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.
RED digital cinema has been releasing information about a new camera brain or body that will be just under $6k US in price but offer a 4k S35 like Dragon sensor with up to 120fps recorded in Redcode RAW at 4k resolution. It is not known at this time if other frame rates at lower resolutions will be supported but since other RED cameras do window the sensor for 300fps and the like it is pretty safe to say you will be able to shoot smaller frame with higher frame rates. As to the quality of the 120fps mode it is still up in the air but it could be compressed with RED Code RAW codec in a wavelet lossy format like it does many higher frame rates on other cameras of the line.
Sample video of the RED Raven camera interface reaching 120fps at 4k in a Facebook Post!
UPDATE: The $399 price is gone now but you can still get a deal for it at $419 using the links below for a limited time!
Adorama has the great GoPro Hero 4 Black camera at a discount for only today at $399 compared to $499 regular with free expedited shipping. Seems more things than the Stock Market are on Sale today! This camera is capable of 240fps and 120fps at 720p and 4k at 30p among other formats. If you have waited for a while for the GoPro Hero 4 Black to be lower in price this is your chance.
There is a lot of expectation for the release of the Panasonic DVX200 4k camera. It has been proclaimed as a true professional tool that will last the test of time among other superlatives. What intrest us most is that the camera will offer the ability to shoot 60p at 4k and 120fps at full 1080p HD. While non of the frame rates are what we would call groundbreaking; they do serve the vast majority of the video production crowd with the most usable aspects of overcrank for sports and shooting techniques relying on fast panning motion and action shots.
While there is still a blackout of shots at 120fps there have been a few 4k released shots that show what the pre-production cameras are capable of. The performance of the Micro 4/3 sensor and the built in Leica 13x f/2.8 – f/4.5 Lens seems to be very good. The samples however show Dynamic range which is rated at 12 stops in the specs to be close to what a GH4 with VLOG can produce. Since these are pre production shots you cannot base the final image quality of the camera from these samples but the quality is there and it can only go up from here. As for low light abilities it will remain to be seen but if you expect Sony A7s quality you are barking at the wrong tree. It should perform close or better than what the Lumix GH4 is able to do. The camera should be released sometime in October this year with a MSRP of $5000 USD.
Today has been quite busy in portable device land with the release of the Moto X, Moto G and the One Plus 2 handsets. The hype and rumors regarding slow motion modes on these phones turned out to be way ahead of the norm and what we are left with is the same tired old specs of yesteryear when it comes to slow motion performance. 720p at 120fps seems to be the norm for an afterthought slow motion feature. Apple for example continues to up the ante with 240fps and possibly more in the upcoming iPhone 6s refresh. There is nothing wrong with these phones but if you want slow motion performance in your portable handset, the latest Moto and One Plus 2 are not what you would consider optimal. They however offer pretty good feature sets and great cameras for normal video applications and still capture.
The One Plus 2 is a phone flagship design for less money than you would normally pay for such a device. it has a modified Android OS “Cyanogenmod” that is fast, free of bloatware and very good with battery life. It has optical image stabilization, large pixels for a 13 megapixel sensor, fingerprint sensor and a great alert switch so you can deactivate alerts in a custom way when you are sleeping, in a movie theater or simply want to disconnect for a while. It is a lot of phone for the price. Even the One Plus 1 is still used in benchmarks today as a competitive phone in the mid range.
