Tag Archives: Computational Photography

Announcements, Articles, Development, Featured, Firmware/Software, Media Showcase, Slowmo Samples, software

Rife-App Creates Higher frame Rates 25x Faster!

4 Comments

A few months back we took a look at Dain app, and how it was able to use AI and machine learning to create in between frames from almost any source footage and create something that looked and felt like real footage taken with higher fps cameras.  The algorithm was so revolutionary that it took the world by storm, making older software that used re-timing from Adobe and others look antiquated and underpowered.  The Dain-App was great and it was a pay what you want App but had an Achilles heel. The software required a powerful Nvidia GPU with as much VRAM as you could muster to be able to convert footage and re-time it.  

The new Rife-App which is the direct successor of Dain App by the creator GRisk is up to 25x faster than the original, improves the algorithm, and by many examples betters it by creating more seamless transitions. The flow of frames is frankly jaw-droppingly beautiful, especially on low frame rate animation.   We estimate that Animation studios in 2D will eat this app up immediately, and even 3D animation studios could reduce their render times by calculating fewer frames and using Rife-App to increase them to 24p, 30p or 60p from a lower source like 20fps or 12fps.   → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Announcements, Camera News, Crowd Funding, Development, Media Showcase, Previews, software

Alice Camera and why the Future is Bright!

Leave a comment
Alice Camera

The Alice Camera, launched to great success this month has to be the most hopeful product for the future of cameras that we have seen lately. It marries the Sony IMX294, a 10.7 megapixel 4/3 sensor with a custom chipset including the Edge TPU chip from Google for AI and an FPGA for calculations.  The result is a camera body with the same sensor as the GH5s which is a killer low light camera capable of excellent 4k footage and images with super low noise.

Then the camera back is attached to your Android or Apple smartphone to gain an interface and software to control it. The camera is capable of using the latest research for computational photography including HDR with multiple exposures merging, tracking, night mode, averaging of pixels, and as an open-source architecture, you can add features by other coders or your own to make the camera increase the feature set. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Announcements, Camera News, Hi Speed Phone Video, Media Showcase, Previews, Reviews

Google Pixel 4 Slow Motion Specs Unchanged!

2 Comments

Google Pixel 4 Slow Motion

Today Google unveiled the heavily leaked Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL phones which have the latest and greatest camera module geared up for computational photography enthusiasts.  It brings in the dual camera back design of many competitors and also drops the notch in turn for a thicker bezel which looks in our view better.  The phone is sporting the latest Snapdragon 855, 6GB of RAM and up to 128GB of fast flash memory.

Sadly the phone is keeping the exact same high frame rate specs of the Pixel 3 of last year. So 240fps is staying at 720p and 120fps at 1080p is the max at that resolution. It is clear Google is not interested in delivering performance in high frame rates like their rivals in the Android space. Even Apple offers a much better 1080p 240fps spec which is offered on the back cameras with little trouble. Even the iPhone 11 bests the Pixel 4 in the Selfie department as it allows up to 120fps 1080p for (Slofies™) which is a prominent feature of the handset.

Google Pixel 4 Slow Motion Specs:

  • Rear Camera:
  • 1080p @ 30 FPS, 60 FPS, 120 FPS
  • 720p @ 240 FPS
  • 4K @ 30 FPS
  • Front Camera:
  • 1080p @ 30 FPS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gizLT97cKo

Rear Camera Specs:

  • Camera 1
  • 16 MP
  • 1.0 μm pixel width
  • Autofocus with phase detection
  • Optical + electronic image stabilization
  • Spectral + flicker sensor
  • ƒ/2.4 aperture
  • 52° field of view
  • Camera 2
  • 12.2 MP
  • 1.4 μm pixel width
  • Autofocus with dual pixel phase detection
  • Optical + electronic image stabilization
  • ƒ/1.7 aperture
  • 77° field of view

Front Camera (loses the dual camera of pixel 3):

  • 8 MP
  • 1.22 μm pixel width
  • ƒ/2.0 aperture
  • Fixed focus
  • 90° field of view
  • NIR flood emitter
  • NIR dot projector
  • 2 NIR cameras

Pricing: 

  • Pixel 4 is priced at $799
  •  Pixel 4 XL is priced at $899
  • Available at all US carriers GSM and CDMA for the first time outside of Verizon!

The Pixel 4 & 4 XL have competitive camera modules when you compare other flagship phones.  Google went with a dual-camera design without adding the super wide-angle one common on Samsung Galaxy and iPhones for example.  With computational photography, the Pixel is very capable and probably will become one of the best cameras out there like the Pixel 3 was all of last year by generating the best reviews for still images on a phone.

As a video shooter, the phone should do well but will not beat the best out there and probably the iPhone 11 will have a clear win in the motion department with their emphasis on professional video shooting on the 11 Pro.

Slow Motion ZZZzzz?

By staying at 240fps 720p the Pixel 4 shows they are not interested in improving that spec which seems to be frozen for now 3 generations of Pixel phones. They are all about a rounded phone with impeccable still image quality and not focused on being the best at video capture.  Sony with their Xperia One and others have much better video specs and of course, the slow motion crown falls now on the  Huawei Mate 30 Pro with 1920fps at 720p for a 1/2 second or 960fps 1080p at 1 second. No other phone has yet to match this performance.

Google Pixel 4 event in 10 minutes by The Verge:

Google Pixel 4 camera test by Phandroid: → Continue Reading Full Post ←