Tag Archives: 2000fps

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 ←

Chronos Camera m43 Lens Adapter with Speedbooster Support!

The two existing Chronos cameras, the 1.4c 720p at 1502fps & the Chronos 2.1 -HD 1t 1080p 1000fps are identical when seen from the outside but very different inside as they contain different sensor and memory boards. However one constant is that both use the C mount as the default for lens adapters. The camera usually comes with a Canon EF or Nikon F mount adapter depending on the buyer preference which screws on the C mount thread and allows for support of classic lenses from Macro to telephoto. 

One request from the community has been the support for other lens mounts like Micro 4/3ds which lets you adapt a variety of lens mounts and the much coveted speedbooster adapters which allow a 1 f-stop improvement in light gathering for micro 4/3ds systems. Today Krontech, the company behind the Chronos high-speed camera is introducing a passive Micro 4/3rds adapter for both the Chronos 1.4c and 2.1-HD and uses the body screw terminals near the lens thread mount to place a solid connection that allows such lenses. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

edgertronic firing on all cylinders!

edgertronic

One of our favorite high speed camera companies has shared a lot of information regarding it’s COVID pandemic operations as well as unit shipments for their cameras. It looks like Sanstreak corp the parent of edgertronic is considered an essential business to the government which is probably because of the support and software development they do with clients for important government agencies. They have sold thousands of cameras to date and the company seems to be on firm footing to continue solidly into the future.

Their product line has the SC1, which is the 700fps 720p camera that started it all, as well as the SC2/SC2+ 720p at over 4000fps and SC2X over 2000fps at full HD 1080p. Check our page here for full in-depth reviews on these three cameras. Our favorite the SC2X is capable of a beautifully detailed and artifact-free image that can be used for cinema and broadcast. The SC2+ has the edge in frame rates with speed as a primary focus being able to record 6x the frame rate of the original edgertronic. The cameras have Color and Monochrome options if needed. → 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 ←

Dain app GPU and why you should wait for 2021!

Dain app GPU

Probably no computer-related technology has received more attention on the PC side than GPUs.  NVidia launched the 3000 series of cards with aggressive pricing that completely obliterate the previous 2000 series GPUs for much less money. Things are great for PC gamers, machine learning coders, and 3D animators in 2020 with these levels of performance except for the fact that there is a complete scarcity of GPU cards in most lines including but not limited to the 2000 and 3000 series for a variety of reasons.

Dain app the machine learning frame rate interpolation software uses CUDA v5.0 as the minimum requirement or a GeForce GTX 750 as the minimum card to run it. But that does not mean it will be fast or be able to finish interpolating your high res footage. In fact, a 720p clip interpolated frame rate needs about 10-11GB of VRAM memory on the card as it runs the entirety of the calculation in video memory for predictive algorithms to work.

Dain app and the GPU Shortage:

Dain App will be able to run in any CUDA 5.0+ supported Nvidia card or the following:

  • GeForce GTX 750 Ti, GeForce GTX 750, GeForce GTX 960M, GeForce GTX 950M, GeForce 940M, GeForce 930M, GeForce GTX 860M, GeForce GTX 850M, GeForce 845M, GeForce 840M, GeForce 830M, GeForce GTX 870M
  • GeForce GTX Titan X, GeForce GTX 980 Ti, GeForce GTX 980, GeForce GTX 970, GeForce GTX 960, GeForce GTX 950, GeForce GTX 750 SE,
    GeForce GTX 980M, GeForce GTX 970M, GeForce GTX 965M
  • Nvidia TITAN Xp, Titan X,
    GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, GTX 1080, GTX 1070 Ti, GTX 1070, GTX 1060,
    GTX 1050 Ti, GTX 1050, GT 1030,
    MX350, MX330, MX250, MX230, MX150, MX130, MX110
  • NVIDIA TITAN RTX,
    GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, RTX 2080 Super, RTX 2080, RTX 2070 Super, RTX 2070, RTX 2060 Super, RTX 2060,
    GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, GTX 1660 Super, GTX 1660, GTX 1650 Super, GTX 1650, MX450
  • GeForce RTX 3090, RTX 3080, RTX 3070, RTX 3060 Ti

However, since the app runs on video memory or VRAM you need a card with a minimum of 4GB of it to have any sort of success at interpolating frames. Even then your card will have too little VRAM to do anything over VGA resolution. There is a workaround however by using the Split frames into sections feature which will render small pixel buckets of frames and re-align a merged final frame with all the parts when done. This allows you to literally render up to 4k footage at higher frame rates without getting higher video memory.

How to Create Slow Motion Videos with DAIN APP | AI Frame Interpolation by GreenBox:

This workaround is very slow and can take days for a few second 4k clip to render on a mid-range PC.  Your best bet is to get a faster GPU with tons of VRAM. In our view, a minimum of 10GB of VRAM or even better yet a minimum of 12GB is preferable to get the best performance.  In Dain app your card’s CUDA cores are the primary speed accelerator but without enough VRAM it becomes slow as molasses.

The good news is that new Nvidia GPUs have more and more VRAM than ever before.  The just-launched 3000 series toys with 24GB on the high end to 8GB on the low end 3060 Ti cards.  However, none of these cards are available at this time at their suggested retail prices. Scalpers literally bought the entire free supply of cards and are selling them on eBay and Amazon at ridiculously high prices approaching anywhere from 40% to 150% mark up. 

You would think that the 3060 Ti FE starting at $399 for an 8GB of VRAM card would be ideal for the Dain app, cheap, great performance, and close to the ideal 10GB of VRAM but there lies the problem.  8GB will force you to do segmented rendering for higher frame rates and that will limit your speed and video frame sizes. Your render time will increase exponentially with also some artifacts from conjoining segments showing up in some instances.

What to do?

If money is no object then we suggest you get a 3090 RTX card with 24GB of RAM. This will be the ideal card setup but we are talking at a hefty price increase as MSRP cards are nowhere to be found. Relying on scalpers will cost you dearly.  You could still get a 3080 with 10GB of VRAM or a 3070, 3060 Ti with 8GB for about 40% more money.

There is a better option in our view and that is, wait for next year. Nvidia is going to ramp up production of 3000 series cards by Q1 2021 offering better lower-priced options of current cards and also a new 3060 card launching with less CUDA and Raytracing tensor cores but with a whopping 12GB of VRAM option.

By having 12GB of VRAM the 3060 card will be ideal for DAIN app on a budget and be able to render footage directly without segmenting the frames. You will get a big cut on CUDA cores on these cards compared to the 3060 TI.  Rumors say that the 4864 CUDA cores of the 3060 Ti will drop down to  3840 on the regular 3060 card. That is a cut of 1000 cores.  It will still have more CUDA cores than most of the 2000 series so it will still be a very capable card for sure.  For example, a 2080 standard card only features 2944 CUDA Cores.  You will really be able to get better technology for a smaller price tag for gaming, graphics, and machine learning applications like Dain app.

Card Options Today?

1. Nvidia RTX 3000 Series

We first start with the RTX 3000 series. You can get them today at high prices but the links below should adjust in time to much lower levels as supply catches up to demand.

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2. Nvidia RTX 2000 Series:

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3. Get in the EVGA Queue!

The company EVGA has developed a product queue at https://www.evga.com/ that allows you to place your name on a waiting list and will email you the right to buy a card for 8 hours. If you do not buy it it will go to the next in line and you will have to re-register a new slot.

We feel this is great for two reasons, you get a great product at the MSRP price and you also refrain from supporting the scalping market.  The downside is that you may have to wait weeks to months for a slot to become available.

4. Wait for next year!

If you wait until 2021, Nvidia will have a January announcement event for RTX with the rumored RTX 3060 card which will be the renamed 3050 ti card.  There will be an option with 12GB of VRAM which will be the best in price performance and should be under $350 USD when it ships in quantity.

Final note: 

We feel you should only buy a card now at inflated prices if you absolutely need it for mission-critical work.  If you can wait please do so to combat price gouging and scalpers who destroy the legitimate market for technology parts.

We have rarely seen such a blatant attack to the consumer. The RTX cards have been gone in mere seconds from online sources due to bots that continuously scan for new stock and snatch it automatically.   By not buying from them you support the community at large and save money in the process.

You can read our article on Dain App and the interpolation of footage that lets you create very convincing super slow motion from almost any frame rate. However, the app shines even more with high-speed footage. You can literally create a 4000fps video from a 1000fps source that looks almost as good as the real thing. Of course you will create frames and data from the ether so for mission-critical and lab studies, Dain app will not be an option.

If you get a new card and run it through Dain app, please share your results and footage below.  Merry Christmas -HSC

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thCam Slow Motion Camera Kickstarter Campaign Canceled!

thCam Slow Motion Camera

(Note: As of November 23rd this campaign has been canceled due to lack of funding in time. )There is a new dedicated Slow Motion Camera being built by engineer enthusiasts and a Kickstarter campaign has just launched with the goal of gathering enough funds for production.  The camera is called thCam Slow Motion Camera and is capable of shooting above 3,000fps at reduced resolution with a 1920px horizontal. The 1080p frame rate maxes out at 266fps  and 576fps at 720p.

What is most impressive about this camera is the Machine Vision applications that can run with the platform like being able to train it to recognize QR codes, objects, and possibly even people. It could theoretically be used as a quality control camera that operates at very fast speeds. The other big deal is the price which is about $1,000 USD or €899 Euros which is a first for a camera of this kind.

thCam Slow Motion Camera Specs:

  •  Image sensor: 1920×1200, 10 bit Raw CMOS 2/3″ on 2MP Version
  •  Framerate: 240 fps (@ full resolution: 1920 x 1200), 576 fps (@ 1280 x 720), 1524 fps (@ 640 x 480), 3134 fps (@ 320 x 200)
  •  Pixel pitch: 4.8 µm
  •  Shutter: Global shutter
  •  Lens: included, compatible with every other C- / CS- Mount lens
  •  Image Sensor Size: 2/3” Optical Format
  •  Spectrum: Just visible light, no NIR (but the built-in NIR-cut filter can be removed or exchanged with another filter if you are willing to disassemble the thCam)
  •  Min. Exposure Time: 1 / 25,000 seconds
  •  Screen: multitouch capacitive lcd touchscreen
  •  Memory: 8 GiB (record time 12s)
  •  Battery: replaceable and rechargable li ion battery (continous recording time: > 2 hrs, stand-by mode: > 6 hrs)
  •  USB: USB 3.0 SuperSpeed connectivity
  •  Synchronization: External Monitorsignal and Trigger/Sync Port
  •  Software: Open Source, running on Windows (7 and above) / macOS (10.15 and above) / Linux
  •  Supported File Formats: Image Sequence (Raw, Jpg, Png), Video File (Mp4 / H.264)
  •  API: Open Source, use the camera in your own code (C++, Python, Java)
  •  Case: Aluminium case
  •  Dimensions: W x H x D = 14 cm x 8 cm x 5 cm (estimated values)

As you can see, the camera is no slouch, it can record up to 12 seconds of RAW video and can be used and controlled remotely with programming commands if needed. It uses a C mount much like other cameras in its class and has a 2 hr battery life while recording and up to 6hrs standby.  The batteries are a couple of 18650s which are common and widely available.

There are also options to only get the PCB boards with a sensor instead of a fully built camera at a lower price of €649 for the 2MP sensor version.  Some engineers are more inclined to adapt the PCB to their own pipeline instead of using a self-contained camera unit.

The Kickstarter Campaign:

The campaign here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thdevices/thcam-3000-fps-slowmotion-camera

The creators of the camera a Swiss and German engineer team are asking for a pledge goal of $94,779 USD or about €80k Euros.  For under $1000USD depending on the exchange rate, this is a cheap slow motion camera that has a lot of potential with RAW image quality that seems above good just looking at the provided samples.

Footage is recorded as 10 Bit RAW Image Sequences, full control of white balance, color tone, contrast, and brightness no compression. After editing you may compress your video to standard formats (H.264).

The camera features a Global Shutter so no rolling shutter artifacts to spoil your experiments.

The thCam comes with an equipped 8 GB memory module, enough to record about 12 seconds in full resolution with maximum framerate. Standard SODimm 204 DDR3 Computer memory modules are used, so you are free to upgrade your camera later on.

The camera also comes with a Super Speed USB 3.0 port. This high transfer rate allows you to stream images from the camera in realtime and low latency.

The camera also has an Open Source SDK that allows for programmability and full remote control of the camera via USB 3.

Supported Languages will be Java, Python and C/C++.

thCam Slow Motion Camera Video Samples:

Camera Timeline:

Team

Follow them on:

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/thdevices/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/ThDevices-GmbH-101338128342338

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/thdevicesgmbh

(Development-) Blog: https://blog.thdevices.com/

Our Take on the thCAM:

This is a pretty neat little camera with a lot of potential for labs, engineers, education, sports, and imaging enthusiasts/hobbyists.

It has a great interface with easy controls that is working and ready to go. It has extensibility via software and can be controlled remotely by USB 3.0 with instant feedback.

The video samples do show some noise, chromatic aberration, and softness but looking at some of the other demos, it is clear these are mainly due to either low light or a pretty bad quality lens used. If you coupled this image sensor with better high-quality glass like we have seen in other C mount cameras, it is easily going to produce beautiful imagery.

For $1,000 USD for a fully assembled and working camera, we do not believe there is a deal out there that can compare. Sure you only get a maximum of 266fps in 1080p but we do get 576fps at 720p which is better than what many prosumer cameras can shoot at and the fact that we have RAW here makes it that much sweeter.

For production houses and serious videographers, it is clear this camera will not fit the bill as the smallish 2/3rds sensor could pose problems with image quality for broadcast and film unless the conditions were ideal with ample light control. This camera is not intended for that market in our view. This camera is intended for serious scientific experimentation and motion analysis with the possibility to extend its capabilities with software.

As a sports training device, it could be the best-priced camera of it’s kind with enough quality to analyze body motion on the fly and on location with its portability and 2hr recording and 6hr standby battery. We can see golfers and gymnasts gravitating to a solution like this especially with the flexibility and price.

The team of the Ackermanns is entering the space with the thCam but hopefully, we will see a more image quality-oriented camera as a future product with a higher price but not extremely above this first iteration. If they could produce a similar 1080p camera at 1000fps or 2000fps we are sure it would make a gigantic splash.

We wish the team luck on their campaign which looks to be ready for production, hopefully, we will continue to see impressive engineering from this team for years to come. -HSC

Pledge your support and possibly get a camera at The Kickstarter Campaign here:

The campaign here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thdevices/thcam-3000-fps-slowmotion-camera