Gatso is the brand that Gatsometer BV use on their speed cameras and red light cameras. The most commonly encountered Gatso speed cameras emit radar beams to measure the speed of a passing vehicle. If it is travelling above the preset trigger speed, one or two photographs are taken. These use a powerful flash, to show the rear of the vehicle, its registration plate, and calibration lines on the road. Newer installations used digital cameras which have limited exposure latitude compared to film, these installations use an auxiliary flash placed close to the position where a speeding vehicle would exit the radar beam and the first photograph would be taken.
Gatso speed camera
Rear, showing the yellow warning panel in the UK. The yellow panel is no longer a requirement, having become part of the guidelines of DfT Circular 01/2007
Internals of a Gatso speed camera
Traffic enforcement camera
A traffic enforcement camera is a camera which may be mounted beside or over a road or installed in an enforcement vehicle to detect motoring offenses, including speeding, vehicles going through a red traffic light, vehicles going through a toll booth without paying, unauthorized use of a bus lane, or for recording vehicles inside a congestion charge area. It may be linked to an automated ticketing system.
A Gatso speed camera. The camera's lens is visible at top left, while the large flash, used for illuminating number plates and calibration lines on the road when taking photographs, is visible on the bottom right.
A speed camera in Mong Kok, Hong Kong
A speed camera on the Highway 5 in Joroinen, South Savonia, Finland
Automatic speed enforcement gantry or "Lombada Eletrônica" with ground sensors in Brasília, D.F