There is a lot of expectation for the release of the Panasonic DVX200 4k camera. It has been proclaimed as a true professional tool that will last the test of time among other superlatives. What intrest us most is that the camera will offer the ability to shoot 60p at 4k and 120fps at full 1080p HD. While non of the frame rates are what we would call groundbreaking; they do serve the vast majority of the video production crowd with the most usable aspects of overcrank for sports and shooting techniques relying on fast panning motion and action shots.
While there is still a blackout of shots at 120fps there have been a few 4k released shots that show what the pre-production cameras are capable of. The performance of the Micro 4/3 sensor and the built in Leica 13x f/2.8 – f/4.5 Lens seems to be very good. The samples however show Dynamic range which is rated at 12 stops in the specs to be close to what a GH4 with VLOG can produce. Since these are pre production shots you cannot base the final image quality of the camera from these samples but the quality is there and it can only go up from here. As for low light abilities it will remain to be seen but if you expect Sony A7s quality you are barking at the wrong tree. It should perform close or better than what the Lumix GH4 is able to do. The camera should be released sometime in October this year with a MSRP of $5000 USD.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
The OnePlus 2 has been a big success in pre-orders with over 30,000 phones ordered in 64 seconds. However people from the company got the One Plus 2 phone early and have been shooting footage and images with the phone in the last week. The quality is nothing short of amazing for regular video with macro capabilities that rival the best video cameras of a few years ago. The quality of the codec and detail extracted by the lens are extremely good.
When it comes to slow motion the quality of 120fps 720p is also better than other rivals in the Samsung and HTC space with less aliasing and Moire artifacts. It is still not perfect 720p but it comes very close. The iPhone 6 still provides a better slow motion capability with 240fps as an option also. Things are going to heat up with more releases soon in the mobile world, Apple 6s phone will probably debut sometime in September with improved specs and Android phones with better resolution and slow motion frame rates should be available by Christmas.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
The new Sony Xperia M5 and M5 Dual smartphones sporting android 5.0 make use of the Mediatek Helio X10 chipset which is capable in specs of 480fps 1080p video. However you will not find that high end spec in these phones even when the phone and sensor combination should be able to support it. You still get slow motion but the plain vanilla 120fps 720p that you’ve grown accustomed to while browsing for high end smartphones. The phone is waterproof but as advised by Sony it should not be fully immersed as the charging port is uncovered. It should be however rain and splash proof without much worry. If you wanted to take underwater pictures in the ocean, the Sony Xperia M5 phones will not allow you to do this unless they are in a waterproof external case.
Sony Xperia M5 and M5 Dual Specs:
Camera
Main camera 21.5 MP Exmor RS with Hybrid AF F2.2 with ISO up to 3200
Front camera 13 MP Exmor RS with AF
HSC: The main camera is very powerful at 21.5MP and should be responsive in multi shot burst environments, the sensor is one of the latest in the Sony Exmor series and should be a BSI design with great low light performance.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
Today has been quite busy in portable device land with the release of the Moto X, Moto G and the One Plus 2 handsets. The hype and rumors regarding slow motion modes on these phones turned out to be way ahead of the norm and what we are left with is the same tired old specs of yesteryear when it comes to slow motion performance. 720p at 120fps seems to be the norm for an afterthought slow motion feature. Apple for example continues to up the ante with 240fps and possibly more in the upcoming iPhone 6s refresh. There is nothing wrong with these phones but if you want slow motion performance in your portable handset, the latest Moto and One Plus 2 are not what you would consider optimal. They however offer pretty good feature sets and great cameras for normal video applications and still capture.
One Plus 2 Camera specs:
5.5 inch : 1080p Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels), 401 PPI Screen
Sensor: 13 Megapixel (1.3um)
Lenses: 6 lenses to avoid distortion and color aberration
OIS: Yes
Laser Focus: Yes
Flash: Dual-LED
Aperture: f/2.0
Front Camera: 5 Megapixel – Distortion free
Video: 4K resolution video, Slow Motion: 720p at 120fps
The One Plus 2 is a phone flagship design for less money than you would normally pay for such a device. it has a modified Android OS “Cyanogenmod” that is fast, free of bloatware and very good with battery life. It has optical image stabilization, large pixels for a 13 megapixel sensor, fingerprint sensor and a great alert switch so you can deactivate alerts in a custom way when you are sleeping, in a movie theater or simply want to disconnect for a while. It is a lot of phone for the price. Even the One Plus 1 is still used in benchmarks today as a competitive phone in the mid range.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
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!
The awaited update on the status of the fps1000 cameras has been posted on the Kickstarter page and once again it is twisting things up a bit by adding things, improving others and fixing some issues. The most important part of the update relates to what most backers are interested in which is the ship date and this update also starts to set a near time frame for building the first cameras and shipping them as soon as August 2015. While this date can move as it has in the past it seems that the hurdles for getting the improved from original design camera to buyers hands have been surmounted. It will be interesting to see how these cameras perform once in the field and what the software is like.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
The Moto X has kind of always suffered from a mid range hardware complex; overall pretty good but never has had a high end feel to the feature set compared to rivals like the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy Series. If the latest Moto X rumors of the phone for 2015 refresh are to be believed the camera on the Moto X 2015 might go punch to punch with the best around while at the same time offer even more with slow motion features that rival the iPhone 6 in some cases and beat it in others.
As with any rumors you should take them with a grain of salt, however with the looming release date said to be Tuesday of next week, it could all be accurate. However no promises.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
