Tag Archives: preview

Announcements, Camera News, Hardware Development, Media Showcase, Previews

Blackmagic PCC 4k is Powerful & Cheap!

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Blackmagic PCC 4k BMPCC4k

Yes the BMPCC 4k looks like a DSLR crossed with a late 1990s digital camera but it’s insides are not only powerful but could also mean that you can essentially afford two units of this camera instead of a Panasonic GH5s for example and get similar quality with the added ability to shoot RAW and power an XLR microphone directly from the camera with phantom power. Bang for your buck!

As for fast frame rates the camera can shoot 4k 60fps & 120fps 1080p in full RAW or Apple ProRes codec options. We sure wished the camera could shoot 240fps in full HD and 120fps in 4k even while time limited. It would have placed the camera in a much better position on our list due to its $1,295.00 USD price tag which is really the best value for money in a camera today. Well for September 3rd which is the actual ship date which may or may not derail your purchasing plans. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Announcements, Media Showcase, Slowmo Samples

Panasonic GH5s Slow Motion Samples 240fps!

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Panasonic GH5s Slow Motion Samples

There is an aura over the Panasonic GH5s that has not been seen in a m43 camera possibly ever.  It is mainly due to the outstanding low light quality in 4k 24, 30p and 60p that beats full frame cameras like the Canon 5D Mark IV and competes head to head until ISO 25,600 with the king of low light the Sony a7s Mark II.    But as always, our focus is on the high frame rates which the camera also does quite good on.

The 4k 60fps quality is very close to the 30p quality which means excellent and you can shoot at 60p at night without worrying about noise.  The 240fps mode which is a first for a Lumix camera in full HD means that the camera aims to compete with Sony RX series cameras that have stacked sensors. We believe the quality to be acceptable but not good enough to be broadcast quality as stair stepping jaggies are all over the frame with the occasional moire pattern on fine detail that can break a shot. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Announcements, Camera News, Hi Speed Phone Video, Media Showcase, Slowmo Samples

Huawei P20 Pro Slow Motion 960fps 720p Mode!

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Huawei P20

Huawei’s P20 Pro is a beautiful phone that merges the sleek design of the Samsung Galaxy series with the Apple front screen notch while not compromising in camera design with a 3 sensor + lens combo that may be the best camera solution on a phone yet. In fact, DPreview has an article on the stills camera performance here. They call it “the most innovative mobile device we have seen in quite some time”  which is a tall order considering how good the competition camera’s like in the Pixel 2 XL, Galaxy S9 and the iPhone X have gotten.

What interests us, however, is the slow-motion mode which allows the phone to shoot a 0.25sec burst of 720p video at 960fps which is slightly above the time recorded by the Galaxy S9 and Sony Xperia XZ series of last year but still below the new Xperia XZ2’s 0.4 seconds at 720p this year.  We were not impressed with the quality of either phone when it came to overall resolution and artifacts so we were skeptical about the Huawei P20 Pro since the start. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Announcements, Camera News, Firmware/Software

Panasonic EVA1 Firmware Update 2.02 Frame Rate Improvements!

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Panasonic EVA1 Firmware 2.02

The new v2.02 firmware update for the Panasonic EVA1 includes improved bit rates at a variety of frame rates like:    2k- 422-Intra Frame Recording 200M/100M Max 120fps (equivalent to 400Mbps) Which may improve slow-motion quality considerably by allowing more data to be saved instead of scrapped.

For digital recorder owners, there is a lot to be excited about as the camera will now output RAW data at: 5.7K/30p Full sensor, 4K/60p Crop ,  2K/240p Sensor Crop.   Since the 240fps mode saved internally exhibited very severe aliasing, moire and line skipping; the fact that RAW is now a possibility should bring the camera’s capabilities up a notch and deliver excellent slow-motion quality. We hope to have some samples of the RAW recording on the EVA1 in a  future update. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Announcements, Camera News, Hardware Development, Media Showcase, Slowmo Samples

Canon C700 FF and RED EPIC-W Dual ISO do High Frame Rates!

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With NAB 2018 getting near, new announcements are starting to trickle in.  The two newest are the Canon EOS C700 FF Full-Frame Cinema Camera & the RED DIGITAL CINEMA EPIC-W BRAIN with Gemini 5K S35 Sensor.  These two are serious cinema cameras aimed at recording in high-end codec formats and supporting RAW codecs.  Both cameras support higher frame rates but do not offer extreme high speeds like dedicated slow-motion cameras.

In the case of the RED EPIC-W with Gemini S35 sensor, it is the first time RED has used a dual Native ISO sensor like the ones seen on the Panasonic EVA1 and GH5s which have two different native sensitivities to deliver extremely clean footage with the widest dynamic range. Witha claimed 16.5 stops of dynamic range in standard mode & a gain of approximately two stops of light, from 800 to 3200 ISO without increasing the image noise. DPs of all kinds will savor these advances to shoot in dark situations knowing the output will be dependable. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Announcements, Camera News, Hardware Development, Media Showcase

MAVO Kinefinity Does 100fps at 4k!

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MAVO Kinefinity

Kinefinity the company behind the pretty capable and high-quality Terra cinema camera has announced in preparation for NAB 2018 the new MAVO 6k cinema camera in s35 and Large Format sensor options in the LF version.  Along with the new body design and expansion options the camera will include ProRes 422HQ, ProRes 444 & ProRes 444XQ recording.

Kinefinity also has a RAW format “.KRW” and this has been updated to version 2.0 to support the new camera. This is akin to REDCODE RAW as the .KRW format can compress in RAW anywhere from 2:1 best quality lossless to 10:1 with more quality loss while maintaining the benefits of RAW like dynamic range, white balance, and higher bit-depth color.  It also offers the possibility to record on cinema-DNG format In-Camera at 3:1, 5:1 and 7:1 compression. The camera has several high frame rate formats depending on crop resolution. → Continue Reading Full Post ←