Tom Guilmette is no stranger to slow motion work. His career shooting sports, nature and other subjects over 20 years has been quite prolific and without you knowing for the most part, his work has been probably displayed on your TV many times.
In this Celtics Insider Piece at Comcast Sportsnet, Tom Guilmette talks about his process and his ownership of a Phantom Flex Camera. How it lets him capture the unseen and making action moments last much longer in order to appreciate the epic nature of basketball court action.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
Panasonic has released the specs of a new smaller version of their Varicam professional video camera with an S35mm sensor. The Varicam LT is the low cost version of the Varicam 35 which has higher end specs at a significantly higher price. The Varicam 35 has a 4k mode that allows up to 120fps at full 4k resolution while the Varicam LT has less power at a maximum of 4k 60fps.
The LT is mostly identical after that 4k downgrade in the rest of it’s capabilities with dual native ISO of 800 ISO and 5000 ISO for extremely clean image quality at those native ISOs. The Sensor itself is built for those opportunities that need higher sensitivity but also allow to shoot at reduced sensitivity for bright conditions. This is great news for the use of the high frame rate feature. The inclusion of EF mount and PL signify the seriousness of the product for an installed base of videographers and film makers with a growing arsenal of Canon and PL glass instead of Panasonic only lenses. They also state that EF lens compatibility will need to be tested and they will not support it directly.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
The just announced Olympus SH-3 Camera not only does 4k video at 15fps which is far from ideal but also allows serious HD video performance in a 1/2.3″ (6.17 x 4.55 mm) Sensor fixed 24x zoom camera product with 1080p 60fps and 120fps at 720p with a smaller res 240fps mode that may work for some experimental shots. For owners of the SH-2 of last year the frame rates were already there in the same exact specs except for the 15fps 4k.
There is no question this is a mild refresh of the camera compared to last year’s SH-2. Besides some extra software image filters and 4k at 15fps which is kind of an unusual frame rate and more a gimmick that a usable video format; there is not much else to report as feature improvements.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
RED digital cinema has been releasing information about a new camera brain or body that will be just under $6k US in price but offer a 4k S35 like Dragon sensor with up to 120fps recorded in Redcode RAW at 4k resolution. It is not known at this time if other frame rates at lower resolutions will be supported but since other RED cameras do window the sensor for 300fps and the like it is pretty safe to say you will be able to shoot smaller frame with higher frame rates. As to the quality of the 120fps mode it is still up in the air but it could be compressed with RED Code RAW codec in a wavelet lossy format like it does many higher frame rates on other cameras of the line.
Sometimes the best available slow motion camera is a professional one that is a used piece of gear that is sold for much much less than the original price tag.
We usually steer clear away from these cameras for the enormous prices unless we find huge deals; these still might be too expensive for the average Joe but if you have the required capital and absolutely need a serious slow motion camera on a discount now keep reading:→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
