Tag Archives: black friday

BEST SLOW MOTION CAMERAS OF 2021!

 

We have passed another year in slow motion land and while camera releases were more plenty than expected considering the chip shortage and teh COVID disruption, it’s time to take a look back through the year’s camera releases, and see which delivered on the price/performance scale when it comes to slow motion frame rates.  Phones are stagnationg while high end cameras are getting more frame rate options in higher resolution. Our Best Slow Motion Cameras Of 2021 have been selected and ordered by recommendation! → Continue Reading Full Post ←

BEST SLOW MOTION CAMERAS OF 2020!

BEST SLOW MOTION CAMERAS OF 2020

As the end of 2020 nears, it’s time to take a look back through the year’s camera releases amid the COVID 19 chaos, and see which delivered on the price/performance bracket with slow motion frame rates as the primary goal.  Phone slow motion took a back seat this year as the interest of the feature in phones was subdued or even eliminated. Our Best Slow Motion Cameras Of 2020 have been selected and ordered by recommendation!

We saw some surprises including a mostly affordable 4k slow motion solution and the adoption of 4k 120fps on many cameras which makes us think 240fps at UHD should be something to think about in the coming years as a regular option once 8k video is commonplace on consumer recording devices and TVs. The increase in resolution should theoretically allow for a lot of 4k frame rates to be offered as 8k delivers 4x the pixel count of 4k for any given frame rate. Keep on reading for our 2020 picks!

BEST SLOW MOTION CAMERAS of 2020:

Without further ado here are what we believe are the best value slow motion cameras in their respective categories for the year 2020:

Best Slow Motion Phone Category:

3rd Place) Sony Xperia 5 II:

The Sony Xperia 5 II is all about capturing the best video possible on a smartphone and in HDR. The kick here is that the phone is capable of 4k 120fps in full HDR which is pretty much class-leading.

The footage below will give you a taste of what the phone can do. In good light, it will let you capture excellent quality 4k 120p footage with the possibility to grade as it records a gradable flat profile.  In low light, it will be a pretty unremarkable image with grain and artifacts as could be expected from the light requirements when shooting at high speed.

Sony Xperia 5 II: 4K 120fps video footage by CNET Highlights:

Sony Xperia 5 II Slow Motion Specs:

  • 120fps 4k
  • 60fps 1080p

This is one of the first phones to offer 120fps in 4k which will probably become a standard spec in 2021 for flagships. However absent is the slow motion at 1080p which considering the 4k oomph, it should have been capable of 480fps at 1080p or similar. It is a shame that the spec was completely avoided considering HDR in 120fps 4k requires 240fps full pixel readout before merging.  In theory, 240fps non-HDR is possible on this phone but not available for unspecified reasons. Phones are becoming more powerful by the day and this is one that has our attention. The just under $1k price tag is not ideal but some of the best phones are going to cost you.

2nd Place) OnePlus 8T:

One Plus continues to offer compelling slow motion features on their phones with 480fps 1080p and up to 480fps at 720p.  It gives you a quad 48MP camera module which is literally insane considering the phone sells for under $750USD and has 120hz refresh rate. Feature-wise it has probably everything under the sun and then some and will not disappoint in the performance realm.

Fireworks in Slow motion – OnePlus 8T 480fps in dark by sternking: → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Cyber Monday Slow Motion Camera Deals!

Cyber Monday Slow Motion Camera Deals

We have gathered a few deals that may or may not peak your interest in a slow motion capable camera. Some of these are too good to pass up and some are just middle of the road. We have taken advantage of some of these over the years and it may be just what you were waiting for to pull the trigger.  If you have some cash saved and have been waiting for a good opportunity, some of the discounts are large enough to beat any past deals on these cameras.

If you have not bought any new cameras this year we feel it is time to take a look at these and make a choice for that high frame rate cam you have had in your sights.  Also, camera memory is on sale as are some lights, it is probably the right time for both as well.  If you find any more slow motion deals that we passed up, please let us know.

Cyber Monday Slow Motion Camera Deals:

  1. GoPro Hero 9 Black with $50 Amazon Gift card for free. All for just $399 after saving a combined $100! –240fps Full HD Capture!

2. GoPro Hero 8 Black Bundle + Extra Floating Handle, Includes Hero8 Black Camera, Shorty Handle, Headstrap, 32gb SD Card, 2 Batteries, and a Floating Handle For Just $299 – 14% off-240p FHD

3. Sony ZV-1 Camera for Content Creators, Vlogging and YouTube with Flip Screen and Microphone just $698 after $100 off. 240fps at full HD and Up to 1,000fps at reduced resolutions. 

4. Sony a7 III (ILCE7M3K/B) Full-frame Mirrorless Interchangeable-Lens Camera with 28-70mm Lens with 3-Inch LCD, Black120fps full HD with tracking excellent quality!  14% off from $2198 to just $1,898.00!

5. Sony RX100 VII Premium Compact Camera with 1.0-type stacked CMOS sensor (DSCRX100M7) $1,198.00 save $100  – Up to 1000fps slow motion with excellent 1080p 240fps slow motion video.

6. Panasonic LUMIX GH5 4K Digital Camera, 20.3 Megapixel Mirrorless Camera with Digital Live MOS Sensor, 5-Axis Dual I.S. 2.0, 4K 4:2:2 10-Bit Video, Full-Size HDMI Out, 3.2-Inch LCD, DC-GH5 (Black) Save $700 USD or 35% off!

120fps and 180fps Full HD slow motion with no time limit!

7.Sony RX100VA (NEWEST VERSION) 20.1MP Digital Camera: RX100 V Cyber-shot Camera with Hybrid 0.05 AF, 24fps Shooting Speed & Wide 315 Phase Detection – 3” OLED Viewfinder & 24-70mm Zoom Lens – Wi-Fi   Up to 1000fps slow motion with excellent 1080p 240fps mode!

8. Sony Cyber‑Shot RX10 IV with 0.03 Second Auto-Focus & 25x Optical Zoom (DSC-RX10M4)  Save $100Up to 1000fps slow motion with excellent 1080p 240fps mode!

Special Slow Motion Deals:

1) Krontech.ca the makers of the Chronos slow motion camera are having a 10% off sale until November 30th for any product in their site including the Chronos 1.4c and Chronos 2.1 HD cameras.  The savings here are very substantial. Use Promo code at checkout:

Promo Code At Checkout!
HAPPYCHRONOSBF2020

 

2) Prolost.com store is having a 50% off on all its software bundles including the excellent Prolost Speedramp to edit your high frame rate video professionally.  Code to use is “CYBER” at checkout!

 

3) Topaz Labs suite of software products.

Topaz Suite for 68% off

The folks at Topaz labs makers of Video Enhance AI are having a huge price reduction for their entire suite of products.  You can increase the resolution of your slow motion video incredibly well – up to 8k resolution with breathtaking results.  Go to the site link here for details. The savings are 68% off which is pretty remarkable. https://topazlabs.com/black-friday/

4) Camera SD Card memory deals for Cyber Monday: savings on dozens of cards from every brand at Amazon!

There you go, many excellent deals for you to ponder. We thank you for your visit and support by visiting our Amazon Product links for your purchase at no extra cost to you! -HSC

 

 

BEST SLOW MOTION CAMERAS OF 2019!

As 2019 comes to a close its that time to take a look back through the year’s camera releases and see which delivered the goods at an affordable price in slow motion.  Phone slow motion continues to be a strong category, so strong in fact that we made a Best Slow Motion Phones of 2019 list that you can see here.

Stagnation in many camera segments aside from phones is still ongoing, the semi-professional and pro markets stay at 120fps and 240fps with the occasional 320fps camera that delivers just a tad better quality but at a price.  For professional slow motion, there were announcements but not a shipping product yet, however previously released cameras like the Chronos 1.4c and edgertronic still own the affordable quality market. Read on for our best of 2019 results!

BEST SLOW MOTION CAMERAS of 2019:

Without further ado here are what we believe are the best value slow motion cameras in their respective categories for the year 2019:

Best Slow Motion Phone Category:

We had 5 finalists for slow motion phone of 2019 and while the Mate 30 Pro below got the top marks, the iPhone 11 and OnePlus 7 series had great showings, go to the dedicated article for the rest of the phone options.

 Huawei Mate 30 Pro:

Coming out of left field from a company that has been in the news as being in trouble with the US government, the Huawei Mate 30 Pro which is not shipping in the US officially but can be found from online import sellers, is the slow motion phone champ of 2019.

Huawei Mate 30 Pro Slow Motion Specs Dissected:

  • 120fps 1080p Continuous
  • 240fps 1080p Continuous
  • 960fps 1080p for 1 full second (960 frames in total)
  • 1920fps 720p for 1/2 second  (960 frames in total)
  • 7680fps 720p interpolated 4x (lasts for 32 seconds on a 30p timeline.)
  • All super slow motion modes at 960p and above last 32 seconds of playback at 30fps regular speed.
  • The entire buffer for the slow motion feature is 2GB and gets filled by data then dumped and encoded on the fly by the Kirin 990 chip.

This is the first phone that truly records 1920fps slow motion in 720p mode for 1/2 a second or 960 frames and then does excellent interpolation to a whopping 7,680fps 720p to create mind-bending images.   It is especially good for people, animals, and hard non-deformable objects. It will of curse fail as any algorithm with fluids, powders, and heavily detailed objects and will create a soft mushy in-between frame in those cases.  If you do not choose interpolation mode then you can get real slow motion for up to 32 seconds of playback on a 30p timeline which is excellent for a phone.

If you decide to buy it, the phone has a few issues to keep in mind. Due to US government restrictions, it will not ship with a  full version of Android with the Google Apps and not have access to the Playstore.  However several workarounds have been worked out in forums to make this phone usable. The other is that it is a Chinese phone which may need you to get help from someone who understands/reads Chinese to make the setup and get to work in English after.    We do not recommend this phone as your main handset as the support of updates will probably be negated in the US but if you are in China, this is a great flagship phone.  If you are outside of China, make sure you can live with the limitations in the software.

960fps,1920fps and 7680fps test – Huawei Mate 30 Pro incredible Slow Motion by Slow Experiment:

As you can see from the sample above and these other samples at HSC, the quality is quite good and the time is usable easily as a sports and experimentation high speed mode.  It will of course not replace a dedicated slow motion camera for quality work but it is still an amazing development to get real 1920fps 720p and 960fps 1080p even with some artifacts in a portable device.

Huawei may be in hot water with the US government for some time but they have consistently delivered amazing hardware that is probably the cutting edge worldwide.  We are excited about the future of phone slow motion and considering the giant leap that happened here, it is not unrealistic to think that really good 1080p 2,000fps or similar could be very close.  At least for a small-time recording but it will really be magical.

Huawei has made an incredible slow motion phone on the Mate 30 Pro and if they read this, send a handset our way to test and offer samples of reference.  As of now, their new handset is the one to beat. -HSC

Mid Range Professional Cameras:

This year the semi-pro camera market had some very good surprises when it comes to cameras that can shoot RAW files at very high quality and also allow for windowed slow motion modes.

Two of our picks are from Blackmagic design which is a known name in the affordable quality camera market. They have been able to deliver RAW and compressed RAW with BRAW format for very little investment compared to many other brands.  The quality delivered by these cameras are really cinema-quality so the trade-offs when stepping down are more to do with changing a camera system for producers rather than giving up the footage grading ability or low light performance.

Third Place: URSA MINI PRO 4.6K G2

The URSA Mini Pro G2 had a firmware update mid-year that allowed for 300fps in a windowed 2k pixel mode that has great quality and can be stabilized for excellent 1080p production quality.  For under $6k for body only the price is not that high for a camera that can really bring your production values up.   It gets a third place because the cost of owning the camera goes up with accessories like media, lenses, batteries, monitoring, and storage for editing. A good kit can easily get in the 15k range. The BRAW format is excellent but not for everyone.  ProRes is also a possibility and probably what many producers will shoot in when need to deliver in a rush.

High Speed Frame Rates on the URSA Mini G2:

Blackmagic RAW 8:1

4.6K Full – Up to 120 fps
UHD Windowed – Up to 150 fps
HD Windowed – Up to 300 fps

With 4k UHD at 150fps it makes for a killer feature rarely available on other cameras and the 300fps in HD or 2k allows for that extra oomph within your creative shoot.

300fps UMP G2 test 190629 by Reel Eagle Studios: → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Black Friday Slow Motion Camera Deals 2019!

Black Friday Slow Motion Camera Deals

It is that time of the year again, to save on that coveted piece of kit that you have been eyeing for the better part of the year. We have gathered the deals that contain the slow motion camera capable gear so that you can browse fast and save time. Remember that with every link you support HSC at no added cost to you.

Camera deals page direct link!

Thank you for helping us continue this website with your help!

Amazon Black Friday All Deals in Camera and Photo:

 

Black Friday Deals On DJI Products:

Sony Camera Deals For Black Friday at Adorama:

Sony Alpha a7 III 24MP UHD 4K Mirrorless Camera (Body) W/Free PC Accessory Bundle:

Alpha a7 III 24MP UHD 4K Mirrorless Camera with 28-70mm Lens – Bundle 32GB SDHC U3 Card, C

Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 VA Digital Camera, Black – Bundle With 32GB SDHC U3 Card, Camera Case

OnePlus 8 960fps slow motion spec at 720p might be included!

OnePlus 8 960fps slow motion

Rumors surrounding the 2020 release of the OnePlus 8 phone are already heating up with a tentative May release date and a new camera module that can capture 960fps super slow motion at 720p, a clear step up from their previous phones at 480p.  The OnePlus 7T can shoot 960fps but it is an interpolated mode from doubling the frames of 480p  by 2x and doing the in-betweens in software.

What is interesting is that OnePlus since the OnePlus 6 has allowed for a full minute of playback in super slow motion from their 480p mode and has been one of the go-to phones for dependable slow motion capture that offers the longest recording time still to this day in higher than 240p modes.

OnePlus 8 Rumored Camera Specs for 2020:

Back Module:

Triple Camera Modules 48 MP, f/1.6, (wide), 1/2″, 0.8µm, PDAF, Laser AF, OIS
8 MP, f/2.4, (telephoto), 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom
16 MP, f/2.2, 13mm (ultrawide), AF
Other Features Dual-LED flash, HDR, panorama
Video Modes 2160p@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/240fps, 720p@480fps, 720p@960fps, Auto HDR, gyro-EIS

Front Camera (Selfie):

Single 16 MP, f/2.0, 25mm (wide), 1/3.1″, 1.0µm
Features Auto-HDR Mode
Video 1080p@30fps, gyro-EIS

The specs above give us some hints as to the abilities of the camera module.  The 48MP spec is common on today’s releases like that of the Huawei Mate 30 Pro and it is consistent with the ability to shoot 960fps video. However, the sensor is capable on that phone of true 1080p at 960p and 720p at 1920fps which is the current record holder for phones.  See this post for more information on what this Huawei phone can do today…

The Current OnePlus 7T phone that is capable of 480fps 720p and a 960fps mode is deceiving. The 960p mode being released by software soon is interpolated and while it does a good job there is no question it is cutting corners.  The new OnePlus 8 should help get everything in line with the competition and offer true 960fps at a reasonable recording time. If they can get several seconds recording time it would be a really powerful performer for slow motion users. Time recording can be more important than frame rates as long as the resolution is good or acceptable.

OnePlus 7T Slow Motion Video Test || Full Hd (1080p) 240 fps & HD (720p) 480fps Slow Mo Footage by V4 VIDEOS:

As you can see in the video sample above the 480fps mode on the 7T is very good and detailed and a step up from the 7 Pro which was more pixelated. We will have more samples from the 7T as availability is scarce at this moment.

If OnePlus can pull off 960fps with a decent enough quality level then it will be a real contender for the slow motion phone of the year. Many variables will weigh on the verdict and the recording length, that being one of them. It is a phone that will cause more detailed inspection by us in the future. Stay Tuned -HSC

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