Casio has announced:
EXILIM Pro EX-F1, with the world's fastest* burst shooting performance
This model incorporates a high speed CMOS sensor and a high speed LSI processor. With this model, Casio has achieved an ultra-high speed 60 frames per second (fps) burst rate for still images, together with 1,200 fps high speed movie recording that captures movement faster than the eye can see for ultra-slow motion replay. Moreover, the new model can record movies at full High-Definition.

Ton's more info and video at Engadget and other sites.....can't wait for the DVinfonetters to get their hands on these and relate impressions!

Some information, specs and the press release here: http://www.dpreview.com/news/0801/08010601casiof1.asp

This is really cool looking, but it sacrifices resolution to get the higher framerates.

Can't wait for the first reviews when it's released. If this delivers on image quality I'll sell my HD2 and buy it. Looks like it has manual focus/zoom, more dial as opposed to menu controls, mic input, super slo-mo (at lower res.) and supposedly its going to be under £500!

If it is anything like the Sony cameras 300fps I doubt this will be anything much to look at.

If it is anything like the Sony cameras 300fps I doubt this will be anything much to look at.

• Hi-Speed: 512 × 384 (300 fps), 432 × 192 (600 fps), 336 × 96 (1200 fps)

Yea... My FX7 does 120fps (240 fields per second) ... @ 480 x 270... which is useless...

I believe this is recording progressive/frames because it is a still-camera that's doing movie, every still camera's movie mode I've seen is progressive...

I believe this is recording progressive/frames because it is a still-camera that's doing movie, every still camera's movie mode I've seen is progressive...I'm not sure. I saw this cam at CES, and talked to the rep.

The camera lacked some of the things I would want, such as 24p, zebras and stuff, so I didn't study it as deeply as I might have. I don't recall it having an external mic input either, but I might be confusing it.

It does have a lot of glass though for a video camera in that price range. My impression was that it was a nice first effort, but it might not meet prosumer needs. The super high speed thing is killer though, if that's something you would find useful. (Useless on a "people" documentary, killer if you are doing action moves and blowing stuff up!)

according to the specs on the web it does have a mic input. I'm not too bothered about the potentially low quality of the high speed as I am not aiming to sell my videos and it would be cool for messing about with friends etc. especially on skiing holidays, getting my friends bailing in super slo-mo would be awesome!

...it would be cool for messing about with friends etc. especially on skiing holidays, getting my friends bailing in super slo-mo would be awesome!I think that's a perfect use. I saw the Samsung slo-mo camera too, and the footage of a guy doing Kung Fu moves looked great. Well, not Hollywood great, but really great for YouTube stuff. And the Samsung cam doesn't shoot nearly as fast as the Casio.

I'm not sure. I saw this cam at CES, and talked to the rep.

The camera lacked some of the things I would want, such as 24p, zebras and stuff, so I didn't study it as deeply as I might have. I don't recall it having an external mic input either, but I might be confusing it.

It does have a lot of glass though for a video camera in that price range. My impression was that it was a nice first effort, but it might not meet prosumer needs. The super high speed thing is killer though, if that's something you would find useful. (Useless on a "people" documentary, killer if you are doing action moves and blowing stuff up!)

I don't believe it's meant to be a film/video camera at all... I've had times where I wanted to record a short video and I grab my still camera and record it, has a small mic and does 320 x 240 @ 30fps... I drag and drop the .mov file from my card-reader and render it in Vegas real quick to a .wmv and upload it to my website.

Saves the hassle of pulling out the FX7, making sure a tape is in and not one I need, setting the settings, recording, grabbing the firewire cable, capturing the video, cropping/resizing/deinterlacing, then rendering it out.

This is a digital photo camera, with some highspeed capabilities built in...

The rep implied that it was a hybrid. Its sensor lacks the pixels of a typical SLR and it does HD and high speed video, yet it has a still-cam body. It has characteristics of both a still and a video cam. He said it was a bit of a product category experiment.

That said, I had a hard time imagining doing a video shoot with that camera body. Tracking everything with a still cam could make the shooter look like an obsessed nerd. (Not that many of us don't already fit into that classification...)

EDIT

Regarding the hassle of the FX7/tape/firewire cable, many of the new video cams that record to solid state would similarly reduce the hassle factor. For instance, the new SD9 has a quick on feature that is activated in less than one second after you open the LCD monitor.

Aside from the body shape, the difference in features between still and video cams is starting to blur.

I spent some time checking it out at macworld. The high-speed stuff is really meant for things like motion analysis, but the interesting thing is the 60-frame full res(6 megapixel) burst capability. It can buffer continuously so that when you hit the shutter button you actually get 30 frames before your press and 30 frames after - hard to beat for capturing the perfect frame in action, especially considering many non-SLR digital cameras still have shutter lag which makes it hard to time shots like that.

Evan,

A lot of the current cams (motion and still) capture video (in AVCHD or some other video coder) continuously. They also have the burst mode in which the frames are captured as JPEGs, but for a limited duration.

I think the Casio has both video and burst capture modes.

I know a lot of still cameras capture video, but I'm not aware of any that can capture bursts at full 6mp resolution at anything close to the 60fps this one can - most do at best 2-3 and a few get up into 8-10 speeds.

Here is the casio website:
http://www.exilim.com/intl/ex_f1/

Chip size 1/1.8 ins. Shoots 1920x1080 at 60p, recording H.264/AVC to SDHC cards. There is an external microphone socket.

Unfortunately no video clips as yet.

Patrick

Read the specifications too quick. HD is at 60 frames per second, so I guess that means 60i.

Patrick

fields not frames, doh.
Patrick

I used to like reading Stephen van Vuuren’s experiments shooting around 3 fps stills and using software interpolation to get back to 24 fps for experimental short films with a distinctive look. I bet he’d be interested in this camera! I wonder if the 60 frame buffer is a fixed number, or could you use a smaller frame size and accumulate more than 60 frames? Shutter life has been an issue with people using DSLRs for animation -- would this camera fail after a few weeks if you keep on shooting an astronomical number of stills?

thanks for the link - I love the idea of doing hi-speed recording.
BUT, I don't think it's 1080p, but 1080i (big difference in data)
720p would be more useful for most applications.
quote:
1920 × 1080 (FHD HQ/FHD Normal, 60 fields per second),
1280 × 720 (HD LP, 30 fps)

sorry patrick - you caught yourself while I was checking data on the site!
At high speeds I'm sure it is only using the electronic shutter, so no wear - the mechanical shutter is probably only for still frames (up to burst mode ?).
It's just frustratingly not adequate for any pro use. If it could do SD (640x480) at over 120fps, I'd start to think of applications for it, but the lo resolutions would only be useable in real projects as composited elements - which is really limiting.

The burst mode IS possible to do things with, but only a little gap between my current 720 60p HD video and 7fps DSLR. These both allow much longer recording...

I used to like reading Stephen van Vuuren’s experiments shooting around 3 fps stills and using software interpolation to get back to 24 fps for experimental short films with a distinctive look. I bet he’d be interested in this camera! I wonder if the 60 frame buffer is a fixed number, or could you use a smaller frame size and accumulate more than 60 frames? Shutter life has been an issue with people using DSLRs for animation -- would this camera fail after a few weeks if you keep on shooting an astronomical number of stills?

John - you're exactly right! Thanks for the kind words. Another DV Info member Charles Lim also saw my posts and has done some amazing work using that technique.

I am (but it's now actually "was") interested in this camera. If you dig deeply it's simply has 60 shot buffer at 6 megapixels. You can take those 60 shots at 60 fps and that gives you one second takes. If you want a longer takes, you've only got 60 frames. So a 12 second shot gets you only 5 fps, 20 second shot, only 3fps.

So, it's of no use to me. If they have a later model that has a 200 or 300 full resolution buffer, that might interesting.

I am currently in pre-production on a 4 minute or so short that will be shot with a Pentax K10d (all I could afford) that will shoot at steady 3fps at 10 megapixel until the buffer is full. I can get 1-2 minute takes depending on memory card. Of course, D300, A700 etc shoot at near 5fps until full but simply can't afford them yet.

It's called "Last (Memories of Blue)" and will serve as a promotional/test piece for my IMAX film.

first look at

http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/18689/casio-exilim-pro-ex-f1-test-photos/

Nice to hear. I wonder when we'll actually see these in stores.

I wondered why the pictures were so ridiculously clean, then realized they were lacking strongly in real detail. Talk about NR! With the full res burst being limited to one second of shots, and the 1080 video being interlaced, I'm afraid that it just doesn't seem to be as cool as all the hype. Still really neat though, especially for the high frame rates.

The 3rd post has a couple of samples.
http://www.stevesforums.com/forums/view_topic.php?id=588499&forum_id=14

-EDIT-
I guess you’ll have to wait if you want to download the second native file because Rapidshare has issues with one of its servers.

Here are a couple of 300 frames per second clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Asb1kDFSu0Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lyMxymQEPk
You’ll find many other examples on YouTube.

Darn Paulo - that looks real cool to me - I think I want one/k

Hello, look at
http://videotreffpunkt.com/thread.php?threadid=5996
there ar many RAW-Clips, Image sequences and .MOV files.

Robert Schiebel,
Thanks for that link.


Here is the Watch.Impress review.

Original Japanese:
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20080402/zooma352.htm

English Translated:
http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/trurl_pagecontent?lp=ja_en&trurl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.watch.impress.co.jp%2fav%2fdocs%2f20080402%2fzooma352.htm

The video quality at full HD is looking very impressive- anyone here using one- opinions, impressions?