Now that Apple’s latest and greatest phone the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro Max have been out in the wild for a few weeks, it is time to revisit the performance of the slow motion video mode of this all-encompassing handset. The iPhone has always been a good slow mo performer but the new cameras and bigger lenses with more advanced processing gave us high hopes for increases in video quality and fewer artifacts.
The slow motion quality should be better across both the 11 and 11 Max since they share essentially the same system of optics and bionic chip. Quality must be identical except for the two or three camera configurations. One thing that separates the iPhone is that you can shoot slow motion in all cameras and not just in the standard wide like Samsung or other Android phones. This is one thing Apple wins in spades and we hope to see other manufacturers adopt as standard.→ 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 ←
Ok let’s get the bad news out of the way which is that the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro all have essentially the same 120fps and 240fps of the previous iPhones on their main cameras which depending on the phone is two or three. All at 12MP and all capable of 4k UHD at 60fps and all slow motion capable at 120p and 240p at 1080p. So no new frame rates but a consistent capture across all cameras which seems unique compared to the competition.
The real new thing is the availability of 120fps at 1080p in the TrueDepth or Selfie front camera which allows for “Slofies” as Apple calls them. It would have been more impressive to have the full 240fps on the selfie camera too but they will save it for a future model. 120p is good and lets you shoot funny and compelling content. It is probably the best looking selfie camera image we have seen yet so Apple has an easy head start there.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
The Galaxy Note 10 is Samsung’s most expensive flagship phone yet and as it should be it is also the most capable. We recently saw some slow motion samples that we wanted to share and why this phone is the best quality slow motion a Samsung phone has ever been able to produce. Sure the quality difference between the Note 10 and the Galaxy S10 is very small but it is there. We see less moire and aliasing than on the S10 and the detail retained is also better.
We were disappointed at first that 720p was still the top resolution for slow motion. But the only 1080p phone alternative the Sony Xperia Series like the Xperia One is only recording 0.1 seconds of slow motion at 960fps 1080p which is next to useless. Furthermore, the supposed 1080p quality looks just a tad better than the Samsung which is not particularly high quality either.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
Samsung has released the Galaxy Note 10 and 10+ with even a 5G variant which was probably the most leaked phone of the year aside from the iPhone refresh coming next month. The phone has some beefed up specs and an impressive screen with a center cut upper camera punch-hole that love it or hate it is here to stay for now.
The video specs and photo specs look similar to the Galaxy S10 but with better color, dynamic range, lens elements and better overall video compression which looks very nice. The Galaxy S10 was no slouch in video mode but the Note 10 has the better compression and color processing that makes it a notch above. The slow motion spec remains the same as last year’s Note 9 and Galaxy S10 so Samsung is also stagnating in this respect.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
The Nubia Red Magic 3 phone is something of a hyper-customized piece of gear for the performance-oriented gamer with crazy high-quality 3D specs and even fan cooling inside the case which is a first for a phone and a testament to the engineering to get it to fit in such a slim case. The specs that really caught our attention are that the phone does 8k video recording and 480fps 1080p with a beta mode to bring that all the way up to 1920fps.
We had no indication that the 1920fps mode is indeed real for a few days until we found out it is actually an option on the phone and not a typo which many including us thought up as 1920pixels for 1080p not frames. But yes it is frames which makes it confusing but in our estimation also allows for decoding the truth behind this spec and if it is actually all that it claims to be.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
