) so that human eyes cannot spot it normally.

That program was actually recording a man exploring a huge and deep cave and accidentally the camera captured this thing like digital noise on the film. After they enlarged the frame and replayed it in slow motion, they found this rod shape thing. And then they purposely went back the same location again to try to film it and get more evidence.

Since 'Rods' (they called it) is very small and move really fast, so far no man can catch one to study it (at that time, may be not now)...

So any updates anybody?

Yep, these video artifacts produced by flying insects continue to circulate and even make local TV "news" occasionally.

Here's a website that explains them well >> Sol's Rod Sequences

And I love this 3-part set-up (in Japanese) "proving" the existence of rods.

YouTube - How to catch the " Flying Rods "...

YouTube - How to catch the " Flying Rods "...

What, no third part?

[Jet2]

Thank you Hill for the information!

[CraigD]

“Rods” really exists, but are just ordinary insects

According to the wikipedia article “rods (cryptozoology)”, rods – also known as “flying rods”, “skyfish”, and “solar entities”, have been pretty conclusively shown to be due to blurring of video of ordinary insects. Some Chinese pharmacologists made a documentary about them in 2005, using their research compound’s security cameras, and big, fine-meshed nets. They found that when a rod, as seen on video, flies into a net, you find a moth or other ordinary insect in the net – pretty convincing evidence that rods are, as debunkers have long claimed from close inspection of the images, ordinary insects poorly photographed.

Another way to see what rods really are, without resorting to catching them in big nets, is to vary the exposure (shutter speed) on a good quality (large max aperture, high sensitivity) camera. Shannon L. Story's Rods: Facts or Fiction, You Decide stands out as a nicely done example of this.

Of course, documentaries that conclude “they’re just ordinary bugs – a bit of trouble with the cameras, sorry about that, never mind” aren’t the sort that keep the largest number of consumers – err, viewers – tuning in for more, so I expect documentaries claiming that rods are unexplained mysteries will be around for a while yet.

[Csejthe]

Wow! Thanks guys. This article had some excellent information in it. I nearly forgot about this interesting phenomenon until Jet2 raised the question here! Great Stuff!