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 ←
The Kickstarter project Z E1 has been funded over 4x their initial goal and now proceeds to build the cameras based on a Micro 4/3 sensor and an extremely small GoPro-like camera body that does 4k video and up to 120fps HD video in an upcoming software update; the camera form factor is ideal for drone aerial photo and video. It promises professional video and photo quality with no compromises in an incredibly small body which would be close to what Olympus attempts with the Air A01 or DxO with the One. The camera does have a 2.5″ inch Screen on teh back but also relies on a 200-300ms response time over wifi which is short for little lag. The Interface is iOS and or Android and are already available for download on these platform stores for remote shooting.
Panasonic introduced this week the Lumix DMC-FZ300 splash and dust-proof FZ200 super zoom successor. It is a mild refresh of it’s previous incarnations which keeps the 24x Optical; 25-600mm equivalent constant aperture F2.8 zoom lens and it’s 12MP Live MOS sensor and 5-axis hybrid IS . It does have a new Venus engine processor, added DFD Autofocus, better high ISO and 4k video.
Video Features Highlights:
High Speed Video enables recording subject with fast motion at 120 fps (NTSC / HD) 720p or 240 fps (VGA) 480p, while Time Lapse /Stop Motion Animation are also available.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
Apple has upgraded without a lot of fanfare the iPod Touch and it brings in a bunch of performance improvements that take it closer to what the iPhone can do without actually becoming a phone. One of these features is a 120fps HD 720p video capture mode akin to that one on the iPhone 5 and iPhone 6. Sadly no 240fps video mode has been included in this device.
Many question the existence of such a device in this day of cheap smartphones with similar capabilities but the product still fills a niche market of people not wanting to pay for a wireless phone plan in order to be exposed to the Apple ecosystem of apps and features.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
Renowned filmmaker / DP and all around nice guy Philip Bloom has been having fun with both the Sony RX10 II and RX100 IV this past few days. He has tested the slow motion and 4k modes extensively and has done a fantastic rundown of the usability, performance and pitfalls on using the cameras. There are a lot of interesting tidbits that He discovered such as the 240fps NTSC and 250fps PAL modes are nearly HD in quality and extremely usable very close to what the much more expensive Sony FS700 camera achieves.
When recording the 2 second quality priority mode it records back to the SD card in Real time that means a 2 second video at 240fps will take 20 seconds if saved as 24p for the frame count of 480 frames duration. At 480fps for 2 seconds of 960 frames it will take 40 seconds of write time to the SD card. This is in line with most slow motion cameras and it is a point to be considered while using the HFR modes. You will have to plan ahead as the camera will be unavailable for use for quite a long time before the next shot is ready to be taken. This is a normal thing in most high speed cameras.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
The rumor mill has lit up with all kinds of leaked info about the upcoming iPhone replacement the iPhone 6s and 6s+. When it comes to high frame rates the current iPhone doesn’t disappoint; however the prospect of higher resolution slow motion is tantalizing in an Apple product. The current iPhone 6 spec is capped at 120fps and 240fps 1280*720 HD res and 60fps at 1920*1080 Full HD resolution. While the resolution is hardly to be considered HD at the moment considering it is skipping lines and creating artifacts; the look and feel of the footage thanks to clever processing is not that bad. It is still on the top ranks for slow motion phones to own.
