Category Archives: Hardware Development

Chronos 4k12 and Q12 Hi-Speed Announced!

Krontech the Canadian Hi-speed camera company has released press information for two new global shutter camera releases due to ship in 2024.  While they did excellent work with the Chronos 1.4 720p and Chronos 2.1 HD 1080p slow motion cameras, many users of the platform clamored for more resolution and better image quality.  Enter the new Chronos 4k12 a full 4k Camera capable of 1,397 FPS at 8 bit 4096 x 2160 resolution or at 3840 x 2160
UHD 1,491 FPS.  

To put this in perspective, the Phantom 4k camera does 4k at 1k fps and costs around $80k USD for a starter kit.  This new Chronos camera has some serious punch for the TV, Web, and Film industries that need the extra resolution. We can see many production houses adopting this camera for production without breaking the bank in a compact and fully contained package.  → Continue Reading Full Post ←

DJI Ronin 4D Delivers Cinematic Stabilized Slow Motion!

In what could be called a new paradigm or class of camera, DJI the drone maker has launched a couple of cinema full-frame cameras geared to professional productions that merge their Ronin gimbal products with their Drone pro Zenmuse cameras to create a massively appealing system for pros and enthusiasts that want no compromise stabilization with enough image quality to be able to use them in professional productions for TV and film.  The pricing at just over 11.5k for the 8k version and 7.2k for the 6k version is small potatoes for movie and TV studios but might put off some buyers. 

It is of note that a fully working system bundle is assembled at that price which is much better than other options. It includes the Gimbal, camera and body, 1TB SSD M.2 card, battery, touch screen and cabling. In cinema systems like RED and ARRI this is just the brain or camera body with everything else being added on top as ancillary costs. The frame rates on these cameras are limited to 120fps as the highest at 4k and 75fps at 8k.  They might not be huge but the quality and stabilization should make them quite useful.  → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Sony IMX472-AAJK sensor offers huge frame rates in 4/3ds format!

Sony has released some white paper specs on a new Micro 4/3rds sensor that is as of now, the most advanced ever on the format considering the mix of Backside illumination, Stacked technology and high resolution color at 10 bits on full sensor read outs. The frame rates offered are also quite impressive with up to 1139fps at 0.46 Megapixels or 1760px Horizontal x 262px Vertical on the fastest range and 121fps at the full sensor area read-out at 20.9MP.

The Panasonic GH6 is coming later this year and it is estimated that this new sensor is actually the one that will be used on that camera. If Lumix technology can make full use of the sensor specs even for small fractions of time, we could have a killer slow motion mass produced camera.  The VFR mode on Panasonic Lumix cameras has always been more than acceptable and they could breathe new life into the format if these sensor specs are used to their fullest. We expect at least 1080p at 240fps which will be a slightly stretched delivery from the 1760 x 1318 240.2fps mode listed on the sensor specs → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Sony Xperia 1 III is Slow Motion Capable!

Sony has now released the third iteration of their Xperia 1 series which are the flagship phones from the company that really push the capabilities of the brand. Many point out that Sony smartphones are excellently made and perform admirably while also including the now coveted 3.5mm audio jack which has been removed at the behest of Apple iPhone influence in the vast majority of phones. We will say it once more, USB C audio adapters are terrible connections compared to 3.5mm jacks which offer the best possible audio transmission possibilities without compression and other trade-offs.

The new Sony Xperia 1 III continues the 120fps 4k HDR pedigree of the Xperia 1 II which is clearly a much-coveted feature for video enthusiasts. This time around the phone improves color, compression, and HDR fidelity to deliver an outstanding image when light allows it. The phone also has the typical 1080p 120fp and 240fps frame rate that have been showing up as commonplace features in flagship smartphones but absent is any higher frame rates that were included the Motion Eye TM technology used in previous Sony phones allowing 1000fps 1080p recording for a short time. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Canon New Cinema Camera Will do 240fps in 4k!

Canon it seems is thinking 3 steps ahead of everyone else when it comes to pro 8k video.  After being left behind in the adoption of 4k and playing catch up to the format, they seem intent on making their cameras the new 8k default option with specs that seem out of a dreamer’s wish list.  Be warned that these cameras will probably start at $10k USD and go up from there. The low end should be about 10k to $15k for the C300s at the low end, and the high end a $30k price tag for a C700DR.  

The most impressive of the new rumored cameras is the Canon EOS C700DR (DR Stands for Dynamic Range) which will be capable of recording 4k not just at 120fps but a class-leading 240fps with excellent quality. It also hints at a 180fps mode that will have expanded dynamic range if needed.   It is interesting that 1080p as a slow motion mode is not even considered here but these cameras are geared to a specific market and that is digital cinema which needs much more resolution nowadays than what even 2k can deliver, much less 1080p.  → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Samsung ISOCELL GN2 does 480fps!

The hegemony of phone sensors has been the purview of Sony with their Exmor sensors for many years but now Samsung has started making inroads in the space with their ISOCELL chips. The latest is currently mass-produced and shipping in handsets already which is not a paper launch, but a real thing. The chip is capable of massive low light improvement compared to other sensors because it is essentially a near 1″ sensor with 1/1.12-inch measurements. This is close to what Sony RX cameras use as a main sensor, and a first for a phone.

As to how they are able to fit this sensor on phones, it is a dance between a protruding camera bump that is a little larger than usual and also a lens system that creates a full imaging circle from a minute distance. The GN2 is capable of recording 480fps in HD 720p, 4k 120fps, 30fps in 12.5MP windowed size and 10fps in 100MP mode which uses a clever algorithm and three RGB exposures to derive a 100MP image from the 50MP source. → Continue Reading Full Post ←