Something that came out of NAB 2016 is the paper launch of the CRAFT Camera a modular low cost professional camera that can record in Pro Res and Cinema DNG RAW with more formats to be announced.
It is unclear at this point if frame rates will ever be higher than 120fps but since the 4k spec also includes them; it remains a solid option for 4k slow motion at 120fps or 5x slow motion at 24p playback. For a 4k camera the pricing of $2,984 for a full 4k Cinema package is not to shabby!
Seems that Samsung has hit a home run with the Galaxy S7 smartphone release. It has broken their order records and they are positioned to report improved earnings of 10.4% in part because of the S7. It seems the decision to re introduce water resistance, a swappable battery and expandable memory has given back some of the identity they lost with the S6 line.
This time we look at the recent footage from owners of the phone to see the slow motion quality improvements made to the phone. While they skipped full HD 1080p 120fps which the iPhone 6s has; they did improve the 720p mode with 240fps. It is time to see what they were able to achieve for high frame rate quality.
Mobile World Congress in Barcelona came and went and two phones are the real stars of the show. The Galaxy S7 by Samsung and the LG G5 which are both of the most anticipated Android phones ever. The Korean companies go head to head on features and looks and while they are close in specs they differ a lot when it comes to camera specs and the fine details.
The LG G5 disappoints by only being able to record at 1080p 60fps which tops it’s frame rate recording. This is even a step down from the LG G4 which recorded 120fps at 720p. The LG G5 as a slow motion phone is now off the table. Which leaves us with the Samsung Galaxy S7 and it’s near twin the Galaxy S7 Edge with a curved screen but same specs.
MWC – Mobile World Congress in Barcelona which takes place next week from February 22 to 25th has been heating up the rumor mill when it comes to phone announcements. CES was kind of a weak show for mobile announcements but the MWC Barcelona event will correct all that with many new phones announced.
As we only cover gear that is capable of shooting high frame rates for slow motion video there are some rumored phones that just jump out. It seems that 120fps at least at 720p is now commonplace enough not to warrant a lot of scrutiny but now the trend is 120fps 1080p and 240fps at 720p as a new standard for flagship phones started by the iPhone 6s and cemented by the Huawei Nexus 6p of 2015.
Nicolas Vuignier is an extreme skier and pretty able action camera man that has devised a contraption that creates a centrifugal force tether to suspend a camera in this case an iPhone 6 and record 360 degree slow motion video for a “The Matrix” like bullet time effect while descending from a steep snow covered mountain.
He is working on a behind the scenes video “Making Of” which will show how he was able to do it in terms of gear, the tether and the skills necessary to pull it off. In theory a tether like this could be used with even more slow motion capable cameras at higher frame rates for an even greater effect.
The Odyssey7Q+ by convergent design has always been able to record faster than normal frame rates but now it is able to do so directly into Pro Res bypassing RAW capture all-together which yielded massive file sizes. With the new ProRes recording workflow you can use more high frame rate capture in your productions without needing new hard drive arrays.