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 ←
DxO the company associated with DXO Optics Pro RAW conversion and for it’s popular camera sensor rating scores has released their first hardware product based on a coupling with the Apple iPhone and iPad devices with lightning connector.
The camera attaches in the thunderbolt charging port and lets you swivel the phone or tablet screen for easier viewing angles. The power of the camera comes from what could be the highest quality portable device camera to date. The RAW and Super RAW modes claim unprecedented image quality with scores in RAW mode of 70 DxO points and in Super RAW of 85 points. In contrast the original full frame Canon 5D Mark 1 only gathered a sensor score of 71 in RAW mode. While the results show a clear progression in sensor technology they simply cannot match the aesthetics of a full frame sensor with a 1″ inch sensor.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
The Sony FS700 has been reduced in price several times this year and now commands an under $5k price for the body only package. When the camera was released it commanded a $7,999 USD price tag for the same kit with $8,499 USD for the basic 18-200mm kit. Nowadays you can get some used FS700 bodies for just over 4k.
Out of left field the latest Sharp Aquos Zeta SH-03G, Aquos Xx and Aquos Serie SHV32 – 2015 model smart phones based on Android; claim to deliver up to 2100fps high speed video at 854 x 480 pixels or 1200 fps in full HD 1080p mode. As to those claims as anything that sounds too good to be true it regularly is. These phones are no different to these superlative claims.
The Phones actually do shoot high speed video but not anywhere close to the claimed extremely high frame rates. The most they do is 210fps at 854*480 pixels and at full 1080p a frame rate of 120fps which is quite good for a smartphone.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
Samsung has released an update to the Samsung NX1 4k Camera firmware now (Version 1.3) that among other things it improves the ease of use and selection of the high speed slow motion video 120fps mode. The improvements are varied and even ad a new USB control application to interface with the camera. Minor bug fixes and enhancements in workflow and usability are also added. The list of goodies below:
Over the last three weeks testing and shooting with the edgertronic high speed camera has given HSC the opportunity to branch out of the basic kit and expand on the way the camera can be interfaced with. The small footprint of the body screams to be taken outside and on locations out of a controlled studio environment.
Part 3 of this review will focus on what kind of customization can be done by altering the connections and host computer to easily use the camera as a completely portable setup. We will also go into a feature wishlist for the camera or future edgertronic products and our conclusion for the entire review.→ Continue Reading Full Post ←
