Tag Archives: Leica

P40 Pro Super Slow Motion extends Huawei’s reign!

P40 Pro Super Slow Motion

Last year the Huawei Mate 30 Pro was our slow motion phone of the year with its real 1920fps 720p with interpolated 4x mode to 7680fps and real 960fps at full 1080p. Now Huawei has again brought back the same performance with an even better optical system and what looks like better interpolation algorithms to the new P40 Pro and Pro Plus phones.

The phones have gathered little attention outside of China as Android cannot be updated and the Play Store is not accessible due to US restrictions on Huawei as a technology company that poses a risk to national security. Most of these phones are acquired by the use of importers or the pre-owned market and no US carriers offer them. Still, it is the amazing hardware design and the best slow motion performance on any phone to date that makes it impossible to ignore. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Insta360 ONE R action cam can do 200fps in 1080p!

Insta360 ONE R 4k

2020 is already becoming a very busy year for camera releases. The CES Show this past week had a bunch of announcements in the professional, amateur and aerial drone markets that shoot high frame rates.  We will try to cover the most useful cameras in the coming weeks.  We want to start with the Insta360 ONE R Modular camera from Chinese company Shenzhen Arashi Vision Co., Ltd. which is a very interesting product that de-couples the sensor module from the body so you can interchange the actual imaging hardware on the fly for specific shots/jobs.

The real gem for slow motion fans is the 4K version instead of the 360 and or the 1″ version which both max out at 120fps 1080p instead of 200p.   Many people will cry foul at the 200fps spec when GoPro and DJI do 240fps as do most slow motion capable smartphones but 200fps, if done well with the 100Mbps codec, could be a real diamond in the rough for your arsenal in action cameras. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Panasonic Lumix S1 180fps Slow Motion Is Pretty Good!

Panasonic Lumix S1 180fps Slow Motion

As it was initially unveiled at Photokina last year, the Panasonic Lumix S1 and S1R cameras are their answer to the domination of larger sensors in stills and video mirrorless cameras. Is there any reason now to buy a Full Frame DSLR when mirrorless is so advanced? The only thing we can think of is to have marginally longer battery life. The mirror is on its last legs and fans better start offloading their lenses if they don’t want to mess with adapters. In the case of Panasonic however, it is not possible to use Lumix  Micro 4/3 lenses on the Leica/Sigma/Panasonic Full Frame L-Mount.

The S1 and S1R will both shoot up to 180fps 1080p video with a crop that may or may not be impactful. Seems the S1R has less crop on 1080p than the video geared S1 which is an odd spec. We will have to wait for more samples and info on the HFR mode to see which of these cameras offers the best slow motion performance. From the limited samples, we can say that the quality looks very good and at least on par with the Lumix GH5 at 120fps. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Panasonic S Series Could Taper Slow Motion Curve!

Panasonic S Series

The announcement of the Panasonic S series is a complete acceptance that smaller m4/3 sensors are not the future but the past. As now Canon, Nikon, Fuji, Sony, Leica and now Panasonic have shifted priorities to Full Frame Sensors as mirrorless has allowed the smaller form factor without compromising low light performance and absolute stills image quality.  Fuji is also going strong on Medium Format stills oriented cameras like the new portable GFX 50R which meshes a rangefinder camera with a huge MF sensor.

The move by Panasonic, which had been leading in mirrorless frame rates in continued recording with their Lumix GH5 and GH5s Series up to 240fps 1080p,  will now focus on larger sensors that produce more heat and may be much slower to read at high speeds.  Sony has so far been able to only have 120fps 1080p recording in their a7 series for example.  If the Panasonic S1 at 24MP can only do 120fps 1080p which is still unknown, it will not bode well for slow motion frame rates for some time. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Panasonic Camcorders CES 2018 WXF1K & VX1K

Panasonic Camcorders CES 2018

Panasonic besides formally announcing the GH5s Lumix camera at CES 2018, also introduced 3 new camcorders that will replace their current offerings, in what could be a dependable yearly occurrence.   Panasonic seems to avoid the fact that camcorder sales are probably as rare as Blackberry devices these days but whatever their motivations are, it seems Panasonic, Sony & Canon are keeping the flame alive.

With every introduction, Panasonic seems to improve steadily in image quality and features with continued innovation especially in the areas of HDR imaging and O.I.S Optical Image Stabilization which now sports a hybrid system that uses three technologies to create what might be the best stabilized camcorder ever produced. The demo is certainly impressive and should make every high zoom fan excited about the possibilities of this technology in higher end gear. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Panasonic G9 vs GH5 for Video Compared!

Panasonic G9 vs GH5

Panasonic seems to be doing a lot of things right lately with their fantastic GH5 with 10 bit recording and 4k 60p for the first time in a mirrorless camera and of course the 180fps Full HD slow motion to boot.  The just-announced Lumix G9 is a monster of a camera in its own right but Panasonic is right to segment it as a Stills first and video second machine.

The GH5 is the best video-centric portable camera in recent memory and the aim with the G9 is to go after the Sony a9 which is arguably the best stills camera ever conceived performance wise.  The G9 is capable of shooting 60 RAW images in a single burst per second and while the buffer is only 50 RAWs worth; it becomes easily renewed thanks to dual card slots. → Continue Reading Full Post ←