Lumix TS7 First Rugged Cam Viewfinder Does 120fps!

Lumix TS7

The Lumix TS7 by Panasonic “TS7 in the US, Canada,  FT7 outside of North America” is a well-rounded package when it comes to pricing and features.  It is a 4k 30/25/24 ready camera and it can go underwater 31 Meters or 102ft plus all the cool ruggedized features you might expect on a camera of this kind like being crush-proof up to 220lbs/100kg and freezeproof down to  -10 °C / +14 °F.  It is a real alternative to smaller action cameras like the GoPro, Xiaomi Yi 4k+ and Sony Action Cam series.

The lens is a 28–128 mm 35mm equivalent 4.6x zoom range which is quite sharp across the range as we have seen from samples. The main issue with this camera is the small 1/2.3″ BSI sensor and the fact that it packs 20MP or a resolution of 5184 x 3888px which is a little too cramped to be ideal for low light or in our view underwater performance without added bright artificial lighting.  ISO goes from a low of 80 to a high of 6400 which probably is already pushing it too much.  This camera would have been a better bet with a 10 or 12MP BSI sensor to maintain some edge in low light for the competition.  → Continue Reading Full Post ←

FRAN​ Camera by CINEMARTIN Promises 8k and High Frame Rates!

FRAN Camera 8k

The newly announced CINEMARTIN FRAN 8K Camera claims some huge numbers in terms of resolution and performance.  Up to 8K (8000×6000) RAW / Uncompressed 12 Bit video capture at 24fps and up to 96fps in 2k & 1080p for high frame rates but more on that later in this post.  There is only one image of the camera we were provided with and that is the RED Brain like rendering above which sports a mounting port which in the lab is fitted with a Canon EF Mount which is preferred among cinema oriented users especially if it is an active one.

FRAN also offers in the spec sheet 15.5 stops of dynamic range at 12 bit which competes directly with the best cinema cameras out there. CINEMARTIN claims the camera will come in below the competition in price while offering a true global shutter sensor with no rolling shutter distortion.   Using a 4/3 sized sensor at 50MP with 48MP being used for 8k Capture it may seem overkill when it comes to low light performance. It may be able to deliver resolution levels never before seen on cinema cameras but low-light will surely be a hurdle for the camera to overcome. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

OnePlus 6 Slow Motion Teaser Released!

OnePlus 6 Slow Motion Teaser

The short but to the point footage shows what will be slow motion clips produced with the new OnePlus 6 handset. You can see that a lot of care has been taken to shoot professional looking footage that will showcase the high frame rate capabilities. We are not sure if the resolution aliasing we are seeing is from the phone quality or the video compression.

Considering Sony and Samsung have similar artifacts OnePlus will look good on smaller screens but not ideal blown up on a monitor or TV.  Professional lighting is no substitute to real line resolution for footage.   We should know more as May 16th launch date approaches and we will be gladly surprised if the phone is capable of higher resolution slow motion recording than the competition with better recording time which has been the Achilles heel for these slow-motion phone features. 0.2 and 0.1 seconds is just not long enough for having a usable span of time. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Chronos 1.4 Software V0.3 RC1 Released for Testing!

Chronos 1.4 Software V0.3 RC1

The Chronos 1.4c Team has been ramping up software releases with the latest v0.3 RC1 being dropped just a few hours ago.  Be aware that this is not mission critical stable software so only use on your own testing and not for recording once in a lifetime events.  The big fixes are in the color pipeline and how the camera handles pixel color especially red tones which were a little pinkish in previous software releases. It seems the entire color acquisition pipeline has received an overhaul. This should improve the color rendition on all objects plus the added benefit of less tweaking in post.

There are also several UI improvements like the ability to clear some warnings, move the button layout pane around the main interface screen and the ability to auto-save clips after shooting.   HSC will be testing the new software and report back when we get some new images.  We are preparing a color test to see before and after the software update and how much color has improved with the release. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

OnePlus 6 Will Have Super Slow Motion Mode!

OnePlus 6 Slow Motion

The folks at OnePlus have been busy and by the looks of the recently leaked images of the OnePlus 6, it seems the phone is almost an identical looking handset to the iPhone X design with notch included.  The invitation to the event on May 16th, 2018 for the unveil mentions “Live Life in Super Slow Mo” which we believe will be a 960fps slow-motion mode akin to that in the Galaxy S9 & S9+ or the Sony Xperia ZX2.

OnePlus has been one of the best performing handsets for Android users due to their use of the best components out there along with a streamlined ROM that does away with most bloatware on the main install. Users of these phones also routinely claim huge battery life due to the optimized nature of the background tasks. For Slow Motion, they have only been competitive on the mid-range but that will probably change if Slow Motion is a big feature on this new phone. → Continue Reading Full Post ←