Panasonic has released the specs of a new smaller version of their Varicam professional video camera with an S35mm sensor. The Varicam LT is the low cost version of the Varicam 35 which has higher end specs at a significantly higher price. The Varicam 35 has a 4k mode that allows up to 120fps at full 4k resolution while the Varicam LT has less power at a maximum of 4k 60fps.
The LT is mostly identical after that 4k downgrade in the rest of it’s capabilities with dual native ISO of 800 ISO and 5000 ISO for extremely clean image quality at those native ISOs. The Sensor itself is built for those opportunities that need higher sensitivity but also allow to shoot at reduced sensitivity for bright conditions. This is great news for the use of the high frame rate feature. The inclusion of EF mount and PL signify the seriousness of the product for an installed base of videographers and film makers with a growing arsenal of Canon and PL glass instead of Panasonic only lenses. They also state that EF lens compatibility will need to be tested and they will not support it directly.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
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.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
The GoPro Like competitor project Mokacam on indiegogo has reached their goal 13x over or 1329% with over 660k USD by their backers. The project is just hours away from closing funding and a few of their offer kits are still available. If for anything it is a very cheap way to get into 4k at 15fps on a small GoPro like camera for under $200 USD with options for a tilt screen, pluggable magnetic batteries and even a portable electronic gimble for the tiny wonder of a camera.
What jumps out is how good the image quality is and all the surmounted obstacles that the team successfully accomplished to get the camera ready for production. It is not as strong in the frame rates as the GoPro Hero 4 black as it is only 15fps at 4k but it is not it’s function to eclipse that camera but to offer an alternative at a very low cost. It also offers a 1080p 60, 120fps 720p mode and a 240fps VGA mode hence why we are covering it as a high speed camera.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
Regardless of what the GoPro and Ambarella marriage can provide in tandem hardware it is clear the company wants to branch out of the fledgling sales of GoPro which have tanked in recent quarters and the stock price from a high near a $100 USD is now trading at a mere $12 which is half the IPO price. By branching out it seems they want their chips in many more imaging devices and be less affected by the GoPro product cycle.
The announced H2 and H12 chips are able to provide beefy 4k specs at high frame rates for mobile devices at a mere 2 Watts of power. As to 1080p frame rates it will remain to be seen how this powerful new chip can handle that in a camera design and how it is implemented to squeeze that performance. 120fps at 4k from the H2 in theory should be able to yield 480fps at 1080p just counting the Pixel processing. This however can be limited by the rest of the components like imaging sensor.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
The end of 2015 is upon us and now it is time to look back and see what the year brought us in the shape of affordable slow motion gear. While many cameras had higher frame rates, only a few really shined and delivered on the promise of offering HD quality and higher than normal frames per second in an attractive price point and one that you may already own if you have a recent mobile device.
We usually do not take much credibility to rumored specs and devices until they are close to release as it is usually the time when the big leaks happen. In the case of the Samsung Galaxy S7 flagship phone we got a rumor of what could be an interesting development when it comes to the slow motion capability of the phone’s camera.
The feature set according to our source identified as only “Rampart27” claims that the Galaxy S7 will have the most advanced camera yet in a Galaxy phone with the following rumored specs:→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
