Category Archives: Availability

Panasonic S5 Slow Motion 180fps is Low Res!

Panasonic S5 Slow Motion

Now that Panasonic has officially announced the Lumix S5 Full frame camera which we saw as a direct replacement for the GH5 line even when now it seems a GH6 may be in the cards for a future release, it is now time to examine the slow motion modes on the camera to see if they stand a chance at becoming a feature which will be a seller for the new device or just one more feature.

When the GH5 was announced about 3 years ago it came with a 180fps 1080p mode that was better than many camera’s 120fps modes and quickly became our favorite Lumix camera for slow motion as we noticed how the quality of the 240fps mode on the GH5s low light geared camera was heavily inferior in resolution. The GH5 really became the best value along with the G9 for 180fps slow-mo modes in Full HD. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Galaxy Note 20 Slow Motion The Good and the Bad!

Galaxy Note 20 Slow Motion

Samsung will start shipping to stores the Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra on August 21, 2020.  This new phone is the latest and greatest on their line of ultra-performance devices that offer little compromise at a premium price.  It has a 108MP sensor on an f1.8 lens on the Note 20 Ultra 5G version that can do crazy zoom and pixel averaging in low light. The more pixels you record even if they are small let you do more computational photography processing to average noise and artifacts out to end with a crisper lower resolution image that is pleasing and punches above it’s weight.

However, not all is good news since the video mode in Samsung devices when it comes to slow motion has been stalling in the last iterations to a max 960fps mode in HD 720p which is now on this phone an interpolated 480fps mode that is slowed 2x to 960p.  This makes the Note 20 line an inferior slow-mo device to even the Galaxy S10 which offers real 960fps.  The good thing here is a full second of recording at 480fps on the Note 20 line which translates to 16 seconds playback at 30fps and 32seconds with interpolation. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Sony ZV-1 Slow Motion is a newer cheaper RX100 alternative!

Sony ZV-1 Slow Motion

Sony has revealed the ZV-1 Vlogging camera which uses the tried and true technology of the RX100 series and simplifies the body controls plus allows the screen to be of the vari-angle kind to work essentially as a do it all solution for web Vlogs. The body is reminiscent of the latest RX100 VII and very close to the previous generations but with the added benefit of a real video-oriented 360-degree screen.

As an RX Camera it features our favorite slow motion mode of the compact camera world, the Motion Eye or HFR Sony mode which offers up to 1000fps on sub HD resolution at capture time and near 1080p at 240fps with excellent quality.  We dive into the camera’s slow motion mode to see if anything has improved from the RX line and if this camera with it’s lower entry price makes more sense to own than the RX100 line. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

CES 2020 New 120fps Cameras from Nikon, Canon and Panasonic!

CES 2020 New 120fps Cameras from Nikon, Canon and Panasonic

CES brought a lot of weird tech like smarter toilets, personal companion robots and the occasional wearable smart tech that you really can’t wash in your home.  As it is always the case at HSC we were looking for slow motion capable cameras and sadly we saw very little at the show. We are now showcasing three manufacturers who had 120fps Full HD cameras announced at the show and no frame rates above that.

These are primarily 4k 30 and 60p cameras that have a 1080p 120fps mode as a feature that no new camera can really ship without. Sony has already standardized this format in the last few years on most Alpha cameras and Panasonic has even gone above at 180fps and 240fps in some cases like the GH5 and S series.  The cameras presented here are mainly either stills full-frame beasts or more standard video camera like.  By 2020 we would have hoped to see better than 120fps 1080p on cameras of this caliber but it seems we will have to keep waiting… → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Huawei Mate 30 Pro New Slow Motion Samples!

Huawei Mate 30 Pro New Slow Motion Samples

The Huawei Mate 30 Pro has been out for a few weeks outside the US, mainly in China and India and we have gathered 15 video samples from its slow motion mode which as of today is the best performing high-speed phone ever developed.  We had some shortcomings about the way the phone reaches the highly hyped 7,680fps mode which is 1920fps multiplied by 4x in software from a small snapshot of the video memory.

We also had some suspicions that the 1080p 960fps mode was also interpolated but looking at the samples we gathered it seems that was a premature call. The phone is actually capturing the full frame rate at 1080p or close to that.  The real max mode is 1920fps at 720p which is then interpolated to 7,680fps with good success by the new Kirin 990 chipset. Your mileage may vary and the results depend on the subject matter more than anything as organic slower motion looks much better than fast unpredictable bursts that break the interpolation algorithm. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Canon & Sony stagnate at 120fps!

Canon & Sony stagnate at 120fps

The recently announced Canon 90D, Canon EOS M6 II, Sony a6100 and Sony a6600 are cameras that refine everything that is already a current technology but bundle it in a lower price package with great performance. However, it is clear from the spec sheets that high frame rates have stagnated for the past few years in these camera lines with a maximum of 120fps at 1080p.

Sure some of them offer full-time autofocus in slow motion modes and face tracking which in the case of Sony is so good that you may not even match it if you had the best focus puller in the business hired for your shoot. But the frame rate war seems to be left to other camera lines and brands. Panasonic, for example, offers up to 180fps in their new S1H camera which should be in theory the best Panasonic mirrorless camera ever made and it should also allow for outstanding quality in 1080p 180fps. → Continue Reading Full Post ←