Tag Archives: news

Xiaomi Mi5 and Other Phones Rumored at MWC!

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MWC – Mobile World Congress in Barcelona which takes place next week from February 22 to 25th has been heating up the rumor mill when it comes to phone announcements. CES was kind of a weak show for mobile announcements but the MWC Barcelona event will correct all that with many new phones announced.

As we only cover gear that is capable of shooting high frame rates for slow motion video there are some rumored phones that just jump out.  It seems that 120fps at least at 720p is now commonplace enough not to warrant a lot of scrutiny but now the trend is 120fps 1080p and 240fps at 720p as a new standard for flagship phones started by the iPhone 6s and cemented by the Huawei Nexus 6p of 2015. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Varicam LT offers up to 240fps in HD!

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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 ←

Mokacam GoPro Alternative Few Hrs Left!

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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 ←

Ambarella H2 Promises 4k at 120fps!

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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 ←

GoPro Hero 5 Rumored Specs!

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The GoPro Hero 4 series has been quite successful for the company and many are thinking what can they offer next when it comes to camera specs.  The Hero 4 Session showed that miniaturization and form factor change is possible at GoPro and we will not be surprised to see a change in shape and size on the Hero 5 to reduce it’s footprint.   The GoPro mount has also been holding back the platform miniaturization as to remain compatible with accessories and grips of all kinds.  What could happen is to remain compatible but introduce a stronger and smaller mount with some sort of adapter for backward compatibility. This transition will open the way for more portable and stealthy cameras.

Our biggest hint of where the platform is going is what the new Ambarella H1 chip provides.  It is an evolutionary chip-set with a few features geared to UHD recording which suggest that 4k will be the focus going forward. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

RED Raven Will do 120fps at 4k for 6k!

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RED digital cinema has been releasing information about a new camera brain or body that will be just under $6k US in price but offer a 4k S35 like Dragon sensor with up to 120fps recorded in Redcode RAW at 4k resolution.    It is not known at this time if other frame rates at lower resolutions will be supported but since other RED cameras do window the sensor for 300fps and the like it is pretty safe to say you will be able to shoot smaller frame with higher frame rates.   As to the quality of the 120fps mode it is still up in the air but it could be compressed with RED Code RAW codec in a wavelet lossy format like it does many higher frame rates on other cameras of the line.

Sample video of the RED Raven camera interface reaching 120fps at 4k in a Facebook Post! → Continue Reading Full Post ←