Canon has been quite layed back in the past few years after the splash it did with DSLRs and the 5D Mark II 30p,24p and original 7D offering 720p 60fps in frame rates. This was so las decade and while there have been improvements there has not been an indication of the camera line growing up to develop a true leap in the video mode to EOS users. We have seen a transition to other systems like the Panasonic GH4 Micro 4/3 and Sony NEX series by many video pros looking for better video quality and higher frame rates besides Canon and Nikon bodies.
The video quality while stagnant in Canon and Nikon land has actually increased to 4k in other systems with amazing low light performance like that of the a7s Sony series. Canon seems to have woken up from their slumber with the new Canon 1DX Mk II a Professional answer with a full frame sensor and what looks to be a worthy video mode that is now up to date and competitive with some of the best out there in the under 120fps camp.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
So you have an iPhone and want to get the best video possible out of it. Should you stay with Apple’s camera implementation or should you branch out and look for better capture apps? Those that do the best job at compressing your footage and extracting the utmost quality from it.
For years the App to flock to if you own an iPhone is the FiLMiC Pro for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch by Cinegenix. It was used in the Zacuto revenge of the Camera shootout in 2012 to capture the segments with the iPhone which rivaled, according to the audience of judges, cameras much stronger in specs and capture quality. It tied with the Canon C300 and beat the Sony FS100. That test was highly subjective with a lot of light to fill in the soft spots of the camera, however that did not detract from the fact that FiLMiC Pro did an amazing job at delivering a more grade-able and professional looking footage than Apple’s stock implementation on the then iPhone 4s. You can see the test here!→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
Now that a couple of weeks have passed it is clear that the camera in the new iPhone 6s is better than the previous model in every single way. It has 12MP instead of 8MP, it has UHD 4k recording in video and has 120fps 1080p slowmo which is up from 720p. The dynamic range is on par with the previous model but with the added feature of less noise and artifacts due to new in sensor technology and software processing. While most users will not notice much in the way of improvements; they are there and especially if you look at the video mode the new iPhone is a fantastic upgrade from the regular 6 model.
The 120fps 1080p mode is very good and the detail is retained as long as there is not a lot of minute detail and extreme numbers of objects/changes in the scene. It is not as good as regular 1080p but it is close as there is not a lot of detail loss especially when using Macro mode. If you want it to shoot a single water drop it should do great but if you are recording assorted splashes the codec will break apart and macro-blocks will start to invade your scene. It works very well for people and large scene objects and a lot of detail is preserved. The 240fps mode is also improved in the artifacts and noise which means the processing is improved as you can see much less aliasing and moire. It is still not true 720p but it is very close. As of now we think the iPhone 6s has better slow motion quality than the GoPro Hero 4 Black and the Sony Action Cam Sony FDR-X1000V . It is the best slowmo phone available in quantity as of today. The New Nexus 6P has 720p 240fps to compete with the iPhone but no realistic samples besides the Hummingbird Video which is still unconfirmed exist. This will change in the near future when users get their hands on it.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
It has now been a few days since people first got their hands on the new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. One of the new features is it’s ability to shoot higher res slow motion at 1080p 120fps and a somewhat improved version of the 240fps at 720p with less artifacts. We have found a few samples that may show you the quality of the slow motion modes in action. It is clear from an initial perspective that 720p 240fps is higher resolution with less noise and aliasing artifacts and also that the 1080p 120fps mode while higher resolution it is not exactly the same quality as the 1080p video of the phone. There seems to be an apparent softness or slight resolution loss with heavier compression in this mode. This however doesn’t detract much from the fact that both the 120fps and 240fps modes have been improved and that is a good thing.
Update 9/10/2015: It is confirmed that the iPhone 6s has 2GB of RAM which is twice that of the previous iPhone 6 release. The iPad Pro has a large 4GB of RAM as confirmed today also!
Now that the dust has settled with the Apple keynote announcements over it is time to examine what the new iSight camera of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus can do when it comes to recording video and Super Slow Motion.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
For many of us it seems counter intuitive to own a camera that doesn’t shoot color images. In this day and age of technological marvels, being constrained by black and white / monochrome output on recording is a strange proposition. For the world of high speed imaging however you have to re-examine the entire debate from a benefits point of view and why it could be ideal to have monochrome instead of RGB color as your high speed option.
Depending on the intended use Monochrome might give you more bang for your buck and save you a lot of money on lighting and power requirements to run those lights. To understand the benefits we need to dig in on why Monochrome camera sensors excel in areas where color sensors suffer and why this will hardly change with current sensor technology in the near future.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
