Tag Archives: night mode

Alice Camera and why the Future is Bright!

Alice Camera

The Alice Camera, launched to great success this month has to be the most hopeful product for the future of cameras that we have seen lately. It marries the Sony IMX294, a 10.7 megapixel 4/3 sensor with a custom chipset including the Edge TPU chip from Google for AI and an FPGA for calculations.  The result is a camera body with the same sensor as the GH5s which is a killer low light camera capable of excellent 4k footage and images with super low noise.

Then the camera back is attached to your Android or Apple smartphone to gain an interface and software to control it. The camera is capable of using the latest research for computational photography including HDR with multiple exposures merging, tracking, night mode, averaging of pixels, and as an open-source architecture, you can add features by other coders or your own to make the camera increase the feature set. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Fuji X-T4 Slow Motion is the new king of APS-C!

Fuji X-T4 Slow Motion

At the end of February right before the Pandemic really got going worldwide and when the world seemed a lot simpler, Fuji surprised us with the launch of the Fuji X-T4 APS-C 1.5x crop sensor body.  It comes completely unexpected to the community of slow motion enthusiasts as the majority of cameras only support a maximum of 120fps with a few Panasonics doing 180p and only the GH5s doing 240fps 1080p.

What makes this camera different is the quality of the output at 240p which is far and above the king in the APS-C format and destroys the GH5s aliased image with a very good and detailed rendition of the scene with a codec strong enough to allow for enough detail and color to really push the format further than any EVIL mirrorless camera before it.

Fuji X-T4 Slow Motion Video Modes:

Recording MOV/H.264/H.265 10-Bit
DCI 4K (4096 x 2160) at 23.976p/24.00p/25p/29.97p/50p/59.94p [100 to 400 Mb/s]
UHD 4K (3840 x 2160) at 23.976p/24.00p/25p/29.97p/50p/59.94p [100 to 400 Mb/s]
DCI 2K (2048 x 1080) at 23.976p/24.00p/25p/29.97p/50p/59.94p [50 to 200 Mb/s]
Full HD (1920 x 1080) at 23.976p/24.00p/25p/29.97p/50p/59.94p/100p/119.88p/240p [50 to 200 Mb/s]
External Recording Modes 10-Bit
DCI 4K (4096 x 2160)
Recording Limit Up to 30 Minutes
Video Encoding NTSC/PAL
Audio Recording Built-In Microphone (Stereo)
External Microphone Input (Stereo)
Audio File Format AAC, Linear PCM (Stereo)

Still Imaging Specs:

Lens Mount FUJIFILM X
Camera Format APS-C (1.5x Crop Factor)
Pixels Effective: 26.1 Megapixel
Maximum Resolution 6240 x 4160
Aspect Ratio 1:1, 3:2, 16:9
Sensor Type CMOS
Sensor Size 23.5 x 15.6 mm
Image File Format JPEG, Raw, TIFF
Bit Depth 16-Bit
Image Stabilization Sensor-Shift, 5-Axis

So we get the usual 120fps NTSC and 100fps PAL formats you have come to expect on most other cameras and then jumps straight to 240fps at what seems like 200Mbits/sec according to the specs (Further testing needed) listed on the official site.

The camera also has a 6.5 Stop 5-Axis IBIS sensor stabilized system that from what has been tested is right up there with the best Panasonic and Olympus systems.  Fuji has really created the best APS-C camera it has ever made here for the enthusiast and maybe the best in the format ever released for videographers and at 15fps and Phase Detection enabled 425 AF points for photographers; it is no slouch.

Fuji X-T4 240fps Sample videos:

Here are some initial samples that show the 240fps slow motion mode at 1080p.  We believe this will be a camera to consider for high frame rate enthusiasts that want to shoot sports and people/animals in pretty remarkable quality while at the same time having a do it all video and photo camera with the Fuji quality behind it.

240fps & IBIS?! Fuji X-T4 FIRST LOOK! by Matt Day:

Fujifilm XT4 Review // HANDS ON tests of IBIS, Flippy screen, 240fps 1080p, and the “4k vlog test” by Tommy Callaway: → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Panasonic S1H and OnePlus 7 Quick Take!

Panasonic S1H and OnePlus 7

Panasonic not to be outdone by sales rivals is pre-announcing the S1H camera to appease video-centric mirrorless users who want that extra edge.  It has a 6k mode which will allow for better stabilization and cropping/punching in on 4k timelines while giving the user bragging rights.  It has a 14 stop dynamic range spec which if we look at the sensor it is only on a couple of capture settings the rest is 12 bit.

There is also no mention of higher frame rates besides UHD 4k 60p which we presume will be 180fps 1080p max since this camera shares nearly the same internals as the other Panasonic S1 cameras. We do not expect this camera to have better slow motion video than the regular S1 even with its $4000 price tag.  The camera looks to be aimed at the mid-high end of the video market and allow it to record without limits which on the regular S1 is 29min.

Panasonic S1H key features:

  • Full frame sensor capture of 6K/24p in 3:2
  • Capture 5.9K at 30p in 16:9 aspect ratio
  • Super 35mm 1.5x cropped DCI 4K 60p 10bit
  • Open gate 4:3 anamorphic mode
  • V-LOG and 10bit 4:2:2 codecs included without upgrade key!
  • Red Frontal and top Recording Button
  • Vents and heat sink to help with overheating
  • IBIS not specified
  • GH5 style vari-angle screen
  • $4000 / Fall 2019 release date (Lumix S1 is $2500)

Lumix Live Event Cine Gear Expo S1H Announcement:

It is hard to justify this camera for the market in our opinion. The S1 is almost as capable costing $1500 less. You are getting the extended recording time, a better codec and a flippy screen. you seem to lose IBIS which is a must for run and gun shooters and all of us who like using our cameras without sticks. No mention of slow motion which is why we think it will be unchanged from the S1 180fps spec.

We estimate the camera is using the Sony IMX410CQK Sensor which you can find the specs in this PDF Flyer here!

The sensor is capable of windowed frame rates of up to 1628fps at 2020*96px which is hardly usable for serious imaging and includes a more usable 2020*1342 at 150fps.  The 180fps 1080p spec is further windowed down and as we have seen with the regular S1 we have no 1:1 pixel read out in these modes as aliasing and moire are apparent. There is some resolution loss to cope for the sensor readout constraints.

LUMIX S1H Sample Video by Alicia Robbins – Cine Gear Expo 2019 by LUMIX Cameras:

The camera is capable of recording very good quality images as evidenced from the pre-production video above. However, do not expect any huge leaps compared to an S1 to justify the price. If you were put in a position to buy one of these cameras for production, in very few cases will the S1H make more sense than an expendable S1 with 95% as good quality but with a 30min recording limitation.

Sure the 14-bit color and 10 bit 4k DCI continuous recording will be enough for most serious filmmakers to justify but we are guessing Sony will have a big say with their rumored Alpha a7s III which is so long into the cycle that rumors are getting cobwebs. Sony has the technology to really create something special with that camera and maybe get us some very high frame rates to boot.  We would advise everyone to wait it out and see what Sony has in store before plunking any cash for a Panasonic Full Frame system, especially since they are still stubborn enough to keel DfD Autofocus instead of the highly superior Dual Pixel Phase which is standard on Sony and Canon Cameras to name a few. The S1H should include Phase detection but won’t of course.  More info as it becomes available.

OnePlus 7 Specs Released!

While the phone is not out yet but will soon, it is essentially the same exact form factor and screen as last year’s 6T but with the internals of the OnePlus 7 Pro which makes it a better phone in terms of speed and memory characteristics. The camera module is not all there but close with the main 48Megapixel Sony IMX586 sensor that is capable of 480fps at 720p resolution.

OnePlus 7 Pro vs OnePlus 7 vs OnePlus 6T: which one to buy? by Mr. Phone: → Continue Reading Full Post ←

OnePlus 7 Pro Slow Motion Maintains 480fps 720p Spec!

OnePlus 7 Pro Slow Motion

Today the OnePlus 7 Pro was announced after a plethora of leaks over the previous weeks. However, the Slow Motion capabilities were not disclosed in the leaks so we had no rumor to report on that front. Today with the full spec list released we can see that the OnePlus 7 Pro camera has the new Sony IMX 586 mobile sensor which is the same as many other phones recently released included as their main shooter. The 48MP sensor is used to supersample data and allow for better optical crop zoom and noise reduction by averaging neighboring pixels as some of its capabilities.

The problem is that the 48MP sensor is terrible in the rolling shutter department the larger the sensor area is used. We saw that in the Nubia Red Magic 3 and it’s 8k 30p video mode which was unusable at the first sign of movement. That means that 1080 and 720p video modes will have a very severe crop on the sensor and probably much worse low light performance than that found on Last Year’s OnePlus 6 and 6T which allowed for also 720p 480fps for up to 3.75 seconds of recording.

OnePlus 7 Pro Rear cameras – Main Specs:

Sensor: Sony IMX586
Megapixels: 48
Pixel Size: 0.8 µm/48M; 1.6 µm (4 in 1)/12M
Lens Quantity: 7P
OIS: Yes
EIS: Yes
Aperture: f/1.6

Telephoto Lens

Megapixels: 8
Pixel Size: 1.0µm
OIS: Yes
Aperture: f/2.4 → Continue Reading Full Post ←