The recently released camera called the Fujifilm X-E4 shares many of the traits of their lower brethren but also from the higher-end models in a compact package. It ditches the better viewfinder for a small 2.36 million dot EVF that makes it a bit hard to see your composition but that also allows the camera to be smaller and more stylish than the beefy SLR style Fujis out there.
The Fujifilm X-E4 Slow Motion feature is the same as found on cameras like the excellent Fujifilm XS-10 which is a 120fps or 240fps full HD component that records in camera. Why are we not excited? well, the quality is lower than expected with some aliasing and moire characteristics that are so last decade. When are manufacturers going to offer the same 1080p quality at all frame rates instead of relegating the 120fps and 240fps modes to the lower bitrate and detail bin?→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
The Panasonic Lumix BGH1 is a strange camera if you are used to DSLR or Mirrorless camera body styles. It is tiny and full of connections with no screen unless you provide one via a computer that is tethered or an HDMI field monitor. It uses the same dual ISO sensor found on the Panasonic Lumix GH5s which is a very good low light camera in a Micro 4/3ds package. The BGH1 has a better internal recording set of options than the GH5s but it is more intended as a tethered studio solution with the addition of Genlock synch and SDI out.
The camera also has VFR or a Variable frame rate mode which is identical to the Lumix GH5s as it records from 1fps to 240fps in Full HD 1080p and delivers pretty good performance up to 200fps then lowers the quality along with providing a small added crop to the image at 225fps and 240fps. It is still not as sharp as regular 1080p video and the codec is saved at a lower bit rate but having 240fps as an option is great.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
We got over 20 messages with essentially the same video sample in our inbox this week. They all touted the new interpolation from the DAIN experimental App or (Depth Aware Video Interpolation App) which now analyses footage with a Neural network AI algorithm that crunches motion vectors and even what seemed impossible before “Object Occlusion” to generate higher frame rates from lower fps sources. The technology is pretty fascinating and should be further improved by more training and samples over the coming years.
For stop motion animators, this is a complete game-changer as now you could animate with as little as 8fps and then interpolate to 30fps or 60fps with very little in the way of tearing and artifacting as long as the footage is well lit and objects clearly defined. To make matters more interesting, it also analyses footage with shallow depth of field yielding impressive results.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
Due to reader demand, we are posting new slow motion samples for the Galaxy S20 line. We see just slight improvements over the Galaxy S10 in terms of detail and color but since the phones are the new flagship for the defacto Android international brand, there is a lot of weight in what it can do when it comes to the video mode. There is no secret that Samsung has stagnated in slow motion since the Galaxy S8 and the S20 is an evolutionary step with better reproduction and more intelligent capture but not really groundbreaking.
There is no increase in frame rates above 960fps at 720p and the resolution is not even true 720p as it is jagged and stair-stepped in detailed shots. We kind of see it as a 480p mode upsized to 720p. We do gain a 1 full second record time instead of 0.4sec on the S10 which is a big improvement even when the resolution is still kind of identical. It would have been great if Samsung could have done a solid and created a true 960fps 1080p Full HD Mode. We will have to wait for another crack at it on a future phone.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
The recently announced Galaxy S20 phone line has been making some waves with impressive specs especially related to the camera modules. As always we are only interested here in the high speed video specs here at HSC “not even the new 8k video spec” and the new phones are an improvement over the S10 and Note 10 lines. However, it is important to note that not all S20s will share the same slow motion specs and that is what this post is about.
You may think that the S20 Ultra 5G will be the easy choice here but it is hardly as straight forward as that. The amount of technology packed in the Ultra phone along with four camera modules and one of them at over 100MP means they prioritized photo resolution over video shooting in their sensor selection. The Ultra will not natively support the 960fps spec but default to only 480fps.→ 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 ←