Announced just last week the Sony PXW-Z150 gets a lot of right for the low end pro video market. It has 4k 4:2:0 as many in the competitive price range of $3,595 MSRP. It has 4:2:2 1080p 10 bit at 50mbit which is a good surprise and it seems to be carried to the also included 120fps full HD 1080p slow motion mode.
The sensor is of the stacked kind and it is 1″ sized, the same as the ones in the RX100 IV and RX10 II from Sony which are really good at slow motion for a low price. However those full specs are not carried through in the high frame rate mode or HFR. It maxes out at 120fps 1080p instead of 240fps on the RX series in the 1k range and the FS5 which is a tad more expensive than the Z150.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
Nikon has delivered a shockwave for affordable slow motion with the three new Nikon DL Cameras announced yesterday. At first glance it seems a refresh of previous cameras with a 1″ sensor module but actually these are a completely new breed.
For starters the cameras offered are basically the same bare bones electronics with the difference being in a specific focal length for the fixed lens assembly. The cameras are presented in a DL18-50mm for the wide angle shooters, DL24-500mm for the sports and nature crowd who need the reach and DL24-85mm for portraits and general photography with a Super Macro mode.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
The Sony a6000 was a good middle of the line performer with pretty competitive performance. The new a6300 is a refined version with some pretty robust improvements in the video area.
For starters the 4k 30p, 24p, 25p video internal mode records in the robust XAVC-S video format at up to 100Mbps which is comparable to what the Panasonic GH4 and a7s II cameras record 4k into. It also has S-Log3 Gamma for a flat profile for creative grading and LUT application for editors and colorists. If you were looking for a Sony 4k alternative in an S35 crop sensor then this is the camera for you. Furthermore the 4k mode is using the entire S35 frame and correctly down-sampling the image for extremely crisp looking 4k video from a 6k original sensor source.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
In our last post we looked at the HSC768 high speed camera project that had great performance and ergonomics including a jog wheel design and machined case. We asked the creator of the camera David Kronstein, who runs the Youtube channel Tesla500 from Vancouver Canada, a few questions regarding the future of the project and he kindly responded with some great insight. We may have a third competitor in the HD high speed camera market to go head to head with the edgertronic camera and the yet to be released fps1000 project.
While the camera is still in the lab stages, it shows a usable design with professional looking performance and a pretty lengthy buffer. There is a touch screen interface based on a stripped down Linux OS installation and DDR3 high speed DRAM 16GB worth that can do quite a good set of frames.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
Another big set of releases at CES regarding cameras that have a slow motion mode fro the consumer are the Sony Handycam and Action cam models that were refreshed. The Sony FDR-AX53 is the most interesting of the two as it is probably the smallest and lightest Handycam from Sony that shoots 4k in a near professional quality level.
It offers so much for under 1k that it will pose some problems for other cameras in it’s segment. It is not as advanced in the zoom department as the Panasonic WXF991 which can ramp zoom and focus on dolly motion but it does have a jack of all trades feel about it.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
Panasonic has been quite busy this morning with a plethora of camera announcements. It seems 4k is strongly anchored in the product line matrix by adding the feature on pretty much every product category this year. It seems to throw the message to the rest of the electronics camera industry that 1080p is so last year and that 4k is the make it or break it feature for compact and larger cameras alike.
