> Ghost Camera (2016) by Tenyo Co.

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Verified buyer Pro Privacy ON (login to see reviewer names) on November 16th, 2015
First the good...
The hanky prop is very cool and spectators will have a hard time immediately knowing what technology is used for the gimmick. It's just not common yet.

The ghost affect with the live video recording feature of the phone is really cool seeing ghostly images fade in and out (when you follow the easy instructions how to do so).

I like this prop just for the cool factor.

The bad...
You NEED a camera phone with a flash for this to work. Using your own phone it's easy to force activate the flash, but not all phones have a flash and camera lights usually only activate in very dim/dark lighting unless you handle a spectator's phone and change a setting to turn on the camera light.

Realistically, you'll also need to perform using the spectator's phone. If you perform on your own phone, I guarantee the spectator will believe you're using a special app -- significantly diminishing the effect.

I really don't like that the Tenyo Logo is on the prop. It takes something organic and diminishes it a little. The readable logo is unfortunately on the important non-gimmicked corner of the hanky. I'm thinking of how to get rid of it. (Cut, bleach or sharpie it out? Or just show upside-down or thumb-cover it?)

The ugly...
The spectator CANNOT be allowed to handle the hanky. Worst case, the spectator crumples the hanky and possibly damages the gimmick. Best case, they will definitely find how the hanky is gimmicked via sight and/or feel. And even worse, since the hanky has heat on it being the main prop, they're going to want to examine it. This is different, for example, than Future Puzzle by Tenyo (which btw has it's own quirks, but is AWESOME and inexpensive), where the box is shown as empty and can be thrown aside while putting together the puzzle.

The gimmick in the hanky is much more visible than one would expect. I have performed for people with good vision in certain light and they can see "outlines" on the performance side of the hanky that they should not see! Busted. The spectator must NOT be allowed see the backside of the hanky since the gimmick is fully visible there. This is a problem since you really should at least flash the backside of the hanky showing to the spectator that there is no funny business there. I've used performance workarounds, but I would prefer to start the performance with the hanky face down. This problem really irks me. The backside of the hanky should be completely opaque and hide the gimmicks fully. The effect would have not been compromised.

I also really think that Tenyo should have included a non-gimmicked handkerchief that could be swapped out and man-handled...again, considering the hanky is the main prop. This would even allow a second picture to be taken again freely (if attempted by the spectator) that showed nothing on the ENTIRE hanky - hence enhancing the mystery.

Two stars because of the gimmick visibility issues and the significant limitations because of that. Unless you want to experiment with something cool, I can't recommend for purchase. Including a non-gimmicked hanky would have brought this up to 4 stars.

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