Leica introduced the Leica SL Typ 601 mirrorless ILC“Interchangeable Lens Camera” With three lenses for the new system: the Leica Vario-Elmarit-SL 24-90mm F2.8-4 ASPH, Apo-Vario Elmarit-SL 90-280mm F2.8-4 and Summilux-SL 50mm F1.4 ASPH.
The Leica SL Camera itself has a 24MP Full Frame sensor based on the Leica Q camera sensor with modifications. Some speculate that the sensor is a Panasonic made part. The camera can take 11fps continuous shooting and 4k video at 24p and UHD at 30p. But what cought our eye was that it offers true 1080p 120fps mode and a 720p 120fps mode. Why include the latter is anybodys guess but if it is a sensor crop at 720p it allows for slow motion Telephoto. The 1080p 120fps mode uses the entire sensor area and down-samples to create the frame rate. We did notice some moderate aliasing in the samples that have been released but nothing too pronounced. The slow motion quality is actually extremely good and it is quite possibly on par with the best 120fps compact cameras out there today.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
The Sony DSC-RX1R II is a monster of a fixed lens camera. It has a Full frame 42.4-megapixel Exmor R back-illuminated CMOS sensor with 399-point phase-detect Fast Hybrid AF system. It also has the first ever variable optical low-pass filter which lets you shoot with all of the quality of the sensor or with reduced per pixel quality when you want to avoid moire and aliasing. For landscape and nature photographers this is a great feature as they can shoot unconstrained for quality without having to purchase a body with or without the low pass filter. This is real innovation and shows just how far Sony is evolving the camera space forward.
There is no real competition feature for feature that can rival Sony in the portable camera space. Should we be worried? We think this will push others to innovate and differentiate cameras in the future with real must have features that do what no camera phone can do. However it could also cause stagnation as Sony becomes the go to player while others struggle.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
DJI Has announced a portable 3-Axis Gimbal camera system called DJI OSMO that rivals the best handheld camera options from the competition with an integrated ZENMUSE X3 camera “Same as the one found in the DJI Inspire 1 drone. You get a ton of standard features like an intelligent panning mode and auto panorama with also a timelapse & intervalometer to boot. You will need to supply a Phone or other portable device with iOS or Android in order to have a live preview screen and set up the camera / adjust settings.
Specs for the DJI OSMO portable stabilized camera:
Video Resolution:
UHD: 4K (4096 x 2160) 24/25p
UHD 4K (3840 x 2160) 24/25/30p
2.7K (2704 x 1520) 24/25/30p
FHD: 1920 x 1080 24/25/30/48/50/60/120p*
HD: 1280 x 720 24/25/30/48/50/60p
Sensor:
Sony Exmor R CMOS; 1/2.3”
Effective pixels: 12.40M
(Total pixels: 12.76M)
Still Photography Modes:
Single Shot
Photo Burst Mode: 3/5/7 shots
Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB):
3/5 bracketed frames @ 0.7EV bias
Interval
Timelapse
Auto Panorama
Selfie Panorama
In what could be one of the most leaked phone releases in History “Probably to get some oomph out of the iPhone 6s release“ Google has announced the Nexus 5X and 6P smartphones running Android 6.0 marshmallow. The interesting spec is that for the first time in a Nexus device, the camera seems to be a primary focus with a lot of good specs including 120fps for the LG built Nexus 5X and up to 240fps for the Huawei Built Nexus 6P. This puts the 6P Phone in direct competition with the iPhone 6s for the top smartphone Slow Motion Spot.
While there is a lack of slow motion samples now for both phones they should be coming out in the next few days. How will they compete? We can’t really speculate as the sensor, lens and camera system on these Nexus Phones is entirely new and built for better performance than previous Nexus releases. The Camera had always been a sore spot of the line and this release seems to want to correct this from now on. It has the same Sensor and camera system on both phones but the processing core is different which is probably what limits the 5X to 120fps. That said it could be possible in the future to unlock 240fps on this camera with some clever hacking technique if the system can handle the data rates; but that could void your warranty.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
RED digital cinema has been releasing information about a new camera brain or body that will be just under $6k US in price but offer a 4k S35 like Dragon sensor with up to 120fps recorded in Redcode RAW at 4k resolution. It is not known at this time if other frame rates at lower resolutions will be supported but since other RED cameras do window the sensor for 300fps and the like it is pretty safe to say you will be able to shoot smaller frame with higher frame rates. As to the quality of the 120fps mode it is still up in the air but it could be compressed with RED Code RAW codec in a wavelet lossy format like it does many higher frame rates on other cameras of the line.
The newly announced Sony PXW-FS5 Professional camcorder is like a hybrid of the venerable FS700 of 2012 and last years darling the Sony FS7. It however offers a lot in the way of portability with it’s small profile and a slow motion mode akin to that in the RX100 IV and RX10 II. It seems to be a refined higher resolution mode of the FS700’s slow motion capabilities with better dynamic range and less artifacts to boot. Call it FS700 slowmo v2.0!
The camera comes with an HFR High Frame Rate mode akin to what was introduced in the lower end Sony line this year. You get 120fps recording in full sensor full HD for 16 seconds, 240fps full sensor full HD for 8 seconds.Higher frame rates are as of now not known in duration or frame size quality but according to reps they should be a step up from the FS700 camera.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
