Tag Archives: DNG

Octopus Cinema Camera Upgradeable Slow Motion Kit?

Octopus Cinema Camera Upgradeable Slow Motion

The recently announced Octopus Cinema Camera with a modular sensor, mount, and other components could, in theory, become a customizable professional solution slow motion camera that is unencumbered by firm specs but by a fluid and upgradeable sensor and component path.  The Axiom camera is also something akin to this but has yet to ship. The Octopus has in prototype form been fitted with a 4/3 sensor capable of up to 240fps in 2k RAW and a full-frame that allows 3k up to 100fps.

The body looks eerily similar to Phantom cameras with the white machined exterior with fans and ports protruding the body.  While 240fps at 2k is not what we could call really professional slow motion, it is based on an open architecture in hardware and software that could window the sensor down and possibly offer more frame rates at 1080p and 720p for maybe a 480fps RAW capture in HD. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Terra 4k Firmware Update Allows 320fps 2k!

Terra 4k Firmware Update

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 ←

Chronos 1.4 Firmware 0.3.1 b9 Unleashes New Features!

Chronos 1.4 Firmware

The Chronos 1.4c team based in B.C. Canada has been hard at work unleashing the features of the camera hardware and adding software features that should make the camera more valuable to video professionals everywhere. The new firmware adds HDMI live mirroring support for monitoring which is clean and lets you record its output. Another feature is the inclusion of native CinemaDNG save format image sequences which retain 16bits of color data and allow you to really streamline the workflow without time-consuming conversions.

In our testing over the last 4 days, we have really put the firmware “available here” through its paces and found very minimal issues in the software related to usability but no freezes and rock solid operation over around 14hrs of operation.   By saving to CinemaDNG we have no issues with cards getting write space errors due to saving the 1.8MB files individually. We feel this format is really unleashing the camera’s quality fully with a faithful sensor capture representation. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Chronos 1.4 New Firmware Improves h.264 Image Quality!

Chronos 1.4 New Firmware

The Chronos 1.4 team has been hard at work on firmware improvements. The latest pre-released software patch shared with HSC improves the h.264 file quality at the pixel level by using a new demosaic algorithm to better match the real camera output.  We did a few sample tests to see how big an improvement it is and also to maybe ditch the slow and space eating RAW 16bit workflow which is our preferred file saving format as it retains all the sensor information.

The new improvements are already available to the community as a beta in this post. It is very stable it should immediately improve the way you work with the camera. Also, a new roadmap of upcoming firmware releases was shared in the forums which include HDMI monitoring and a complete OS change to Debian Linux from the current Arago distro for the camera which should improve development and speed in implementing features. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

CHRONOS 1.4 SOFTWARE V0.3 RC2 Released!

Chronos 1.4 Software V0.3 RC2

The Chronos 1.4c Team has released the latest v0.3 RC2 software for testing.  Be aware that this is not mission critical stable software so only use on your own private testing and not for recording mission critical shoots.  The Interface can now be flipped to the left side though we would love to see an option to be concentrated on the lower part for better screen real-estate distribution.

We have tested over the last few days and are happy to report that the software has been stable and rock solid with no lock-ups and no sluggishness.  The Color science was improved since the first v0.3 RC1 release to render the red colors among others more faithfully. In our testing, there was a definite improvement but we would like to see better treatment of the deep blues and magentas. We are happy to see White Balance is now supporting built-in presets! → Continue Reading Full Post ←

FRAN​ Camera by CINEMARTIN Promises 8k and High Frame Rates!

FRAN Camera 8k

The newly announced CINEMARTIN FRAN 8K Camera claims some huge numbers in terms of resolution and performance.  Up to 8K (8000×6000) RAW / Uncompressed 12 Bit video capture at 24fps and up to 96fps in 2k & 1080p for high frame rates but more on that later in this post.  There is only one image of the camera we were provided with and that is the RED Brain like rendering above which sports a mounting port which in the lab is fitted with a Canon EF Mount which is preferred among cinema oriented users especially if it is an active one.

FRAN also offers in the spec sheet 15.5 stops of dynamic range at 12 bit which competes directly with the best cinema cameras out there. CINEMARTIN claims the camera will come in below the competition in price while offering a true global shutter sensor with no rolling shutter distortion.   Using a 4/3 sized sensor at 50MP with 48MP being used for 8k Capture it may seem overkill when it comes to low light performance. It may be able to deliver resolution levels never before seen on cinema cameras but low-light will surely be a hurdle for the camera to overcome. → Continue Reading Full Post ←