Today the OnePlus 7 Pro was announced after a plethora of leaks over the previous weeks. However, the Slow Motion capabilities were not disclosed in the leaks so we had no rumor to report on that front. Today with the full spec list released we can see that the OnePlus 7 Pro camera has the new Sony IMX 586 mobile sensor which is the same as many other phones recently released included as their main shooter. The 48MP sensor is used to supersample data and allow for better optical crop zoom and noise reduction by averaging neighboring pixels as some of its capabilities.
The problem is that the 48MP sensor is terrible in the rolling shutter department the larger the sensor area is used. We saw that in the Nubia Red Magic 3 and it’s 8k 30p video mode which was unusable at the first sign of movement. That means that 1080 and 720p video modes will have a very severe crop on the sensor and probably much worse low light performance than that found on Last Year’s OnePlus 6 and 6T which allowed for also 720p 480fps for up to 3.75 seconds of recording.→ 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 ←
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 ←
Xiaomi is soon releasing a new Firmware Update: ROM – MIUI V10.1.2.0.PEHCNFI – based on Android 9 Pie and available first in China now. The 2.1 GB update will include two new features that will make these phones more competitive. Search online for the ROM – MIUI V10.1.2.0.PEHCNFI and be sure to follow the instructions while updating your phone.
OnePlus has released the official OnePlus 6T slow motion 480fps promotional video with high production values. It is all shot with the phone and while you can see the jaggies and edge artifacts from resolution loss, it offers pretty compelling color and dynamic range for a phone. The 3.75 second rec time at 480fps turns out 1800frames or 30-sec playback at 30fps.
The OnePlus6 & 6T which offer essentially the same camera and high fps component are in the running for our slow-motion phone of the year along with the close competition from the Samsung Note 9 and Galaxy S9. However, the usefulness of the OnePlus 6 devices with much more recording allowance is a very big differentiator that in reality should impact your purchase decision much more than 960fps.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
The Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 had a few leaks in the past weeks concerning the slow motion mode and the company even released a water balloon sample. We decided to wait for the real reviews and samples before making an opinion on this phone which is destined for the Chinese market first. The phone is supposed to shoot 960fps in 1080p mode which is exciting as an initial spec matching the Sony Xperia XZ2 and XZ3 phones in resolution and frame rate but we really have no slow motion duration spec yet.
After looking at the samples we have seen a clear indication of software interpolation to fill in video frames between high frame rate recorded video which looks to be 240p at 1080p and then conformed in software to 960fps on the fly using the phone’s hardware. The results are very good and beat anything we have seen before on phone frame rate interpolation which is a good thing, however, it looks like the phone is faking its way into slow motion 960fps.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
