So you have an iPhone and want to get the best video possible out of it. Should you stay with Apple’s camera implementation or should you branch out and look for better capture apps? Those that do the best job at compressing your footage and extracting the utmost quality from it.
For years the App to flock to if you own an iPhone is the FiLMiC Pro for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch by Cinegenix. It was used in the Zacuto revenge of the Camera shootout in 2012 to capture the segments with the iPhone which rivaled, according to the audience of judges, cameras much stronger in specs and capture quality. It tied with the Canon C300 and beat the Sony FS100. That test was highly subjective with a lot of light to fill in the soft spots of the camera, however that did not detract from the fact that FiLMiC Pro did an amazing job at delivering a more grade-able and professional looking footage than Apple’s stock implementation on the then iPhone 4s. You can see the test here!→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
The folks of TheVideoMode.com have had some time with the new Leica SL Typ 601 and the Sony A7s Mark II. Some videos showing the interface for accessing the slow motion interface have been posted on their site. There is also a slow motion low light sample of the A7s Mark II at 120fps for you to watch.
Leica introduced the Leica SL Typ 601 mirrorless ILC“Interchangeable Lens Camera” With three lenses for the new system: the Leica Vario-Elmarit-SL 24-90mm F2.8-4 ASPH, Apo-Vario Elmarit-SL 90-280mm F2.8-4 and Summilux-SL 50mm F1.4 ASPH.
The Leica SL Camera itself has a 24MP Full Frame sensor based on the Leica Q camera sensor with modifications. Some speculate that the sensor is a Panasonic made part. The camera can take 11fps continuous shooting and 4k video at 24p and UHD at 30p. But what cought our eye was that it offers true 1080p 120fps mode and a 720p 120fps mode. Why include the latter is anybodys guess but if it is a sensor crop at 720p it allows for slow motion Telephoto. The 1080p 120fps mode uses the entire sensor area and down-samples to create the frame rate. We did notice some moderate aliasing in the samples that have been released but nothing too pronounced. The slow motion quality is actually extremely good and it is quite possibly on par with the best 120fps compact cameras out there today.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
The Sony DSC-RX1R II is a monster of a fixed lens camera. It has a Full frame 42.4-megapixel Exmor R back-illuminated CMOS sensor with 399-point phase-detect Fast Hybrid AF system. It also has the first ever variable optical low-pass filter which lets you shoot with all of the quality of the sensor or with reduced per pixel quality when you want to avoid moire and aliasing. For landscape and nature photographers this is a great feature as they can shoot unconstrained for quality without having to purchase a body with or without the low pass filter. This is real innovation and shows just how far Sony is evolving the camera space forward.
There is no real competition feature for feature that can rival Sony in the portable camera space. Should we be worried? We think this will push others to innovate and differentiate cameras in the future with real must have features that do what no camera phone can do. However it could also cause stagnation as Sony becomes the go to player while others struggle.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
DJI Has announced a portable 3-Axis Gimbal camera system called DJI OSMO that rivals the best handheld camera options from the competition with an integrated ZENMUSE X3 camera “Same as the one found in the DJI Inspire 1 drone. You get a ton of standard features like an intelligent panning mode and auto panorama with also a timelapse & intervalometer to boot. You will need to supply a Phone or other portable device with iOS or Android in order to have a live preview screen and set up the camera / adjust settings.
Specs for the DJI OSMO portable stabilized camera:
Video Resolution:
UHD: 4K (4096 x 2160) 24/25p
UHD 4K (3840 x 2160) 24/25/30p
2.7K (2704 x 1520) 24/25/30p
FHD: 1920 x 1080 24/25/30/48/50/60/120p*
HD: 1280 x 720 24/25/30/48/50/60p
Sensor:
Sony Exmor R CMOS; 1/2.3”
Effective pixels: 12.40M
(Total pixels: 12.76M)
Still Photography Modes:
Single Shot
Photo Burst Mode: 3/5/7 shots
Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB):
3/5 bracketed frames @ 0.7EV bias
Interval
Timelapse
Auto Panorama
Selfie Panorama
Now that a couple of weeks have passed it is clear that the camera in the new iPhone 6s is better than the previous model in every single way. It has 12MP instead of 8MP, it has UHD 4k recording in video and has 120fps 1080p slowmo which is up from 720p. The dynamic range is on par with the previous model but with the added feature of less noise and artifacts due to new in sensor technology and software processing. While most users will not notice much in the way of improvements; they are there and especially if you look at the video mode the new iPhone is a fantastic upgrade from the regular 6 model.
The 120fps 1080p mode is very good and the detail is retained as long as there is not a lot of minute detail and extreme numbers of objects/changes in the scene. It is not as good as regular 1080p but it is close as there is not a lot of detail loss especially when using Macro mode. If you want it to shoot a single water drop it should do great but if you are recording assorted splashes the codec will break apart and macro-blocks will start to invade your scene. It works very well for people and large scene objects and a lot of detail is preserved. The 240fps mode is also improved in the artifacts and noise which means the processing is improved as you can see much less aliasing and moire. It is still not true 720p but it is very close. As of now we think the iPhone 6s has better slow motion quality than the GoPro Hero 4 Black and the Sony Action Cam Sony FDR-X1000V . It is the best slowmo phone available in quantity as of today. The New Nexus 6P has 720p 240fps to compete with the iPhone but no realistic samples besides the Hummingbird Video which is still unconfirmed exist. This will change in the near future when users get their hands on it.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
