The Nissan GT-R continues to be unmatched in the high-end sports car world by offering a performance way above its price range. For the new NISMO GT-R 2020 they needed to film the car at full performance. After looking for solutions in the market it was immediately apparent that they needed a car with a rig system that could keep up with the new supercar.
As it turns out the only solution would be to build a custom GT-R with expert and Drifting world champion Mauro Calo, with camera rigs normally used in big Hollywood productions as you have seen in the Fast and the Furious series. Nissan decided to paint the car Matte black so it would not reflect on the other car’s paint and or create unwanted flares on camera lenses. The result is the best performing camera rig car ever made. It is capable of carrying a fully rigged camera system including but not limited to ARRI Alexa, RED Dragon, Sony Venice, Panasonic Varicam or high-speed solutions like the Vision Research Phantom Flex 4k.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
This year we have decided to have a special post to highlight the advancements in smartphone camera systems that allow the recording of super slow motion video. We have seen after all huge advancement this year especially by Asian companies making their best efforts to exploit the camera module’s strengths without crippling them to sell a newer model. The Chinese have decided to create a camera war between phone builders that one-up each other every few months.
We value image quality just as high as frame rate and when phones claim to be 1080p in high frame rate modes we usually find that the real case if 720p or similar upscaled to full HD 1080 with artifacts and jagged edges that can make you dizzy. But not all phones are created equal and that is where this list of the best of 2019 comes in. If by any chance an even stronger contender comes in before the end of the year we might revise this list but it would be a fluke.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
Meet the new GoPro Hero 8 Black which is a refinement of last year’s Hero 7 Black. It has better hyper smooth stabilization, it has now stabilized slow motion modes and has a smaller form factor with a clever undercarriage that folds into the mount support system to reduce footprint which is very clever. The real big changes are the Mods which are attachments that let you expand the capabilities of the camera to get a more professional kit if needed. They are relatively inexpensive but do offer a better package than what the competition has to offer.
The Slow Motion modes remain identical to the Hero 7 Black of last year as it still uses the same GP1 processing engine which was released over two years ago with the Hero 6 Black. By now it would have been ideal to see an updated processor and sensor combo to get even higher frame rates like 4k 120p and 1080p 480fps but GoPro has decided to press the last drop of juice from their custom chip investment to keep up with their restructuring goals.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
The Z Cam E1 which delivered excellent quality 4k footage from a tiny package and was able to do 720p 240fps frame rates “at less than ideal quality”, however, a new Rumor from 4/3 Rumors here shows a Twitter message that hints at a new Z E2 m4/3 camera that is able to do 120fps at full 4k resolution. If this turns out to be true it could yield further performance improvements in 1080p and 720p along with higher quality that could be usable.
As far as linear specs go a 120p 4k pipeline could in theory yield 480fps 1080p and 960/1000fps 720p without going out of spec. As we have come to know over the years, however, it is usually wrong to extrapolate these specs to the maximum possible metric as the sensor or memory could be bottlenecks that limit the performance. So this rumor could have some legs to it and NAB 2018 could be the show that makes 4k 120p a regular feature for cameras.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
As suspected in a previous article from HSC the Panasonic G9 bitrate for VFR or high frame rate mode is much lower than on the GH5. The Manual has been released for the G9 showing this lower spec. It is of note that the codec used on both cameras is very efficient which lends itself to good quality even at 20mbps. However, for those that want to prioritize fine detail and the utmost sharpness, the GH5 will, in the end, be the better option for slow motion.
There is also the upcoming announcement rumor of the GH5s Lumix camera now with leaked images here with 240fps at full HD using a completely new sensor which may be able to improve of the GH5 slow-motion quality which in our analysis was lacking when using 150fps and 180fps on the regular GH5. Aliasing and moire were evident in footage which is not present in the 120fps mode. Considering the GH5s might be recycling the same image processing engine but with a new sensor, we may still see some artifacts.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
As predicted the newly announced Samsung Galaxy Note 8 will not improve on the Note 7 or Galaxy S8 phones when it comes to slow motion capabilities. It maxes out at 1080p 60fps and only allows 720p 240fps for slow motion. Missing is the 120fps 1080p modes of competitive flagship phones like the iPhone 7 or Google Pixel.
The Phone has delivered in most other fronts however with probably the best screen yet on a phablet phone at 6.3″ Quad HD+ Super AMOLED (2960 x 1440) 521 ppi resolution. There is also an extra attention put on the battery safety which according to Samsung is not only safe but amply tested to rigorous conditions. It is 3300mAh which should last for a full day of use even with the gigantic screen.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
