Warning: The parent company of FPS cameras “The Slow Motion Camera Company Ltd.” went out of business and entered liquidation proceedings. No further development of cameras is expected. More information here on Google Search!
While there has been little chatter on the high speed fps1000 project this past month; that was no deterrent from the continuing development of the project itself. Graham Rowan the creator of the camera has posted an update with just a few quick notes.
The Sony a6000 was a good middle of the line performer with pretty competitive performance. The new a6300 is a refined version with some pretty robust improvements in the video area.
For starters the 4k 30p, 24p, 25p video internal mode records in the robust XAVC-S video format at up to 100Mbps which is comparable to what the Panasonic GH4 and a7s II cameras record 4k into. It also has S-Log3 Gamma for a flat profile for creative grading and LUT application for editors and colorists. If you were looking for a Sony 4k alternative in an S35 crop sensor then this is the camera for you. Furthermore the 4k mode is using the entire S35 frame and correctly down-sampling the image for extremely crisp looking 4k video from a 6k original sensor source.
SIGMA has released a compelling video showing their new process for ceramic lens filters being compared to other brands in a metallic ball drop test. The ball weighs 49 grams or 1.7 oz and it is dropped from a height of four feet.
According to SIGMA, their strengthening ceramic process is 10x or 1000% stronger than previous strengthening methods which are included in the video as the competition to compare them.
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.
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.
Many promised and didn’t deliver and some have yet to ship which means they will not be counted in the running. Only cameras that are shipping and fully available are being considered for this list. Other cameras like the edgertronic offer better quality slow motion at higher frame rates for a similar price but this list is only about cameras introduced in 2015.