Is this picture real or a fake?

[+Gepard]

It's a F-16 seen from gun camera of a MiG-21. It is said, that it is from 1982 Lebanon War.

I'm not sure, wheter real or fake.

 

[+streakeagle]

I believe that is a real image. But there is no way to know when and where that image came from. There were quite a few countries that transitioned from MiG-21s to F-16s and/or that conducted exercises with allies that had F-16s. If it was from actual combat and it led to a kill, why not show the gun cam image of the F-16 getting hit?

If you google MiG-21 gun camera film, you can find other examples that are very similar to this one. That is why I accept it as likely being real.

Edited November 29, 2023 by streakeagle

[Svetlin]

I am no expert, but it looks to me more real like this:

To my knowledge, the gun camera is more or less on the center line in the cockpit, while the Pitot tube is offset to the right on the nose, so probably the picture was inverted at some point (if it is real).

Edited November 29, 2023 by Svetlin

[+Wrench]

is the gun camera part of the gunsight? I'm wondering at the field of view as seen. If not part of the sight, why is the reticle showing? I know WW2 gun camera footage is usually just the target and bullet strikes

[KJakker]

Here is some Mirage gun cam footage from the Six Day War.

 

[Wilches]

Looks fake...

 

[bazillius]

Someone took a screenshot of how he played and applied a filter. And now he’s watching how this “photo” spread across military websites and he’s laughing his head off. He looks at how this photo is published in encyclopedias and LOLing.

I noticed that many people cannot distinguish between reality and games. Even me. My mother asked me if this was a game or not and showed me one video. (Mom is trained by me to determine authenticity ) I tried for a long time to understand whether this is reality or a game. I feel something is wrong, but I don’t understand what was it. I had to check the textures of the ground and that was the only way to determine it. I found a match in the tree texture in a game and in the video.

This photo, the silhouette of the F-16 are too Sharp. At such a distance it was impossible for that time. This is just my opinion.  Maybe the photo was specially improved and retouched for beauty. For me it looks not natural

video is just for fun

 

[bazillius]

I want to remind that its film on 35mm filmtype, 23.75x24mm.  We see not only the pylons, but even the littlewings on the tanks. In 1982. Through soviet optic. 

[bazillius]

The situation in the air itself gives me great doubts. The F-16 aircraft found itself ahead of the MiG-21, it is maneuvering with underwing tanks in a combat under heavy danger. With pylons for AMRAAM missiles.. Over Lebanon in 1982. Well, I do not know.

[+Gepard]

I asked in an other forum and got the answer from there, that the photo was taken in Poland during a dogfight training between polish MiG-21 and F-16. It is more believable than the story of Lebanon War.

[+Erik]

To my eye the F-16 looks super imposed over the rest of the image, based on clarity of the F-16 and the non-clarity of the rest of image. If this was aerial footage then the rest of the video exists, why pull a single frame from the footage? Without the support of the remainder of the video I would error on the side of manipulated photo.

[PeacePuma]

It does not carry weapons and under these conditions in a real combat, it would have already gotten rid of the external tanks...

About the image I think the same, there is a lot of contrast in the f-16... the pitot of the mig looks soft as does the background landscape and unless it was an infrared image it does not justify so much contrast, that is fine only in the trash about the lens...

Edited November 30, 2023 by PeacePuma

[+Gepard]

To compare it with a real gun camera picture:

It's a F-4 recon bird, intercepted over the Baltic Sea by east german MiG-21.

 

[+streakeagle]

This is a real pic. Check out the clarity. This is the pic that convinced me the original posted pic was probably real:

aircraft-gun-camera-004-jpg.129399 (699×555) (militaryimages.net)

Edited November 30, 2023 by streakeagle

[+streakeagle]

This shows how the gun camera is mounted in a MiG-21bis, notice it obscures the view which is why the gun camera is often omitted in flight sim cockpits:

 

[OlWilly]

Yes, it is a picture from Polish training dogfight, made by MiG-21bis

One of a dozen photographs taken during a simulated dogfight during the visit of four Dutch F-16s (323 Squadron) to Zegrze Pomerania in 1999. The hit was made by the pilot, captain. Andrzej Kilar. The photograph was analyzed and processed by a senior staff member Wieslaw Sieradski - head of OKL. The photographs captured the beautiful sequences of the aiming, the hit itself, and the takeoff. The pilots were present together during the analysis of the materials. The photo above was given to the Dutch pilot as a reminder of the event

 

Edited December 4, 2023 by OlWilly

[+CrazyhorseB34]

It's fake.