Panasonic not to be outdone by sales rivals is pre-announcing the S1H camera to appease video-centric mirrorless users who want that extra edge. It has a 6k mode which will allow for better stabilization and cropping/punching in on 4k timelines while giving the user bragging rights. It has a 14 stop dynamic range spec which if we look at the sensor it is only on a couple of capture settings the rest is 12 bit.
There is also no mention of higher frame rates besides UHD 4k 60p which we presume will be 180fps 1080p max since this camera shares nearly the same internals as the other Panasonic S1 cameras. We do not expect this camera to have better slow motion video than the regular S1 even with its $4000 price tag. The camera looks to be aimed at the mid-high end of the video market and allow it to record without limits which on the regular S1 is 29min.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
This year there have been a few surprises that got our attention in the high frame rate market. Some are firmware related, some are entirely new cameras and others are simply rumors that have yet to appear. We found a few things on the web that may shed some light on these happenings. But First…
Note Advisory:It is kind of disheartening that many Youtube channels are posting fake slow motion videos from cameras & Phones that they have no access to in order to receive clicks and advertising. We encourage you to report these videos on the Youtube interface as inaccurate or misleading. That way we may get less garbage and more real samples in the future. Thank you!→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
The Introduction of the DJI OSMO Action camera marks what many called the ultimate silver bullet to counter the GoPro Hero camera line. It is an evolutionary step that takes most of what made the GoPro Hero Black series amazing and even goes further by improving in areas where GoPro has fallen behind. The Stabilizer seems better as is the addition of a secondary selfie screen in order to frame yourself while recording.
It gets the usual frame rates of 120fps & 240fps 1080p full HD and the 4k 60fps spec. None of these are revolutionary or groundbreaking which means this is a version 1 product for DJI. Phones, for example, are already in the 960fps and 1000fps spec even when they are limited to fractions of a second. A Camera like the OSMO Action could have gotten a bit of this slow motion prowess and differentiate from GoPro even further but not this time around. We have a few samples of the higher frame rates for you too look at and see if it makes sense to acquire this camera instead of other options.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
The Nubia Red Magic 3 phone is something of a hyper-customized piece of gear for the performance-oriented gamer with crazy high-quality 3D specs and even fan cooling inside the case which is a first for a phone and a testament to the engineering to get it to fit in such a slim case. The specs that really caught our attention are that the phone does 8k video recording and 480fps 1080p with a beta mode to bring that all the way up to 1920fps.
We had no indication that the 1920fps mode is indeed real for a few days until we found out it is actually an option on the phone and not a typo which many including us thought up as 1920pixels for 1080p not frames. But yes it is frames which makes it confusing but in our estimation also allows for decoding the truth behind this spec and if it is actually all that it claims to be.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
Let us start by saying that we are huge fans of the Lumix line by Panasonic and their cameras in general. The GH5 is still a powerhouse of a camera for serious video work and the 180fps FUll HD slow motion is better than many others before or since at that frame rate while at 120fps is as good as the best Sonys out there. However, the recently announced Lumix G95 drops the ball in several fronts when it comes to really good video performance which has become a trademark for Panasonic.
The G95 has all the looks and character of a great hybrid camera but has a crippled video mode that may put off many buyers looking for the perfect intermediate camera. The 4k, for example, has a 1.25x crop on top of the nearly 2x crop of the micro 4/3 sensor. Making it a little larger than the area of a 1″ sensor. This will sacrifice video quality in the lack of supersampling and low light will suffer from the added megapixels.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
The Kinefinity Terra 4k camera which starts at $3,999 body only and a ready to shoot package at $5,499 has now released information of a new firmware upgrade that will be released in May of this year which increases the slow-motion capabilities of the camera markedly. The camera was no slouch before when it came to frame rates which had 240fps at 2k and 100fps at 4k. It actually records in RAW and has excellent quality with no moire and aliasing since it is effectively cropping the sensor area to get a 1:1 pixel read-out for the slow mo.
For this low a price you really have no viable options that shoot these frame rates in excellent quality except for the recently announced Chronos 2.1 HD which does 1000fps at 1080p in DNG RAW. The Kinefinity line of cameras has started to become a go-to place for cinema quality at reasonable prices. Many Video Pros are actually becoming owners of the camera and praise the rock-solid quality of the build, operation and beautiful image quality with ample dynamic range. The Chinese have really built the Cinema camera for the common man.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
