HSC – The Dec 3rd deadline came and went but there was no reveal. There is a statement from the CEO of U1 Labs, creators of the Ono U1 Smartphone, regarding the slip on the reveal.
“Dear Fans and Pioneers, we regret to inform that we have a slight delay from the factory. We need approximately 48 hours to reveal the Hands-on and HD images, as we are awaiting for the factory to release them to us.
There is a lot of speculation regarding the final specs and capabilities of the Ono U1 smartphone codename “TheBeast” from the new German & Indian company called U1 Labs at this website. The design has changed several times since it was announced earlier this year in July; it was improved in hardware capabilities but it still has somewhat remained a mystery when it comes to the slow motion 480fps capability that was promised early on.
There has never been a direct admission that can back real captured frames at 480fps as the Mediatek Helios X10 SoC allows. After repeated attempts by us and other backers or Pioneers as U1 Labs calls their early supporters; nothing can be firmly deduced besides interpolation from lower frame rates like 120fps or 240fps to 480fps. Mediatek Helios X10 supports true 480fps capture in their specs with the use of a specific Sony sensor so there was a promise that it would adhere to these specs.
The Ono U1 Smartphone reported in a post at HSC earlier this year was stuck between scam-land and outright vaporware with it’s claim of 1080p 480fps video mode based on the Mediatek Helios X10 chip. However it seems the Ono team has persisted and a phone that has been evolving with new features like a fingerprint reader, laser AF, 4GB of RAM, NFC and now Android Marshmallow might see the light of day as soon as the third or fourth week in November.
There has been a lot of interest with this particular phone and with good reason, it could become the phone to beat regarding portable slow motion capable devices. As a Smartphone it will be no slouch is the specs are solid and the phone eventually ships which is still up in the air.
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.
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!
The website Android Police has done a pretty robust tear down of the new android Camera SDK v3.0 giving a sneak peak of what is to come for many android phones that support the camera module application. The SDK v3.0 comes bundled with the Android 6 release which means all compatible devices upgraded to the new OS will have a chance to try some or all of the new features planned for the camera release. Your mileage depending on your phone manufacturer may vary but it could mean support for many new features like 240fps slow motion video which will compete favorably with the iPhone 6 and 6s in these high frame rate modes.
Code regarding slow motion settings in SDK 3.0!
<string name="hfr_mode_120fps">Slow motion is set to 120 fps</string>
<string name="hfr_mode_240fps">Slow motion is set to 240 fps</string>
<string name="hfr_mode_off">Slow motion is off</string>
Note: Regarding “Google Phone SDK 3.0 ” be aware that if your sensor and portable device combination do to limitations is not able to do higher frame rates these new features will not be accessible. It will be interesting to see which phones are upgraded with the capability as the Android 6 marshmallow updates roll out!