Yeah I think this video is legit. It would be better to have more on the provenance of the footage; the testimony from the operators who took that footage, their names, and all the rest of it. But since this appears to have been a leak and the leaker didn't want to be identified (I assume that this would be considered a security breach with serious legal penalties), there's not much we can do in the way of follow-up.
Nothing about this video appears to be fake; the optical quality is very unique and the embedded ranging data and radar return signal strike me as exactly the kind of recording system that you'd expect to see on a military-grade cinetheodolite system.
Around the time that Hard Copy aired that segment (I missed it back then, and only became aware of it earlier this year), I was working at the R&D division of one of the most sophisticated motion capture and digital animation companies in the world, Acclaim Entertainment in New York, and this isn't something that we could've done - the textures and the optics are way too analogue and nuanced, and the reflectivity of the object in this video is vastly beyond the ray-tracing algorithms that we were using back then. In fact I can't find any of the signatures of digital manipulation on this footage that I'd expect to find with a faked video.
When I first did some digging about this earlier this year I found some additional information, but I don't keep records of ufo research because I'm not a ufologist - I'm only focused on the physics behind these anomalous devices. But I'll have to start a folder for this kind of stuff, because it can be very difficult to re-locate interesting data on this subject. But what I recall is that the signal data near the bottom of the video is especially interesting because it gives the radar return strength - and at some point it suddenly goes flat, as if the device suddenly became radar invisible. It's also interesting that the analyst Sightings consulted with noted that whenever they study anomalous footage like this, the craft always appears to be blurry, regardless of the resolution of the video being studied - that's independent confirmation of the "low observability" characteristic that the AATIP identified as an earmark of these exotic devices.
Oh, I worked a lots with 3d graphics back in 90's as well, like with 3D Studio, Maya and Photoshop. It's actually it is quite easy to spot the fake. Except, when a true pro takes the job. But than a pro wouldn't have time to waste on UFO hoaxes, because he would have jobs lined up and UFO fakes don't pay. They are just for fun.
Yeah, blurriness is a good sign of authenticity. I bought a telephoto lens with a specific aim to get ready for UFO image if one turns up ;-). I was practicing on passing airliners and it is very difficult to pull off a good shot, even after you practiced for a while.
For starters, one can't see a small objects in an electronic viewfinder. When you point a telephoto lens in a general direction of the object in the sky, you just get lots of blue. That's a problem for cameras, because they need some contrast to focus, so camera immediately goes out of focus. Second problem is camera shake. As you search for the object, blue sky doesn't give you any reference and you just keep panning all over the place. If you by chance frame the object, it's just in a fleeting moment.
Takes a lot of practice to make a good sharp photo of even simplest airliner in the big blue sky.
But, here is a tip for anyone who likes to prepare for that UFO image of a lifetime. Ray Stamford was lucky to have a telephoto lens on him, with polarizing filter and he took the shot bellow. That image shows these unique concentric rings believed to be made by light being polarized as it is passing through magnetic field on the edge of the craft, so called and well known in physics, the Farady's effect. So one needs to put linear polarizing filter onto the lens and take two shots at 90deg angle from each other, because polarization is most prominent at 90deg. Like one landscape and one portrait shot. Those two shots would show a big difference in luminosity and that would be proof that it is UFO, not a balloon or a plane. And if possible always try to include an object on the ground for reference and scale. One more shot like the one bellow, and UFO skeptics would have nowhere to hide.
There was one more UFO case where Faraday polarization rings appeared around UFO. Here it is direct from my scrapbook:
Dark Rings Surounding UFO Seen through Polarising Glasses, 1953
Mr. Wells Alen Webb's second UFO sighting was on May 5, 1953. Time: 9:45 - 10:00 a.m.
"It was a clear sunny morning; the author was standing in a field near the Vacuum Cooling Company plant, not far from Spain Flying Field, and about a mile north of the Yuma Air Force Fighter Base. His attention was drawn by the buzzing of jet fighters taking off in quick succession, passing directly overhead traveling northward. As he scanned the northern sky, the author's attention became fixed upon what at first appeared to be a small white cloud, the only one in the sky at the time. The author was wearing Polaroid glasses having a greenish tint, and as was his custom when studying clouds he took the glasses off and put them on at intervals to compare the effect with and without Polaroid. The object was approximately oblong with the long axis in a horizontal plane. It floated at an elevation of about forty-five degrees. During the course of about five minutes the object traveled approximately 30 degrees toward the east. Then it appeared abruptly to turn and travel northward; at the same time its oblong shape changed to circular section. As a circular object it rapidly became smaller as if receding. While receding, the object did not noticeably lose any of its brightness. In about thirty seconds of this, its diameter became too small for the author to hold in his vision."
My comment / During the first period the writer had not noticed a change in the oblong nor in the field of view about it as a result of putting on and taking off his Polaroid glasses. But during the second period
several uniformly spaced concentric circles appeared around the now circular object. The circles were distinct dark bands which enveloped the silvery disc.
The largest of these circles was, perhaps, six times the diameter of the central disc. When the writer removed his polarizing glasses the silvery disc remained but the concentric rings vanished.
When the glasses were put on again, the rings reappeared. The writer repeated this several times, each time with the same result. The rings with glasses on, faded to invisibility before the disc became too small to see."
Extract from:
section VInew
In short, if you are after taking UFO pic, put on polarizer filter and try to capture Faraday rings polarization. That would be the ultimate proof it was UFO not a plane.