Tag Archives: COVID 19

edgertronic firing on all cylinders!

edgertronic

One of our favorite high speed camera companies has shared a lot of information regarding it’s COVID pandemic operations as well as unit shipments for their cameras. It looks like Sanstreak corp the parent of edgertronic is considered an essential business to the government which is probably because of the support and software development they do with clients for important government agencies. They have sold thousands of cameras to date and the company seems to be on firm footing to continue solidly into the future.

Their product line has the SC1, which is the 700fps 720p camera that started it all, as well as the SC2/SC2+ 720p at over 4000fps and SC2X over 2000fps at full HD 1080p. Check our page here for full in-depth reviews on these three cameras. Our favorite the SC2X is capable of a beautifully detailed and artifact-free image that can be used for cinema and broadcast. The SC2+ has the edge in frame rates with speed as a primary focus being able to record 6x the frame rate of the original edgertronic. The cameras have Color and Monochrome options if needed. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Cheapest slow motion camera for $6 does 660fps!

Cheapest slow motion camera

We just received a video link for a Raspberry Pi imaging platform that allows for 660fps slow motion video capture using the computing unit along with it’s memory and a $6 USD camera to record slow motion video with better than expected results. The video from 2019 by RobertElderSoftware explains the way the camera and R-Pi were able to capture the footage using some scripting and writing a windowed wide but not tall imaging rectangle directly to memory to create the cheapest slow motion camera.

Of note is the apparent low resolution of less than VGA at 640 x 64px and the somewhat appraisal of rolling shutter artifacts on some of the coins. However, RobertElderSoftware also has a step by step instruction video set on how to get a $40 Raspberry Pi computer and a  $6 USD camera module to build your own homebrew slow motion camera with some scripting.  After a lot of scripting and patience, you should be able to mimic his results.

Cheapest slow motion camera using a Pi Unit:

It is literally amazing what a dedicated engineer with an extremely limited set of tools and cameras is able to do on a project like this. Now imagine RobertElderSoftware using something like a more powerful ARM-based Mac M1 or similar with way more RAM disk for capture along with a better camera and sensor combination.

You can visit and subscribe to Robert Elder’s Channel here and learn many more from his cool projects and coding guides!

Maybe in the future, we could see some homebrew project kit that could be able to shoot 500fps or even 1000fps in 4k for a limited investment. In any case, we feel that you should take a look at the project below and get inspired.  We thank our reader Nacho Simon for the heads up on this awesome project and Mr. Elder for his creativity and drive! -HSC

Video Sample and Step by Step Guides Below:

World’s Cheapest High-speed Camera For $6 With 660FPS!? by RobertElderSoftware:

Part 1) How To Record Video At 660 FPS On A $6 Raspberry Pi Camera – Part 1 by RobertElderSoftware: → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12k Camera Setup 7 new Frame Rates!

Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12k Camera Setup 7

Blackmagic Design has released Camera Setup 7.0 which upgrades the URSA Mini Pro 12k camera in several areas including improved frame rates at different resolutions.  At 12k the maximum frame rate has increased to 75fps from 60fps and at 4k we now have up to 240fps in BRAW format from 220fps on a Super 16mm crop of the sensor. We also get 8k at up to 160fps from a maximum before of 110fps which is improved by leveraging the fast pipeline in the camera and delivering usable frame rates with good multiples.

While the camera is not cheap at $9,995, it is certainly a bargain considering the resolution and frame rates you have access to in BRAW RAW-Like format.  It may be essentially the most powerful camera you can buy today for this price range and available with an F, EF, or PL mount the flexibility is there if needed.  Blackmagic Design are also the owners of DaVinci Resolve and usually bundled it with their cameras. It makes for a hard to beat all in one system for shooting, editing, and postproduction. Dig in for more details…

Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12k – Full High Speed Frame Rates After Update:

12K 17:9 full sensor up to 60 fps
12K 2.4:1 up to 75 fps
8K DCI full sensor up to 120 fps
4K DCI full sensor up to 120 fps
8K 2.4:1 and 4K 2.4:1 up to 160 fps

6K Super 16 up to 120 fps
4K Super 16 up to 240 fps

Ursa Mini Pro 12K Unboxing & Footage by Epic Light Media: → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Phantom Slow Motion Camera Used to Study Coughing Reach!

Phantom Slow Motion Camera

Schlieren Imaging has always been a very narrow and specialized field of imaging. It can visualize air perturbations in a fluid-like way that can show the reach in this case of someone’s breath and heat dissipation to see if a mask makes a large enough difference in transmission of infected airborne particles compared to no covering.

By using a Phantom VEO4k 990 slow motion camera at 938fps and a speckled background with specialized angled lighting, researchers were able to test a variety of masks while coughing to see the effects.  You can watch the video posted here and also check out the full study available here if you want to dig deeper. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Canon EOS R5 Makes it Expensive to record 120fps 4k Video!

Canon EOS R5

Canon has now released the final specs and estimated release dates for the EOS R5 and R6 cameras. There is a lot of good advancement in features especially in video mode as what many believe is an afront to Sony and Panasonic who dominate video recording on ILCs.  The R5 can record 24fps and 30fps 8k video or 8192 x 4320 pixels in RAW quality which is a staggering 1TB of storage or 2600 Mbits/s for only 51 minutes of recording time. That means that every hour you will eat up through a full TB of your RAID backup storage. We see this mode being transcoded to an intermediate format like Blackmagic RAW or BRAW or Apple ProRes as soon as possible.

There is more bad news, on the 120fps 4k front there is no other option of recording but All-I which saves every frame independently in 10-bit 4:2:2 which is good for excellent quality but at the cost of 1,880 Mbits/s  which is 224MB/sec or 13,447MB / minute of recording time. Better get a ton of memory cards and hard drives ready!

EOS R5 Video Specs:

Video Rec Modes Raw 12-Bit
DCI 8K (8192 x 4320) at 23.976p/24.00p/25p/29.97p [2600 Mb/s]
H.265 4:2:2 10-Bit
DCI 8K (8192 x 4320) at 23.976p/24.00p/25p/29.97p [680 to 1300 Mb/s]
UHD 8K (7680 x 4320) at 23.976p/25p/29.97p [680 to 1300 Mb/s]
DCI 4K (4096 x 2160) at 23.976p/24.00p/25p/29.97p/59.94p/100p/119.88p [170 to 1880 Mb/s]
UHD 4K (3840 x 2160) at 23.976p/25p/29.97p/50p/59.94p/100p/119.88p [170 to 1880 Mb/s]
Full HD (1920 x 1080) at 23.976p/25p/29.97p/50p/59.94p [28 to 230 Mb/s]
H.264 4:2:0 8-Bit
DCI 8K (8192 x 4320) at 23.976p/24.00p/25p/29.97p [470 to 1300 Mb/s]
UHD 8K (7680 x 4320) at 23.976p/25p/29.97p [470 to 1300 Mb/s]
DCI 4K (4096 x 2160) at 23.976p/24.00p/25p/29.97p/50p/59.94p/100p/119.88p [120 to 1880 Mb/s]
UHD 4K (3840 x 2160) at 23.976p/25p/29.97p/50p/59.94p/100p/119.88p [120 to 1880 Mb/s]
Full HD (1920 x 1080) at 23.976p/25p/29.97p/50p/59.94p [12 to 180 Mb/s]

You read that right 120fps 4k video on the EOS R5 is only possible at the 1,880Mbits/sec data rate even in H.264 mode. Also interesting to know is the lack of 120fps Full HD 1080p or higher fps modes which are common on cameras from Panasonic or Sony.

 

Overheating what?

Yes, the R5 gets overheated after recording video on the following modes and times:

  • 8k RAW 30p/24p – 20 Minutes rec time
  • 8k NON-RAW 30p/24p – 20 Minutes rec time
  • 4k 120fps – 15 Minutes rec time
  • 4k 60p – 35Min Rec Time No Crop
  • 4k 60p – Crop Mode 5.1k Oversampling – 25 Min Rec Time
  • 4k High-Quality 30p- 8.2k Oversampling- 30 Min Rec Time
  • 4k 30p – No Overheating Limit

We do not find any of these limits to be unbearable if you shoot clips of a few minutes but for event shooters, this is not the camera for you for many reasons, chief among the rec time limit, and secondly, the massive recording space needed.  For slow motion, the limit of 4k 120fps at 15 minutes is probably more than you will ever need so that is not a problem. See the video below:

Canon EOS R5 the TRUTH about OVERHEATING!: Armando Ferreira

It costs what :-0?

Yes, the EOS R5 costs a staggering $3,899.00 US Body only and expected to ship at the end of July on the 31st.   The camera it stems from the venerable 5D Mark IV DSLR went on sale in September 2016 with a retail price of $3,499 (Now about $2,000USD), so the new R5 is now $400 USD more expensive at launch plus the new lenses are really expensive plus also needed to get the most out of this camera’s 45MP sensor and be able to get the 8 stop Sensor IBIS Stabilization with lens+body.  A good R5 kit will probably cost you around $10k for a three-lens setup with body and memory cards.  Having the latest and greatest from Canon or any other big brand will cost you, and this is a prime example of it.

4k 120fps Mode samples?

Gladly we were able to find 4k 120fps video samples from the R5 and they look very good along with full AF which is an excellent feature to have in slow motion recording see below:

Canon EOS R5 Field Test – with 4k 120fps samples:  Jarrad Seng → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Panasonic Lumix DC-G100 120fps Slowmo Full HD and why to avoid it!

Panasonic Lumix DC-G100 120fps Slowmo

The new trend this year is the selfie mirrorless camera being bundled so that Youtube and other social media Vloggers get a camera that can easily capture what they need with little fuzz. It is no secret that camera sales are in free fall and companies will try to market anything and everything to get some sales. Such is the case with the Panasonic Lumix G100. It has a very nice microphone, a diminutive body, a terrific bright day screen, and a very portable and good enough image from a micro 4/3 sensor.

So why all this negativity? Well for a camera that wants to compete with the smaller 1″ sensor but better overall featured Sony ZV-1 with excellent dual pixel tracking AF; the G100 is limited in a variety of ways. The 5x stabilization will only work in 1080p and be only electronic in 4k.  4k itself only lasts 10 minutes which is very constrained for 2020, maybe for 2016 as a spec but not 4 years later. Dig in for more info!

Panasonic Lumix DC-G100 Main specs:

  • 20.3MP Digital Live MOS Sensor  m4/3
  • 5184 x 3888 maximum resolution
  • UHD 4K30p Video, Pre-Installed V-Log L (10min limit)
  • 5-Axis Hybrid Image Stabilization (1080p Only)
  • OZO Audio with Subject Tracking
  • ISO 200 to 25600 (Extended: 100 to 25600)
  • Video Modes: MP4 4:2:0 8-Bit
  • UHD 4K (3840 x 2160) at 23.976p/29.97p (10min)
  • Full HD (1920 x 1080) at 29.97p/59.94p
  • Slow Motion 120fps Full HD Mode-
  • 12 to 32mm Lens kit included
  • MSRP: $747.99 with lens and tripod included

For a camera and lens combo under $750 USD it may seem like a pretty good package but when you dig in the details it becomes apparent that you are getting a subpar kit that could have been so much better.

What about Slow Motion?

The video below by Gordon Laing shows a sample of the slow motion on the camera that is very good and will give you a good indication of the per-pixel quality. It is also a very complete review with AF tests and the audio modes.

Panasonic Lumix G100 review vs ZV1 M50 G90 G95 by Gordon Laing:

The full HD 120fps looks to be on par with other Lumix cameras which is not bad but it is also way below others in their line of cameras like 180fps and 240fps which is not even a choice here.

As a slow motion camera, it is competitive with other 120fps cameras in full HD but not much else. We cannot recommend it over other options like the Sony RX series that can do 240fps in near full HD (See Here) with pretty good results.

Other things:

The stabilization which is essential for blogging is limited in the 5 axis mode to 1080p which is ridiculous, you get electronic image shift stabilization for 4k and a 10-minute recording limit on that mode which is very much a non-starter for vloggers.

Ozo audio in the video above is really the most interesting feature of this camera and something we hope to see in the Lumix line from now on. The omnidirectional microphones allow the camera to estimate the location of the person speaking and link the face detection autofocus algorithm so it stays sharp during recording even when you move out of the frame and back in.

The AF technology used is DFD or Depth from Defocus which is used in the Lumix line of cameras and while excellent for still images it still can’t compete directly with dual pixel AF from other brands that use contrast and Phase detection along with object and animal/people tracking to be very consistent in the video modes. DFD has a hit and miss that is hated by many and a clear let down by today’s AF standards, especially for Vlogging.

Panasonic G100: Hands-on look at a lightweight multimedia powerhouse by imagingresource → Continue Reading Full Post ←