So now that the Xperia 1 phone has started shipping to some parts of Asia and Oceania it is time to see what the initial slow motion 960fps samples look like. It seems that the length of the playback video is unchanged at 6.4 seconds for 720p and 3.2 seconds for 1080p. So 96frames are recorded at 1080p 960fps and 192frames at 720p. This is the same restrictive spec for three years in a row by Sony.
You would think by now the phone could have increased the slow motion buffer to something useful like at least half a second instead of 0.2sec for 720p and 0.1sec for 1080p. Think again, it seems we will not get anywhere near usable times in 2019 from the Xperia Line again. Your best bet for recording on Sony will be to get a camera like the excellent RX Series that allow much longer recording times and greater resolution.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
This week Sony Announced Xperia 1, the successor to their previous flagship the Xperia XZ3 with a few new features and a very ultra-wide 21:9 CinemaWide™ 4K HDR OLED display which creates cinematic like aspect ratio UHD video with what they claim Cinealta HDR color science. The footage does look impressive at first glance but we have to remember the small sensor on phones simply cannot compete with an APS-C or Full Frame Cinealta camera sensor.
The good news is that the phone continues to offer the 960fps Full HD 1080p spec as in previous phones the XZ series. Sony chose to not allow initial samples of footage shot in various modes including the high speed because the phone is not finalized. From anecdotal evidence, it seems to compare favorably with their Xperia XZ3 but with some better color characteristics due to the Cinealta heritage color LUTs.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
The Sony RX100 VI camera has not reached the reviewers yet for a full in-depth look but the early press shoots did gather some slow-motion footage which shows the camera in action. We also got a final word from a good source that the camera has the exact same HFR resolution and timing features as the RX100 V which means there is no improvement in the quality of the image when shooting higher frame rates.
In fact, you may even get lesser quality footage due to the lens being now an 8x f2.8 to f4.5 lens 24-200mm (35mm Equivalent) which is much slower and by optical standards, it should trail the 2.91x f/1.8-2.8 Lens 24-70mm (35mm Equivalent) of the RX100 V. So you get a $250 price increase for a better AF system, better color in video, a better tilt screen which is now full touch and the ability to zoom 8x. If those things are important to you then the extra money may be worth it.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
So nearly two years after the excellent RX100 V by Sony was released, which won on our recommendation for slow-motion camera on a budget for both 2016 and 2017, the new RX100 VI or the sixth iteration of this specific camera line has been announced. It keeps the same body size but out goes the fast f1.8-f2.4 lens of old which was surprisingly good for a now average f2.4 to f4.5 24-200mm equivalent or 8x optical zoom which is great as a do it all range. Many are not thrilled but we will have to see if the sensor advancements, the new 4 stop stabilization, and noise suppression works well enough to keep it an acceptable low light option.
Our main interest in these cameras lies in the fact that HFR mode or (High Frame Rate) has been a key selling point since the cameras first appeared. The RX 100 V improved resolution and recording time and we are glad to see that the new RX 100 VI maintains those specs. We estimate it will at least be the same 7sec in Shoot Time Priority and 4 seconds in Quality Priority.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
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 ←
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 ←
