I feel they purposefully shortened the yellow light so it changed to red pretty quickly. I will probably go and video tape it for evidence if I ever decide to go to court.
Bingo! Cities can't arbitrarily set/alter the duration of yellow lights. Somewhere your state/province has regulations that define what they are. Their timing is probably a mathematical function of the speed limit along the roadway where the lights are installed. Find out what that is, and then check to see if the timing at the intersection where you received your ticket is compliant. If it's not, and you decide to videotape it as proof, you should ensure you're holding an old-fashioned stopwatch running in the frame simultaneously to prove you haven't edited (sped-up) the video. Good luck!