Women tourists in central Christchurch were targeted for upskirt video images by Rangiora man Glenn Peter Gillard.
The 45-year-old gardener made the videos of people sunbathing in the city from about 3.45pm to 4pm on January 19, the Christchurch Court News website reported.
Gillard zoomed in to film women with mini-skirts in Victoria Square and in the area of Hereford and Worcester streets.
He pleaded guilty in the Christchurch District Court today to four charges of "intentionally making an intimate visual recording of another person".
Police prosecutor Trudi Aickin said the women -- who she described as tourists -- were not aware they were being filmed but Gillard's actions were noticed and reported by other people.
Defence counsel Mark Henderson said Gillard had been asked to take some video shots by friends who owned a clothing business but had unfortunately used the equipment to make the recordings complained of.
He was very disappointed with himself, and was ashamed and remorseful.
Judge John Bisphan delayed sentencing so the police could print out copies of the images taken by Gillard, so that he could see whether they were "taken from afar or were highly invasive".
When he was shown the pictures he said they were "certainly intrusive but perhaps not as bad as they could have been".
He said he had never encountered that type of prosecution before, but it had obviously been enacted in 2006 to protect people's privacy from advances in technology.
He fined Gillard $500 and ordered him to pay costs on each charge, a total of $2520.