Item #: SCP-698
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-698 must be contained within a 10m x 10m x 10m glass cube which will be placed in a room with mirrored walls and a single powerful light directly above it. Should the light fail, a single maintenance person must enter the room while wearing full bodied silvered HAZMAT suit and quickly cover the glass box in a silvered metallic tarp while they replace the bulb.
Description: SCP-698 is a small camera of undetermined make and model that appears to have been produced in the early 1960s. It has no way of holding film or producing the power that should be required for its use. Unless SCP-698 is pointed at a mirror or a photorealistic image of itself, it will activate its shutter mechanism when a living being is in view of the camera's lens. Said living being has been observed to instantly disappear when the mechanism activates, and cannot be recovered in any known way. Due to the camera having no compartment for film, it is impossible to ascertain if a genuine photograph is taken at all.
SCP-698 was found in a small empty house outside of [DATA EXPUNGED] in rural Kansas, placed on a table and facing a mirror. Initial attempts to contain the item resulted in the loss of three level 2 personnel.
Addendum: As the exact conditions for activation of SCP-698's shutter mechanism are not ascertained (subjects exhibiting rapid movement have been able to avoid capture by SCP-698: tests suggest that object requires victim to be in sharp focus), further testing and handling must be signed off by a clearance level 4 member before any non-maintenance persons enter the room.
Unexplained Occurences: For three days, starting the 15th of May of 2006, SCP-698 mysteriously changed its position seemingly overnight, after experiencing no known human contact whatsoever. SCP-698 went from sitting bottom down on the table facing east to sitting face upward, towards the ceiling light. After searching security cameras for an explanation, no logical one has been made so far.
At 02:12:13 in the morning, the security cameras revealed a brief power shortage in SCP-698's containment center. The power outage was so brief that electrical equipment, along with all other containment centers, experienced no malfunctions or any disturbances. After power was automatically restored, the cameras revealed the camera had somehow "flipped over" to its back so it was facing the ceiling. The room also appeared to have a strange yellow tint for two seconds after power was restored. This color quickly dispersed, revealing the room in normal color.
The camera stayed in this position for about three days, until the 18th of May 2006, where at 02:12:13 am of the 18th, a power outage happened again, revealing the camera to be back in its original position. The same yellow tint as the previous occurence followed. No equipment or other containment areas were disturbed.
The guards who researched the security tapes are debating whether the "power outage" was actually a security camera malfunction. They are also debating over what made the yellow tint appear in the room. While some say it could have been the camera booting back up, others disagree, saying that many cameras had done that before, but had never revealed a yellow coloring. Some believe that the camera itself had somehow turned the air yellow.
Some guards believe that this, along with other minor camera malfunctions, could somehow be linked with SCP-027, though this is very unlikely.
One interesting thing to note, during the time the camera was flipped over to its back, the light that shone above it seemed to shine brighter than before. Once he camera had gone back to its original position, the light shone normally in its dim fashion.