It is that time of the year again, to save on that coveted piece of kit that you have been eyeing for the better part of the year. We have gathered the deals that contain the slow motion camera capable gear so that you can browse fast and save time. Remember that with every link you support HSC at no added cost to you.
The recently announced Canon 90D, Canon EOS M6 II, Sony a6100 and Sony a6600 are cameras that refine everything that is already a current technology but bundle it in a lower price package with great performance. However, it is clear from the spec sheets that high frame rates have stagnated for the past few years in these camera lines with a maximum of 120fps at 1080p.
Sure some of them offer full-time autofocus in slow motion modes and face tracking which in the case of Sony is so good that you may not even match it if you had the best focus puller in the business hired for your shoot. But the frame rate war seems to be left to other camera lines and brands. Panasonic, for example, offers up to 180fps in their new S1H camera which should be in theory the best Panasonic mirrorless camera ever made and it should also allow for outstanding quality in 1080p 180fps.
Panasonic not to be outdone by sales rivals is pre-announcing the S1H camera to appease video-centric mirrorless users who want that extra edge. It has a 6k mode which will allow for better stabilization and cropping/punching in on 4k timelines while giving the user bragging rights. It has a 14 stop dynamic range spec which if we look at the sensor it is only on a couple of capture settings the rest is 12 bit.
There is also no mention of higher frame rates besides UHD 4k 60p which we presume will be 180fps 1080p max since this camera shares nearly the same internals as the other Panasonic S1 cameras. We do not expect this camera to have better slow motion video than the regular S1 even with its $4000 price tag. The camera looks to be aimed at the mid-high end of the video market and allow it to record without limits which on the regular S1 is 29min.
Let us start by saying that we are huge fans of the Lumix line by Panasonic and their cameras in general. The GH5 is still a powerhouse of a camera for serious video work and the 180fps FUll HD slow motion is better than many others before or since at that frame rate while at 120fps is as good as the best Sonys out there. However, the recently announced Lumix G95 drops the ball in several fronts when it comes to really good video performance which has become a trademark for Panasonic.
The G95 has all the looks and character of a great hybrid camera but has a crippled video mode that may put off many buyers looking for the perfect intermediate camera. The 4k, for example, has a 1.25x crop on top of the nearly 2x crop of the micro 4/3 sensor. Making it a little larger than the area of a 1″ sensor. This will sacrifice video quality in the lack of supersampling and low light will suffer from the added megapixels.
As it was initially unveiled at Photokina last year, the Panasonic Lumix S1 and S1R cameras are their answer to the domination of larger sensors in stills and video mirrorless cameras. Is there any reason now to buy a Full Frame DSLR when mirrorless is so advanced? The only thing we can think of is to have marginally longer battery life. The mirror is on its last legs and fans better start offloading their lenses if they don’t want to mess with adapters. In the case of Panasonic however, it is not possible to use Lumix Micro 4/3 lenses on the Leica/Sigma/Panasonic Full Frame L-Mount.
The S1 and S1R will both shoot up to 180fps 1080p video with a crop that may or may not be impactful. Seems the S1R has less crop on 1080p than the video geared S1 which is an odd spec. We will have to wait for more samples and info on the HFR mode to see which of these cameras offers the best slow motion performance. From the limited samples, we can say that the quality looks very good and at least on par with the Lumix GH5 at 120fps.
As 2018 comes to a close it is time to look back through the year’s camera releases and see which delivered quality at an affordable price in slow motion. Phone slow motion options above 480fps were a big surprise this year and the frame rate quality improved in other cameras up to 240fps.
There has been a stagnation in the mid to professional camera range at the 240fps with no big improvements afterward. The best quality and value once again came from the Chronos 1.4c from Krontech and the edgertronic cameras which offer professional quality results at a very reasonable price. Read on for our best of 2018 results!