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Details

Ghost Camera

Tenyo

Tenyo Co., Ltd.

(Based on 2 reviews)
Take a photo of something invisible!
T-266 GHOST CAMERA

Invisible objects appear in a photo! The camera is completely ungimmicked so you can borrow a spectator's smartphone to take the photo. This cutting-edge trick will captivate audiences because it is both timely and baffling.

PROPS INCLUDED
Handkerchief
Instruction sheet

DESCRIPTION
1. The spectator selects a card, returns it to the deck, and covers the deck with a handkerchief.
2. The magician snaps a photo using a smartphone.
3. When the audience looks at the photo, they are shocked to see that the selected card has appeared in the picture! This can be immediately repeated with a different card.

NOTE
Additional routines are included: a mysterious hand appears in the photo, and a selected coin is magically divined.

Reviews

Stuart Philip

Official Reviewer

Nov 25, 2015

This is one of my favorite Tenyo products in recent memory. The effect blows people away.

The performer has a spectator select a card and places it in the card box, or face up in the deck and covers it with his handkerchief. He borrows a cell phone, snaps a picture and the card is revealed as a ghostly image in the picture. What the spectator sees on their camera is the handkerchief with an almost x-ray looking image of their card.

The trick comes with the gimmicked handkerchief and a link to English instructions. Watch the video and what you see is what you get. It is simple to learn and easy to perform. There is some much you can do with this routine, as far as patter goes, that you can really make it your own.

You can instantly repeat the trick with a different card. After that, you need to find different spectators to amaze. There is also the option of having a ghostly hand with a finger pointing to one of the corners of the handkerchief, thereby revealing a choice i.e. if 4 items are placed on a corner of the handkerchief the finger will point to the correct item. The reset is instant and there are no angle issues.

The handkerchief has a nice design on one side and is all black on the other side. Although it cannot be handed out for inspection, after about a dozen performances, no one has asked to see it as they are looking at their camera. It would be nice to have a non-gimmicked version of the handkerchief, which does not exist. The gimmick also had a hidden code to help the performer execute the trick, although it is not needed.

I am concerned that if the handkerchief is folded and gets creased that it may detract from or ruin the effect a bit. That remains to be seen.

A great trick that garners fantastic reactions for a great price.
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Doc Johnson

Official Reviewer

Nov 23, 2015

PROS

This is a very ingenious gimmicked handkerchief. The handkerchief will produce twwo force card images, and an image of a pointing hand.

It comes with written instructions in Japanese, but also a link to download an English instruction PDF. The instructions are good. They include a full, easy to follow set of instructions for the following routines:

A Card Appears!: A selected card is revealed as a ghost image on the handkerchief. The effect can be repeated with a second different card.

Your Favorite Fruit!: A participant is asked to think of a fruit and draw it on one of four blank cards. The cards are dealt to the four corners of the handkerchief, face down. A photo of the handkerchief reveals a ghost hand pointing to the correct card with their fruit drawing.

This is Your Coin!: This is a very clever routine where a participant selects one of four coins under the handkerchief. They replace the coin. You remove the coins and place them on top of the handkerchief at the four corners. A photo of the handkerchief reveals a ghost hand pointing to their coin.

The card effect uses some well known methods. The fruit effect also uses a well known method. However, the coin routine uses a method that may not be new, but is one that I can’t recall ever seeing. It is quite clever.

The routine is true to the ad copy and the methods are pretty good.

CONS

You must handle the handkerchief carefully. You can’t put it in the wash or handle it roughly or the images will wear off.

I think it should have been packaged differently. It is in a standard size Tenyo box which requires the handkerchief to be folded into a smaller size. It is best if this handkerchief is just folded in quarters. If the handkerchief is not pretty flat, the image of the card is not flat and it doesn’t look good. It looks more like the card image is “painted” onto the handkerchief. If it is folded in quarters and laying pretty flat, it looks much better.

It says in the instructions that if the participant takes the photo, they will see the image of the card as they take the photo, and this reduces the magic. Their suggestion is to ask the participant to watch the handkerchief, not the camera or to have the camera positioned so they can’t see the image on the camera as the photo is being taken. However, these suggestions don’t seem very realistic. I would suggest borrowing the participant’s camera and taking the image yourself. In fact, the handkerchief could be folded in such a way that one side will reveal nothing and the other side will reveal the card. You might be able to use this feature in a routine.

VERDICT

This is a great product. With a bit of good handling, this product could be used for some pretty good routines. One of the routines they explain, the coin routine, uses a pretty ingenious method.


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