The original Sony FS5 not the Mark II which does 240fps and 120fps full HD recording with excellent quality as well as 4k 240fps with an external recorder has dropped in price precipitously. The -$750 price drop makes the camera only $3,498 for the body only which is now competitive with pro SLRs and higher-end mirrorless cameras.
The FS5 camera has been used in productions all over the world and it is a favorite of many videographers for its form factor and dependability. We like it here at HSC by retaining the 10th position on our guide with excellent quality 120fps and 240fps full HD 1080p and pristine quality in 4k 240fps using a recorder like the Atomos Shogun series. The camera also allows 480fps and 960fps @ 1920*270px for short bursts much like the Sony RX series but slightly behind in quality to those latest cameras in those higher modes. Is an FS5 Mark III getting ready to launch or just end of product life rebates?→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
The Insta360 seems to be on a roll by delivering several products this year in quick succession. They want to own the 360-degree video market and they have no plans of letting go of that goal by making some very cool new features available to the masses. The new Insta360 One X camera is able to stabilize the footage on the fly with incredible accuracy and steady-cam like feel without gimbals with its high-resolution capture and by using cropping along with telemetry data and a proprietary algorithm they are able to deliver rock-solid imagery in heavy motion environments.
The small camera is also able to shoot 100fps at 3k which is a first in the segment will let you crop if needed to get a better frame of the action. There is also a very clever rubber housing that is designed to be thrown aerodynamically “Drift Shot” while leaving the camera well protected on impact. This revolutionary technique is really something out of the box and what this camera will probably be known for. Expect to see an explosion of these shots in TV and film pretty soon as others copy the technique.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
Fujifilm continues to further evolve their high-end mirrorless offerings by releasing the X-T3 which is a souped-up X-T2 with much of what was missing like 4k 60p and a new X-Trans Sensor now with 2 more megapixels and lower base ISO of 160. The new camera also has a touchscreen with the ability to use up to 425 Phase and Contrast hybrid Autofocus points which is their most advanced AF yet.
Others will point out to the new blackout-free burst shooting much like that in the Sony high enda9 for example. What is really remarkable here is that the 4k 60p mode is 10 bit 4:2:0 vs 8 bit on competitors, as to what big advantage that will be remains to be seen considering 4:2:0 is not exactly ideal. For slow motion fans, the camera now records 120fps 1080p at 200Mbps bs 100Mbps on the X-T2→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
The Z Cam E2 has finally started shipping and is now available for direct order at their site. The camera caught our attention for its low price of just $1999 and the high frame rate features of 240fps 1080p and 120fps 4k. It seems to be using the same 4/3 sensor as the great Panasonic GH5s but with extended features.
The camera company ZCam has also released some samples in a variety of scenarios so you can see what the camera is capable of. At first inspection, it is clear this camera is a clear step up from the Z Cam E1 which had some image quality issues. The E2 seems to go out of the box ready to produce class-leading imagery and offer some very nice high frame rate action. There are also some rumored comments that suggest the team is testing 300fps at 720p as an added bonus for future software.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
GoPro has released 3 new cameras including the Hero 7 Black which is now the flagship product for the company. The key feature is HyperSmooth which is a predictive stabilization technology based on scene analysis and sensor telemetry to accurately anticipate motion and correct the image to generate a gimbal-like smooth appearance to the video. When you see the footage it is clear it is a huge improvement compared to even the Hero 6 Black which had a pretty good stabilizer.
The Stabilization, however, is limited to 4k 30/60p and other resolutions below 120p but anything above 120fps will use the previous stabilization feature which is not predictive and have no stabilization support at all at 1080p 240fps which is the highest slow motion mode. No 480fps or other higher fps settings are available as the camera uses both the same Hero 6 Black sensor and the same GP1 system chip for this new camera.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
Apple has released a preview video showing the video capabilities of the iPhone Xs in 4k 30, 4k 60 and slow motion 1080p 240fps. You can see in the liquid and sound part of the demo the quality delivered by the full HD slow motion but it is hard to judge per pixel sharpness and or artifacts from such a short high shutter video. We will need more real-world samples in order to see if there has been an improvement from the iPhone X of 2017.
We have isolated a part of the footage to see the slow-motion compression and we could detect aliasing in the edges, softness and compression artifacts which are typical of mobile phone high frame rates. The iPhone Xs seems to still have them to some degree. Color and motion on the codec seem to be excellent especially in 4k which looks extremely detailed and with more than acceptable dynamic range.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
