Next week January 6-9, in Las Vegas Nevada the 2015 CES show will take place. Usually the show doesn’t show much in the way of hi speed but a few gems have come out of the show in the past like the Panasonic W850 & V750 which a year later still hold their own as the best slow motion general purpose camcorders in quality with the 9th and 10th place in our slow-mo camera guide. These have recently come down in price considerably!
We now have enough footage samples to rank the Samsung NX1 just above the Panasonic GH4 in the HSC Camera guide for slow motion. Analysis of results below:
Samsung NX1 vs GH4 Pros and Cons
The edgertronic camera has been used for a while now in the field and the v2.0 software release is stable and solid. The latest 2.1 Beta Software will add several improvements as follows:
Beta Un-released Version 2.1 Software Specs:
The Blackmagic URSA 4k Professional camera is one awesome powerhouse for standard frame rate productions with it’s three high quality LCD screens and RAW / Prores recording at just $5,995 USD. Prior to the most recent 1.9.9 Firmware it was capped at 60p for 1080p and 4k but after the update the camera gained 80fps for both 4k and 1080p.
Although the frame rate at 80fps is still low compared to most high speed offerings, the fact that it is 4k makes it a special milestone for the resolution. The URSA uses the CMOSIS CMV12000 Global shutter sensor which is the same to be used by the prototype 4k fps1000 camera upgrade option. The sensor is capable of producing from 150-300fps at full sensor resolution and it will be exploited by the fps1000 4k in full resolution. The URSA will record in a 12 Bit 3:1 RAW format for the high frame rate of 80fps costing no quality but saving space in memory and cards. As of this writing the URSA is the highest quality RAW 80fps image under $8k. It is an expensive camera which cost it some points in our camera guide as quality is not a definitive factor in final ranking . Price and workflow also are important. If you need RAW 4k up to 80fps the URSA at $5,995 is your cheapest option until the fps1000 ships. You can also get 4k at higher frame rates like 240fps on the Sony FS700 or FS7 but you will need an expensive external recorder or Sony module which is orders of magnitude more expensive. If you don’t need RAW or 4k Slow motion other cameras like the FS700 plain or the edgertronic are less costly options with higher frame rates.
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!
To backers of the fps1000 “HSC included” the latest developments of the camera came in as a huge upgrade for the once humble little Kickstarter camera. Changes were unveiled at the end of November.
The recently released Droid Turbo from Motorola available on Verizon in the USA has a 120fps 720p mode in the specs and we have a sample that shows that the slow motion mode while clean of noise is quite bad in the aliasing and moire department as resolution lines seem to be skipped to arrive at 720p at a higher frame rate. The iPhone 6 continues to be currently the best slow motion phone for your money. The Turbo is clearly no match but it can still let you produce some middle of the road slow mo videos for fun!
Droid Turbo 120fps 720 mode sample by GSM Arena. See it here!