Tag Archives: Chronos

Slow Motion News May 25th 2019!

Slow Motion News May 25th 2019

This year there have been a few surprises that got our attention in the high frame rate market. Some are firmware related, some are entirely new cameras and others are simply rumors that have yet to appear. We found a few things on the web that may shed some light on these happenings. But First…

Note Advisory: It is kind of disheartening that many Youtube channels are posting fake slow motion videos from cameras & Phones that they have no access to in order to receive clicks and advertising. We encourage you to report these videos on the Youtube interface as inaccurate or misleading. That way we may get less garbage and more real samples in the future. Thank you! → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Chronos 2.1 HD Shoots 1000fps 1080p For $5k!

Chronos 2.1 HD Slow Motion Camera

In what could be summed up as a big milestone day in affordable slow motion, Krontech.ca the company behind the excellent 720p 1500fps Chronos 1.4c slow motion camera has now announced ready for pre-order a new 1080p Full HD 1000fps slow motion camera that starts at a bargain basement price of $5,000 US Dollars.  Considering just a few years ago this performance in the Phantom camera space was a six-figure proposition, this is major progress towards a camera that we have been waiting for a long time.

Sure there have been other cameras that democratized the space in the past like the amazing edgertronic SC2X we tested which is a 15,990 USD piece of gear and is capable of 2000fps+ at full HD resolution on an APS-C sized sensor.  Still very cheap compared to other cameras but not exactly affordable for the common shooter. Now the Chronos 2.1 HD is here to change all that and offer in a fully contained package with a ready to shoot kit for a starting price a third of that. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Chronos 1.4 Firmware 0.3.1 b9 Unleashes New Features!

Chronos 1.4 Firmware

The Chronos 1.4c team based in B.C. Canada has been hard at work unleashing the features of the camera hardware and adding software features that should make the camera more valuable to video professionals everywhere. The new firmware adds HDMI live mirroring support for monitoring which is clean and lets you record its output. Another feature is the inclusion of native CinemaDNG save format image sequences which retain 16bits of color data and allow you to really streamline the workflow without time-consuming conversions.

In our testing over the last 4 days, we have really put the firmware “available here” through its paces and found very minimal issues in the software related to usability but no freezes and rock solid operation over around 14hrs of operation.   By saving to CinemaDNG we have no issues with cards getting write space errors due to saving the 1.8MB files individually. We feel this format is really unleashing the camera’s quality fully with a faithful sensor capture representation. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Blackmagic RAW Codec Opens the Future!

Blackmagic RAW Codec

Blackmagic Design may have just solved the problem of RAW video capture for any camera and every type of user. In essence, it gives the benefits of RAW capture while allowing flexibility in file size depending on production needs.  It is a compressed format but by using a clever demosaic algorithm that happens in-camera, it shrinks the file size much more than other formats while preserving quality and RAW features like White Balance, ISO,  exposure,  NR, clarity and color bit depth.

For Slow motion cameras, it may be the codec of the future as it will allow the best quality without the enormous file sizes associated with image sequences like DNG or other RAW formats.  Being open source and free of licenses it aims to be adopted by the entire industry faster than other formats and will be free of the platform-specific nature of codecs like Apple’s ProRes which only works on Mac OS X.  The Blackmagic RAW beta is already available here! → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Chronos 1.4 New Firmware Improves h.264 Image Quality!

Chronos 1.4 New Firmware

The Chronos 1.4 team has been hard at work on firmware improvements. The latest pre-released software patch shared with HSC improves the h.264 file quality at the pixel level by using a new demosaic algorithm to better match the real camera output.  We did a few sample tests to see how big an improvement it is and also to maybe ditch the slow and space eating RAW 16bit workflow which is our preferred file saving format as it retains all the sensor information.

The new improvements are already available to the community as a beta in this post. It is very stable it should immediately improve the way you work with the camera. Also, a new roadmap of upcoming firmware releases was shared in the forums which include HDMI monitoring and a complete OS change to Debian Linux from the current Arago distro for the camera which should improve development and speed in implementing features. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

CHRONOS 1.4 SOFTWARE V0.3 RC2 Released!

Chronos 1.4 Software V0.3 RC2

The Chronos 1.4c Team has released the latest v0.3 RC2 software for testing.  Be aware that this is not mission critical stable software so only use on your own private testing and not for recording mission critical shoots.  The Interface can now be flipped to the left side though we would love to see an option to be concentrated on the lower part for better screen real-estate distribution.

We have tested over the last few days and are happy to report that the software has been stable and rock solid with no lock-ups and no sluggishness.  The Color science was improved since the first v0.3 RC1 release to render the red colors among others more faithfully. In our testing, there was a definite improvement but we would like to see better treatment of the deep blues and magentas. We are happy to see White Balance is now supporting built-in presets! → Continue Reading Full Post ←