HOWEVER: someone told me that you can just move waaaay back, and keep the vehicle in the center of the lens where there is much less distortion.
That's interesting - didn't know that. So I should try the binocular thing again, but don't try to fill the view right up? Go back another 150 feet and keep the car in the middle of the view? I'll have to sort out getting it to focus properly first - or it'll just be a fuzzy blob.
If I were doing the light-at-a-distance-trace-the-shadow-on-a-wall method, I'd do something like: move the light source a measured amount to keep it as perpendicular as possible to the wall where that area of the shadow is being traced:
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