DJI the maker of the Phantom drone has answered GoPro back with a direct competitor to the Karma drone announced last week. The new DJI Mavic Pro drone is extremely portable; even more so than the Karma and has obstacle avoidance technology along with ground awareness which is missing from the GoPro completely. It also has the follow me feature in more modes than ever which makes shooting with it a breeze.
In a launch that was mostly subdued, a new camera was launched in August; the Panasonic HC-X1 which is a mid range professional fixed lens ENG or EFP camera with some serious specs to go behind it. For starters there is 4k at up to 60fps a format that we hope to see in upcoming ILCs like the GH4 successor and Sony Cameras. The other is 100fps PAL or 120fps NTSC 1080p which is now a must have slow motion standard for any serious camera.
The qualities of the new Panasonic HC-X1 do not stop at higher frame rates; it features a fantastic 3 independent fly by wire ring system for focus, aperture and the last for zoom which starts at a very wide 24mm to 480mm at the long end or 20x optical. The camera also features a built in ND Filter wheel from 1/4th to 1/64th for effortless 180 degree shooting outdoors.
The slow motion phone that was gathering a lot of interest regarding it’s capability was the Lenovo Zuk Z2 Pro with a spec reported to be 960fps. Such a spec would leapfrog the current iPhone 6s and Google’s Nexus 6P 240fps 720p spec. However it seems such bold claims are usually met with a reality that does not match such claims.
The Youtube channel C4ETech “Subscribe Here” has had a go with the Zuk Z2 and found that the spec is pretty much smoke and mirrors. The 960fps spec which was supposed to be HD quality and full frames is nothing more than 120fps 720p interpolated by software up to 960fps. It doesn’t even allow real 240fps like other competitive phone options.
The Zuk Z2 has been released and as it’s customary from many manufacturers they omit the slow motion or just mention it as an afterthought. According to the press release it does support 960fps video recording but nothing else is mentioned. There is a mention of the feature still not active in the pre release phone due to software lag which will be released at a later date.
That however has not deterred us from crunching some numbers and getting a good estimate from the Samsung 13MP ISOCELL sensor used which gives us clues as to what to expect in terms of higher frame rate support. lets dig in!
Our reader Andy Urtu alerted us to the firmware updates for the JVC prosumer camcorder line which add among other improvements the 120fps high speed video mode at full 1080p 1920*1080 resolution to the popular camera line. Thanks Andy!
This week’s announcement of the Lenovo ZUK Z2 Pro smartphone has been plagued with misinformation and spec sheets that were not complete. We have received a full spec sheet for the phone now translated from Chinese that confirms the existence of 960fps video.
The phone will have 4k UHD video as well and a plethora of features that are completely new in smartphones like the ability to read wet fingerprints with it’s sensor and several health directed sensors like UV light, heart rate and blood oxygen which were also present in the Galaxy S6 last year. The slowmo spec is the standout feature for us!