Category Archives: Announcements

MISC Announcements

Manfrotto Befree Live New King Of Portable Video Heads!

Manfrotto Befree Live

The new Manfrotto Befree Live Tripod Fluid-head may be the most ultra-portable and quality video ready fluid head out there.  Before this new model was introduced the Manfrotto 128RC and 128LP heads dominated this space. However the new model has smoother movement along with locking features that bring the line to more modern designs.  There is a big need for compact video heads which can be used with smaller slow motion capable cameras like DSLRs, Sony RX100, Sony RX10, Micro 4/3rds and Action cams.

With the miniaturization of camera gear the days of the old and heavy but dependable fluid head are nearing an end. When the tripod can be carried alongside a small camera bag in a very portable fashion; the amount of usable footage will increase due to the amount of shots set up with it due to simplicity and little fuzz. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Sony a6500 Keeps 120fps On Refined Update!

Sony a6500 front with lens.

On a clearly unexpected update of the a6xxx line of cameras Sony unveiled the α6500 E Mount camera much to the anger of people who just 6 months ago were buying the a6300 which became a darling for video shooters and APS-C photo shooters aswell. That camera brought oversampling of 6k to derive a 4k output which up to now created the sharpest and most detailed 4k image in consumer cameras.

However things were not all rosy with the a6300, many users cringed at the excessive rolling shutter skew when shooting 4k and the lack of dependable continuous tracking. There was also a lack of touch screen and no sensor stabilization which the a6500 aims to correct.  There is a lot of camera here so lets dig in… → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Nikon KeyMission 170 4K Does 240fps!

nikon keymission 170 4k Action Camera

One of the Photokina announcements that peaked our interest was the Nikon KeyMission 170 Action Camera which aims to disrupt the already crowded space of all weather sports segment.  We have a plethora of options from the leader GoPro and close competitors like Sony, Xiaomi, Olympus, Garmin and even Panasonic.  So another entry by Nikon seems to go by unnoticed however this hardware looks to be very capable and can go head to head with the best.

The slow motion capabilities are the standard for high end action cameras here with 120fps at 1080p and 240fps at 720p.  While these are becoming standard frame rates for the most part; there is a clear distinction on quality between cameras with Sony Action Cam being clearly superior in compression with XAVC S to GoPro for example.  ProTune on the Hero 4 and 5 does make a difference but Sony has the edge with an overall better codec that is low artifact. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Sony RX100 V Has Extended Slowmo Mode!

Sony RX100 V Camera

Sony today announced the Sony Cyber-shot RX100 V portable 1″ sensor camera. It replaces last year’s excellent RX100 IV which is at #8 rank in our HSC Camera Guide for slow motion gear on a budget.   This next iteration is more robust in several aspects including HFR record time which is nearly doubled due to a larger and faster frame buffer. This makes it much more useful in Quality Priority mode offering up to 4 seconds 240fps NTSC or 250fps PAL at almost Full HD 1080p resolution.

The camera has also new tricks up it’s sleeve like oversampling the pixel area of the sensor by 1.7x to deliver a down-sampled artifact free 4k result using a larger area of the sensor plane to avoid the crop in previous models.  The sensor read out is also much faster according to Sony which should further reduce rolling shutter skew and aid in the slow motion capture aspects for better fidelity. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

fps1000 HD is Funded Now Offers 3D Camera!

fps1000 hd final case

Warning: The parent company of FPS cameras “The Slow Motion Camera Company Ltd.” went out of business and entered liquidation proceedings. No further development of cameras is expected. More information here on Google Search

The fps1000 HD Kickstarter project has surpassed it’s funding goal by nearly twice the amount requested and with only a 2 and 1/2 days left it may be able to do substantially better considering the home stretch push.  It certainly has garnered a lot of attention from the camera enthusiast market and it may cement even more the longevity of now known The Slow Motion Camera Company Limited as an established retail option and separate itself from a mostly Kickstarter backed product. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Chronos High Speed Camera Demo Released!

chronos1_4

David Kronstein the mind behind the Tesla500 Youtube channel has released new footage and information from his latest high speed camera prototype.  Now aptly  named Chronos high speed camera it features a fully machined metal enclosure, with a variety of modern ports and full touch GUI with full color or monochrome capabilities depending on the sensor chosen.

The current prototype is based on the camera David created in his garage/lab that shot most of the high speed footage for his channel. You can read about the previous HSC768 camera prototype here.  This is a gigantic leap forward from that earlier camera and David was kind enough to supply detailed info about the specs and upcoming Kickstarter campaign so you can fund it and own a camera yourself. → Continue Reading Full Post ←