Tag Archives: cost

Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K is Frame Rate Beast!

Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K

The Black Magic Design URSA camera line has been one of our favorite high frame rate options for many years now as it is a blend of excellent quality at a relatively low price with the added bonus of RAW recording and ProRes options.  Now the company has announced the latest iteration of the camera with a monstrous pixel size of 12k or 80 Megapixels per frame. All of this in an APS-C super 35mm crop from Full Frame sensor that is built to satisfy the requirements of their Black Magic RAW codec or BRAW for short which is in this camera the only recording format available.

What interests us as always are the high frame rates and this camera does not disappoint when it comes to this spec. The only real problem we see is that recording is made only from 4k resolution and up, completely avoiding 3k, 2k and HD resolutions which could yield even higher frame rates with probably a huge crop in the 80MP frame which will probably yield a noisy and artifact prone image hence why they probably avoided recording down on those modes. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Huawei Mate 30 Pro New Slow Motion Samples!

Huawei Mate 30 Pro New Slow Motion Samples

The Huawei Mate 30 Pro has been out for a few weeks outside the US, mainly in China and India and we have gathered 15 video samples from its slow motion mode which as of today is the best performing high-speed phone ever developed.  We had some shortcomings about the way the phone reaches the highly hyped 7,680fps mode which is 1920fps multiplied by 4x in software from a small snapshot of the video memory.

We also had some suspicions that the 1080p 960fps mode was also interpolated but looking at the samples we gathered it seems that was a premature call. The phone is actually capturing the full frame rate at 1080p or close to that.  The real max mode is 1920fps at 720p which is then interpolated to 7,680fps with good success by the new Kirin 990 chipset. Your mileage may vary and the results depend on the subject matter more than anything as organic slower motion looks much better than fast unpredictable bursts that break the interpolation algorithm. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Huawei Mate 30 Pro Slow Motion The Real Story!

Huawei Mate 30 Pro Slow Motion

Huawei has just launched the Mate 30 Pro and Mate 30 Pro 5G Smartphones which sport an impressive camera module with a large sensor array that shoots at 40 Megapixels.  We had rumors sent a couple of weeks back but had our reservations due to the less than optimal slow motion in the P20 and other Huawei Smartphones.  The phone is now untouched by the competition as it can shoot a half-second at 1920fps 720p or 960fps total which translates to 32 seconds on a 30p timeline.

The headline slow motion feature of 7680fps is not real as it is derived from the 1920fps 720p half-second which the phone then uses AI selection to isolate a 0.12 seconds segment of the capture then finally interpolated by the Kirin 990 Chipset to the full 7680fps. So it does a 4x slow motion on top of it to get the great-looking result. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6k has 120fps!

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6k

The folks at Blackmagic design are at it again when it comes to destroying spec sheets compared to price. The BMPCC 4k was already one of the best-reviewed and popular choice among budget filmmakers that needed excellent quality and dynamic range. At only $1,295 that camera was a smash hit but had only a four thirds (4/3) sensor which was not ideal in size and required speed booster adapters to get the needed depth of field to simulate an S35 image.

Now the BMPCC 6k  ($2,495.00) with EF Canon mount comes in with a  full APS-C sensor with dual ISO characteristics like before but with the added imager size and full electronic lens support for EF glass.  It would have been in our view ideal to use an electronic mount with shorter flange like the Sony Alpha or the new Canon RF mount so you could adapt even more lens combinations but they are catering to a large installed base of glass owners. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Phantom v2640 Launches with 6600fps at 4MP!

Phantom v2640

The folks at Vision Research creators of the Phantom line of superfast high-resolution cameras have unveiled their latest and greatest with the v2640, which takes the line to unprecedented levels of resolution and frame rate combinations. At a maximum res of 6,600fps at full resolution of 2048 x 1952 & 1080p Full HD @ 11,750 fps it makes your eyes water with time detail never before seen.

Of course, as it is customary, the camera is not listed with a price tag but expect it to be in the range of 100k USD if you venture out to get one.  It is still a great deal for labs, engineers and imaging studios but surely out of reach for most lone experimenters.  The sample video shows a water balloon being struck by an arrow at 17,000fps at HD 720p resolution which is mind bendingly cool. We will not list this camera on our guide as it exceeds the low cost threshold by a large margin. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Sony PXW-Z90V Footage Starts to Show!

Sony PXW-Z90V Footage

We were excited last September when Sony announced a trio of Palmcorders based on their latest 1″ stacked image sensor. The FDR-AX700, the HXR-NX80 and the PXW-Z90V share essentially the same sensor and lens along with other common features but differ when it comes to codec bit rates, broadcasting output like SDI out and or HDMI but what interests us is the HFR high frame rate mode.

The Sony RX100 and RX10 series share the same 1″ stacked CMOS sensor in their latest iterations to these cameras but with a new form factor that is aimed at more professional shooters, there is a lot of expectations to see if quality has improved in Slow Motion.   We have gone thru the manuals on the cameras and have not been able to find the exact resolution specs when recording HFR but we estimate they are identical to the latest RX10 IV all in one prosumer camera. → Continue Reading Full Post ←