Tag Archives: review

Canon ME20F-SH Sample Footage Released!

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Canon Japan has released a sample video showing the Canon ME20F-SH Super High ISO full frame multipurpose camera in action.  It is impressive to see ISOs as high as  on a camera that is as portable as this. Even with a high price of $30k US it is something news gathering and documentary outfits like Nat Geo and Discovery will gravitate to in order to extract new levels of color and light information from extremely challenging low illumination environments.

Filmmakers will also find it useful for shooting in extreme low light for a specific take, but we feel that scientists and biologists in particular will benefit most from these advancements.  Underwater videography is probably the most peculiar use to study bio luminescent organisms in complete darkness like never before. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

fps1000 Interview With Graham Rowan!

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Warning: The parent company of FPS cameras “The Slow Motion Camera Company Ltd.” went out of business and entered liquidation proceedings. No further development of cameras is expected. More information here on Google Search

The creator of the fps1000 camera Graham Rowan carved out some time to answer a few questions posed by our readers and us about the upcoming camera release and what went into the development. The answers are thorough and paint a good image of what the process from idea to build has been like; along with pitfalls and industry insights.  The interview is a bit long so grab a donut plus coffee and dig in! → Continue Reading Full Post ←

OnePlus 2 Slow Motion and Video Samples!

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The OnePlus 2 has been a big success in pre-orders with over 30,000 phones ordered in 64 seconds.  However people from the company got the One Plus 2 phone early and have been shooting footage and images with the phone in the last week. The quality is nothing short of amazing for regular video with macro capabilities that rival the best video cameras of a few years ago. The quality of the codec and detail extracted by the lens are extremely good.

When it comes to slow motion the quality of 120fps 720p is also better than other rivals in the Samsung and HTC space with less aliasing and Moire artifacts. It is still not perfect 720p but it comes very close.  The iPhone 6 still provides a better slow motion capability with 240fps as an option also.   Things are going to heat up with more releases soon in the mobile world, Apple 6s phone will probably debut sometime in September with improved specs and Android phones with better resolution and slow motion frame rates should be available by Christmas. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Canon ME20F-SH Records 4,000,000 ISO!

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The newly announced Canon ME20F-SH Camera besides it’s overly unpronounceable name and a price tag of $30,000 USD has what could be a record for any sensor to date. The ISO 4 million mark on this camera/sensor is able to record footage in full color at night. It over exposes footage only lit by a full moon.  The Sony A7s last year was a revelation of where sensor technology is going with it’s close to 1/2 million ISO at 409,600 . It could shoot in near complete darkness and could do a good job at it.  What Canon has done with the ME20F-SH is build their peak sensor technology into a 35mm Full Frame Sensor but with only 1080p Full HD resolution. The Sony A7s can shoot 4k footage with the HDMI output on an external recorder. This makes the pixel size on the Sony more constrained even with a Full Frame Sensor.

The pixel pitch size on the Sony A7s  (12MP on a full frame CMOS Sensor) is around 8.4 µm; in contrast the new Canon ME20F-SH has a  19 µm pixel size in a Full Frame Sensor.  This is an amazing performer in low light and probably the most sensitive sensor ever made for commercial purposes. At 2.26 Megapixels this is the state of the art for large pixels with impressive dynamic range and low light. It is unclear how the low resolution in such a large sensor will behave when it comes to moire and aliasing artifacts. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

fps1000 July 2015 Update!

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Warning: The parent company of FPS cameras “The Slow Motion Camera Company Ltd.” went out of business and entered liquidation proceedings. No further development of cameras is expected. More information here on Google Search

The awaited update on the status of the fps1000 cameras has been posted on the Kickstarter page and once again it is twisting things up a bit by adding things, improving others and fixing some issues. The most important part of the update relates to what most backers are interested in which is the ship date and this update also starts to set a near time frame for building the first cameras and shipping them as soon as August 2015.  While this date can move as it has in the past it seems that the hurdles for getting the improved from original design camera to buyers hands have been surmounted.  It will be interesting to see how these cameras perform once in the field and what the software is like. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

The Case For Monochrome High Speed!

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For many of us it seems counter intuitive to own a camera that doesn’t shoot color images.  In this day and age of technological marvels, being constrained by black and white / monochrome output on recording is a strange proposition. For the world of high speed imaging however you have to re-examine the entire debate from a benefits point of view and why it could be ideal to have monochrome instead of RGB color as your high speed option.

Depending on the intended use Monochrome might give you more bang for your buck and save you a lot of money on lighting and power requirements to run those lights.  To understand the benefits we need to dig in on why Monochrome camera sensors excel in areas where color sensors suffer and why this will hardly change with current sensor technology in the near future. → Continue Reading Full Post ←