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!
The creator of the fps1000 cameraGraham Rowan carved out some time to answer a few questions posed by our readers and us about the upcoming camera release and what went into the development. The answers are thorough and paint a good image of what the process from idea to build has been like; along with pitfalls and industry insights. The interview is a bit long so grab a donut plus coffee and dig in!→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
The Kinefinity KineMAX 6k camera has been shipping to customers and now we have a look at the first slow motion video images produced by this behemoth of a camera. The hardware as of now can produce 4k footage at 100fps and 3k at 150fps both with a sensor crop and while the image has some slight moire and aliasing it is nothing that will impact image quality greatly. It is not as good as the RAW 4k or 3k modes but it does allow for fast frame rates on an already very affordable professional tool. A package with the KineMAX 6k capable body, Canon EF mount and the Slow Motion Package comes in at just under 10k US or $9,997.00. Of course you will still have to buy SSD media to store those mammoth frame sizes.
As you can see the size of a 6k frame is hard to comprehend to HD shooters. You can fit 9 1080p full HD frames into a single 6k frame. You will reach new levels of detail with this camera, that as of recently was only available with a RED Dragon camera. However the price of entry is much lower with Kinefinity and the Chinese company will probably start carving a niche in cinema production quickly with these prices. If you need 6k RAW imaging and high frame rates at 4k and 3k at $10k US budget this is the camera for you.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
The new Sony Xperia M5 and M5 Dual smartphones sporting android 5.0 make use of the Mediatek Helio X10 chipset which is capable in specs of 480fps 1080p video. However you will not find that high end spec in these phones even when the phone and sensor combination should be able to support it. You still get slow motion but the plain vanilla 120fps 720p that you’ve grown accustomed to while browsing for high end smartphones. The phone is waterproof but as advised by Sony it should not be fully immersed as the charging port is uncovered. It should be however rain and splash proof without much worry. If you wanted to take underwater pictures in the ocean, the Sony Xperia M5 phones will not allow you to do this unless they are in a waterproof external case.
Sony Xperia M5 and M5 Dual Specs:
Camera
Main camera 21.5 MP Exmor RS with Hybrid AF F2.2 with ISO up to 3200
Front camera 13 MP Exmor RS with AF
HSC: The main camera is very powerful at 21.5MP and should be responsive in multi shot burst environments, the sensor is one of the latest in the Sony Exmor series and should be a BSI design with great low light performance.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
The newly announced Canon ME20F-SH Camera besides it’s overly unpronounceable name and a price tag of $30,000 USD has what could be a record for any sensor to date. The ISO 4 million mark on this camera/sensor is able to record footage in full color at night. It over exposes footage only lit by a full moon. The Sony A7s last year was a revelation of where sensor technology is going with it’s close to 1/2 million ISO at 409,600 . It could shoot in near complete darkness and could do a good job at it. What Canon has done with the ME20F-SH is build their peak sensor technology into a 35mm Full Frame Sensor but with only 1080p Full HD resolution. The Sony A7s can shoot 4k footage with the HDMI output on an external recorder. This makes the pixel size on the Sony more constrained even with a Full Frame Sensor.
The pixel pitch size on the Sony A7s (12MP on a full frame CMOS Sensor) is around 8.4 µm; in contrast the new Canon ME20F-SH has a 19 µm pixel size in a Full Frame Sensor. This is an amazing performer in low light and probably the most sensitive sensor ever made for commercial purposes. At 2.26 Megapixels this is the state of the art for large pixels with impressive dynamic range and low light. It is unclear how the low resolution in such a large sensor will behave when it comes to moire and aliasing artifacts.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
Today has been quite busy in portable device land with the release of the Moto X, Moto G and the One Plus 2 handsets. The hype and rumors regarding slow motion modes on these phones turned out to be way ahead of the norm and what we are left with is the same tired old specs of yesteryear when it comes to slow motion performance. 720p at 120fps seems to be the norm for an afterthought slow motion feature. Apple for example continues to up the ante with 240fps and possibly more in the upcoming iPhone 6s refresh. There is nothing wrong with these phones but if you want slow motion performance in your portable handset, the latest Moto and One Plus 2 are not what you would consider optimal. They however offer pretty good feature sets and great cameras for normal video applications and still capture.
One Plus 2 Camera specs:
5.5 inch : 1080p Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels), 401 PPI Screen
Sensor: 13 Megapixel (1.3um)
Lenses: 6 lenses to avoid distortion and color aberration
OIS: Yes
Laser Focus: Yes
Flash: Dual-LED
Aperture: f/2.0
Front Camera: 5 Megapixel – Distortion free
Video: 4K resolution video, Slow Motion: 720p at 120fps
The One Plus 2 is a phone flagship design for less money than you would normally pay for such a device. it has a modified Android OS “Cyanogenmod” that is fast, free of bloatware and very good with battery life. It has optical image stabilization, large pixels for a 13 megapixel sensor, fingerprint sensor and a great alert switch so you can deactivate alerts in a custom way when you are sleeping, in a movie theater or simply want to disconnect for a while. It is a lot of phone for the price. Even the One Plus 1 is still used in benchmarks today as a competitive phone in the mid range.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
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!
The awaited update on the status of the fps1000 cameras has been posted on the Kickstarter page and once again it is twisting things up a bit by adding things, improving others and fixing some issues. The most important part of the update relates to what most backers are interested in which is the ship date and this update also starts to set a near time frame for building the first cameras and shipping them as soon as August 2015. While this date can move as it has in the past it seems that the hurdles for getting the improved from original design camera to buyers hands have been surmounted. It will be interesting to see how these cameras perform once in the field and what the software is like.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
