Tag Archives: Xperia

BEST SLOW MOTION CAMERAS OF 2021!

 

We have passed another year in slow motion land and while camera releases were more plenty than expected considering the chip shortage and teh COVID disruption, it’s time to take a look back through the year’s camera releases, and see which delivered on the price/performance scale when it comes to slow motion frame rates.  Phones are stagnationg while high end cameras are getting more frame rate options in higher resolution. Our Best Slow Motion Cameras Of 2021 have been selected and ordered by recommendation! → Continue Reading Full Post ←

BEST SLOW MOTION CAMERAS OF 2020!

BEST SLOW MOTION CAMERAS OF 2020

As the end of 2020 nears, it’s time to take a look back through the year’s camera releases amid the COVID 19 chaos, and see which delivered on the price/performance bracket with slow motion frame rates as the primary goal.  Phone slow motion took a back seat this year as the interest of the feature in phones was subdued or even eliminated. Our Best Slow Motion Cameras Of 2020 have been selected and ordered by recommendation!

We saw some surprises including a mostly affordable 4k slow motion solution and the adoption of 4k 120fps on many cameras which makes us think 240fps at UHD should be something to think about in the coming years as a regular option once 8k video is commonplace on consumer recording devices and TVs. The increase in resolution should theoretically allow for a lot of 4k frame rates to be offered as 8k delivers 4x the pixel count of 4k for any given frame rate. Keep on reading for our 2020 picks!

BEST SLOW MOTION CAMERAS of 2020:

Without further ado here are what we believe are the best value slow motion cameras in their respective categories for the year 2020:

Best Slow Motion Phone Category:

3rd Place) Sony Xperia 5 II:

The Sony Xperia 5 II is all about capturing the best video possible on a smartphone and in HDR. The kick here is that the phone is capable of 4k 120fps in full HDR which is pretty much class-leading.

The footage below will give you a taste of what the phone can do. In good light, it will let you capture excellent quality 4k 120p footage with the possibility to grade as it records a gradable flat profile.  In low light, it will be a pretty unremarkable image with grain and artifacts as could be expected from the light requirements when shooting at high speed.

Sony Xperia 5 II: 4K 120fps video footage by CNET Highlights:

Sony Xperia 5 II Slow Motion Specs:

  • 120fps 4k
  • 60fps 1080p

This is one of the first phones to offer 120fps in 4k which will probably become a standard spec in 2021 for flagships. However absent is the slow motion at 1080p which considering the 4k oomph, it should have been capable of 480fps at 1080p or similar. It is a shame that the spec was completely avoided considering HDR in 120fps 4k requires 240fps full pixel readout before merging.  In theory, 240fps non-HDR is possible on this phone but not available for unspecified reasons. Phones are becoming more powerful by the day and this is one that has our attention. The just under $1k price tag is not ideal but some of the best phones are going to cost you.

2nd Place) OnePlus 8T:

One Plus continues to offer compelling slow motion features on their phones with 480fps 1080p and up to 480fps at 720p.  It gives you a quad 48MP camera module which is literally insane considering the phone sells for under $750USD and has 120hz refresh rate. Feature-wise it has probably everything under the sun and then some and will not disappoint in the performance realm.

Fireworks in Slow motion – OnePlus 8T 480fps in dark by sternking: → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Sony Xperia 5 II 120fps 4k Slow Motion in Leaked Info!

Sony Xperia 5 II 120fps 4k Slow Motion

Sony has been relatively quiet about phones since the Xperia 1 II roll out. However, rumors have been heating up on the Xperia 5 II, which is a lower-cost alternative to the flagship phone but very nearly as capable without the best screen or construction but not skimming on features. The latest rumor mentions a spec sheet that makes it a 4k 120fps recording phone which may show that handsets still are seen as innovators when it comes to cameras since very few consumer devices in the camera world can record at that frame rate.

We were not very happy that Sony basically killed the super slow motion mode on the Xperia 1 II phone which kind of showed that Sony was putting stills and regular video at the forefront without making compromises in sensors that needed to shoot at higher frame rates. Sony chose to do cleaner regular frame rate video and stills that were better than any Sony phone before at the cost of not having a do it all sensor.  Slow motion from Sony was all but killed but the Xperia 5 II now makes us second guess that fate…

Sony Xperia 5 II leaked spec sheet:

  • 6.1-inch FHD+ OLED display with 21:9 aspect ratio
  • 120 Hz refresh rate
  • 240 Hz touch sampling rate
  • Snapdragon 865 chips
  • 8GB of RAM
  • 128GB of expandable storage.
  • 4,000 mAh battery
  • USB-C Port
  • 3.5mm Headphone Jack makes a comeback (YES 🙂 )

Rear camera module specs:

  • 12 MP  f/1.7 aperture, 24mm equivalent lens, with 82-degree field of view.
  • Telephoto camera 12 MP, with f/2.4 aperture, and 3x optical zoom.
  • Ultrawide 12 MP with  f/2.2 aperture, and 16 mm equivalent focal length – 124-degree field of view.
  • 120fps video recording in 4K with HDR.

Leaked images by evLeaks!

Rumors also state that the phone might launch with a $999 price tag up from the Xperia 5 of 2019 at $799 now just $599.   The Xperia 1 II as a comparison shipped with a  price tag of  $1,199 which is enormous.

We certainly hope prices start going down soon after as with any phone, expect heavy discounts after the first 4 months of shipping units pass.  We wouldn’t be surprised to see the Xperia 5 II at $699 by the first quarter of 2021.

We really like that the 3.5mm headphone audio jack is making a comeback in this phone. Many many people still use wired headphones for quality and no battery hassle as those conscious of radiation from earbuds or the headaches they can cause many people. We rather see all phones keep this port or at least offer it as an option on a variant.

Sony event on September 17th:

There have been changes in the Facebook and Youtube pages from Sony regarding an Xperia event on September 17th which we believe like many others that will be the launch event for the Xperia 5 II handset.  You can see here the Youtube header changed!

Sony is no stranger to pro video and the latest a7s III camera can shoot 120fps at 4k as well, you can see the footage from it below which plays with the new format very well:

【4K 120FPS】SONY A7S3 by Mediastorm影视飓风:

Now, all we have to do is wait for September 17th to arrive and see what the phone can do, and no… no talk about 240fps or 480fps or 960fps modes has been leaked but we can always hope, right? – HSC

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Sony Xperia 1 II and Xperia 10 II, Pro Give up on Super Slow Motion!

With all the COVID 19/Coronavirus news it seems out of place to fret over smartphone maker decisions. However, we have to mention the latest Sony smartphones which prioritize photo and video quality with one gigantic omission. All of the new lineup from Sony the Xperia 1 II, Xperia 10 II, and Xperia PRO 5G lack super slow motion features.  Yes, the 960fps 1080p mode is gone and the only spec remaining is a paltry 120fps 1080p Full HD pseudo-slow-mo frame rate.

If you recall in years past, the Sony brand was incorporating their Motion eye™ technology which pairs a sensor with ultra-fast memory on the same package to allow for large datarates and super slow motion capture. In the lab, the phones were able to shoot up to 1000fps at full 1080p HD with excellent quality.  What came out in the Xperia phones was a somewhat odd translation of 0.1 seconds recording time at 1080p 960fps/1000fps which came out to be extremely short and a kind of useless feature. Now that has been abandoned.

Camera Features Sony Xperia 1 II:

Quad 12 MP, f/1.7, 24mm (wide), 1/1.7″, Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS
12 MP, f/2.4, 70mm (telephoto), 1/3.4″, 1.0µm, PDAF, 3x optical zoom, OIS
12 MP, f/2.2, 16mm (ultrawide), 1/2.55″, Dual Pixel PDAF
0.3 MP, TOF 3D, (depth)
Features Zeiss optics, LED flash, panorama, HDR, eye tracking
Video 2160p@24/25/30/60fps

HDR, 1080p@30/60/120fps;

5-axis gyro-EIS, OIS

We get excellent quality capture in both 4k and 1080p at several frame rates but the super slow motion has vanished.  No 240fps, no 480p no 960p.   Has Sony given up?

We believe Sony has prioritized per-pixel quality and low noise along with deep learning features over any higher frame rate features.  It seems slow motion phones peaked sometime in mid-2019 and now the new features sought after are more hardware-oriented with multi lenses, multi-camera, and higher pixel densities with extreme zoom features instead of the frame rates. We have seen this in the Samsung S20 but those phones keep 960fps except in the 5G variant see here!

So, all in all, we at HSC cannot recommend any of the new Sony Xperia phones for slow motion enthusiasts unless you are happy with 120fps 1080p which is almost a low-level spec now.  Check our Camera Guide and our Best phones of 2019 feature for guidance on which phones are Slow Motion capable.

RIP Sony Motion Eye Slow Motion Technology for 2020, We hope you resurrect sometime in the future!

Sony Xperia 1 Slow Motion Video @960fps (1080p Sample Video) by Danny P.: (FEATURE NO LONGER IN NEW PHONES)

Stay safe out there and follow the guidelines to combat the spread of this virus! -HSC

BEST SLOW MOTION CAMERAS OF 2019!

As 2019 comes to a close its that time to take a look back through the year’s camera releases and see which delivered the goods at an affordable price in slow motion.  Phone slow motion continues to be a strong category, so strong in fact that we made a Best Slow Motion Phones of 2019 list that you can see here.

Stagnation in many camera segments aside from phones is still ongoing, the semi-professional and pro markets stay at 120fps and 240fps with the occasional 320fps camera that delivers just a tad better quality but at a price.  For professional slow motion, there were announcements but not a shipping product yet, however previously released cameras like the Chronos 1.4c and edgertronic still own the affordable quality market. Read on for our best of 2019 results!

BEST SLOW MOTION CAMERAS of 2019:

Without further ado here are what we believe are the best value slow motion cameras in their respective categories for the year 2019:

Best Slow Motion Phone Category:

We had 5 finalists for slow motion phone of 2019 and while the Mate 30 Pro below got the top marks, the iPhone 11 and OnePlus 7 series had great showings, go to the dedicated article for the rest of the phone options.

 Huawei Mate 30 Pro:

Coming out of left field from a company that has been in the news as being in trouble with the US government, the Huawei Mate 30 Pro which is not shipping in the US officially but can be found from online import sellers, is the slow motion phone champ of 2019.

Huawei Mate 30 Pro Slow Motion Specs Dissected:

  • 120fps 1080p Continuous
  • 240fps 1080p Continuous
  • 960fps 1080p for 1 full second (960 frames in total)
  • 1920fps 720p for 1/2 second  (960 frames in total)
  • 7680fps 720p interpolated 4x (lasts for 32 seconds on a 30p timeline.)
  • All super slow motion modes at 960p and above last 32 seconds of playback at 30fps regular speed.
  • The entire buffer for the slow motion feature is 2GB and gets filled by data then dumped and encoded on the fly by the Kirin 990 chip.

This is the first phone that truly records 1920fps slow motion in 720p mode for 1/2 a second or 960 frames and then does excellent interpolation to a whopping 7,680fps 720p to create mind-bending images.   It is especially good for people, animals, and hard non-deformable objects. It will of curse fail as any algorithm with fluids, powders, and heavily detailed objects and will create a soft mushy in-between frame in those cases.  If you do not choose interpolation mode then you can get real slow motion for up to 32 seconds of playback on a 30p timeline which is excellent for a phone.

If you decide to buy it, the phone has a few issues to keep in mind. Due to US government restrictions, it will not ship with a  full version of Android with the Google Apps and not have access to the Playstore.  However several workarounds have been worked out in forums to make this phone usable. The other is that it is a Chinese phone which may need you to get help from someone who understands/reads Chinese to make the setup and get to work in English after.    We do not recommend this phone as your main handset as the support of updates will probably be negated in the US but if you are in China, this is a great flagship phone.  If you are outside of China, make sure you can live with the limitations in the software.

960fps,1920fps and 7680fps test – Huawei Mate 30 Pro incredible Slow Motion by Slow Experiment:

As you can see from the sample above and these other samples at HSC, the quality is quite good and the time is usable easily as a sports and experimentation high speed mode.  It will of course not replace a dedicated slow motion camera for quality work but it is still an amazing development to get real 1920fps 720p and 960fps 1080p even with some artifacts in a portable device.

Huawei may be in hot water with the US government for some time but they have consistently delivered amazing hardware that is probably the cutting edge worldwide.  We are excited about the future of phone slow motion and considering the giant leap that happened here, it is not unrealistic to think that really good 1080p 2,000fps or similar could be very close.  At least for a small-time recording but it will really be magical.

Huawei has made an incredible slow motion phone on the Mate 30 Pro and if they read this, send a handset our way to test and offer samples of reference.  As of now, their new handset is the one to beat. -HSC

Mid Range Professional Cameras:

This year the semi-pro camera market had some very good surprises when it comes to cameras that can shoot RAW files at very high quality and also allow for windowed slow motion modes.

Two of our picks are from Blackmagic design which is a known name in the affordable quality camera market. They have been able to deliver RAW and compressed RAW with BRAW format for very little investment compared to many other brands.  The quality delivered by these cameras are really cinema-quality so the trade-offs when stepping down are more to do with changing a camera system for producers rather than giving up the footage grading ability or low light performance.

Third Place: URSA MINI PRO 4.6K G2

The URSA Mini Pro G2 had a firmware update mid-year that allowed for 300fps in a windowed 2k pixel mode that has great quality and can be stabilized for excellent 1080p production quality.  For under $6k for body only the price is not that high for a camera that can really bring your production values up.   It gets a third place because the cost of owning the camera goes up with accessories like media, lenses, batteries, monitoring, and storage for editing. A good kit can easily get in the 15k range. The BRAW format is excellent but not for everyone.  ProRes is also a possibility and probably what many producers will shoot in when need to deliver in a rush.

High Speed Frame Rates on the URSA Mini G2:

Blackmagic RAW 8:1

4.6K Full – Up to 120 fps
UHD Windowed – Up to 150 fps
HD Windowed – Up to 300 fps

With 4k UHD at 150fps it makes for a killer feature rarely available on other cameras and the 300fps in HD or 2k allows for that extra oomph within your creative shoot.

300fps UMP G2 test 190629 by Reel Eagle Studios: → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Best Slow Motion Phones of 2019!

Best Slow Motion Phones of 2019

This year we have decided to have a special post to highlight the advancements in smartphone camera systems that allow the recording of super slow motion video. We have seen after all huge advancement this year especially by Asian companies making their best efforts to exploit the camera module’s strengths without crippling them to sell a newer model. The Chinese have decided to create a camera war between phone builders that one-up each other every few months.

We value image quality just as high as frame rate and when phones claim to be 1080p in high frame rate modes we usually find that the real case if 720p or similar upscaled to full HD 1080 with artifacts and jagged edges that can make you dizzy. But not all phones are created equal and that is where this list of the best of 2019 comes in. If by any chance an even stronger contender comes in before the end of the year we might revise this list but it would be a fluke.

Best Slow Motion Phones of 2019 guide below, remember buying through our links helps us continue our mission without adding any cost to your order. Thank you for your support!

#5) Sony Xperia 1 and or Xperia 5

Video Features: 2160p@24/30fps HDR,

1080p@60fps,

1080p@30fps (5-axis gyro-EIS),

1080p@960fps for 0.1 seconds  3.2 second playback on 30p timeline

720p @ 960fps for 0.2 seconds 6.4 second playback on 30p timeline

Cinema Pro by Cinealta – with professional settings

Sony was really on the cusp of delivering the best slow motion mode across a lot of camera segments including phones with their Motion Eye ™ Technology which leverages the power of a fast sensor with a stacked design and memory module to allow for pretty remarkable frame rates and or still sequences.

When it comes to phones, however, the Xperia 1 and Xperia 5 offer the same exact performance and recording time as the previous Xperia XZ2 and XZ3 which is a very low 0.1 seconds 1080p at 960fps and or 0.2 seconds at 720p 960fps.  That equates to just 3.2 seconds at 1080p on a 30fps timeline or 6.4 seconds on 720p. Hardly usable. However, the quality is not that bad and does allow you to get a lot of good shots if you don’t mind the limited rec time.

Of the Xperia 1 and Xperia 5, the  5 has about the same slow motion performance for substantially less money.

Sony Xperia 1 :  Unlocked Smartphone 6.5″ 4K HDR OLED CinemaWide Display, 128GB – Black – (US Warranty)  from the $999 initial price.

Sony Xperia 5:  Unlocked Smartphone  → Continue Reading Full Post ←