hey,
is there a good option for burst capture of extreme slow motion at close to high definition resolution? like 300fps or higher?

i've been away from the boards for awhile but i recall a few years ago people were experimenting with imaging systems designed for scientific purposes that could capture direct to disk at high speed... i wouldn't mind lugging a full pc/capture card system around if it was just for a few specific slow-mo shots.

..i've also noticed that there are some digital still cameras that are getting very close to achieving some nice slow-mo burst acquisition, but none of them seem to be quite there..

if anyone has been keeping tabs on this stuff, any info would be appreciated.

thanks,
eric

In the consumer market, the Casio EXILIM Pro EX-F1 (1200fps) made a splash...

that casio is pretty cool.. the problem is that the 300fps is only hitting at 500x300 resolution..

if it just had a higher res slow-mo burst ablility it would be a no brainer.

We are talking about direct to memory at these speeds. Direct to disk is not very fast.

http://compumodules.com/image-processing/mikrotron/pdf/mb_cube4_dsh_prox_in%20arbeit_02.pdf

right, direct to memory. that motionblitz camera looks sick. i emailed some people for quotes, but i have a sneaking suspicion it awfully expensive.

got a quote. the motionblitz cube4 camera starts at $29,000. thats for monochrome, 1.5 sec record time, without lens. the slowmotion from it looks amazing but its a tad out of my price range. i was hoping for something under $2000.

You can use these cameras to change speed by extremely large factors. You can film a very small explosion on a tiny set and make it look like a huge one. A single project (even a single effects sequence) can pay for one of these cameras really for those who need the power. A camera like this only sells a few pieces and those have to cover the development cost which is very high. $2000 was a very unrealistic expectation! That gets you a very cheap consumer HDV camcorder perhaps. With 1/3" 60fps compressed cameras that sell by the thousands and still cost $8,000 or $10,000, how can you expect $2,000?

i haven't been following the development of high speed cameras for the past few years. when i was a few years ago people were getting very close to retasking low cost cameras created for scientific purposes to perform as tools for independent film makers..

in 2004 people were very close.. that's four years ago.. i was hoping that someone took that torch and ran with it. i don't think $2000 is unrealistic. people have been messing around with high-quality sumix cameras that cost less then $1000 and getting very good results.

look at what this guys was doing back in november of 2004:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=35546&highlight=fists+dawn
http://www.purposelabs.com/

i thought in four years there might have been some advancements. i appreciate your help john and if i had enough money that motionblitz camera looks like a very stable and functional piece of equipment.

24fps is different from 1000fps! It's a lot of data. We are also talking about very large sensors in these high speed applications.

Don't know why not many people are talking about this product: Vision Research

http://www.visionresearch.com/index.cfm?sector=htm/app&page=products&prodcatid=7

v

my guess would be the price. i recall most of vision research's products costing at least $100k...

The Photon models are considered high end. I hear of these a lot.

I looked around and found a mention of "realviz re-timer" software as one way to tackle this problem, with a price reportedly about $1500.

I asked at visionresearch if you can rent the cameras, and you can (at least here in the Netherlands), the camera also is accompanied by an operator. For a one day shoot this may be in the reach of your budget.

god ! what would be the price of such camera ?!

http://www.abelcine.com/store/product.php?productid=1000203&cat=785&page=1

Judging from the price quote on the above post, this is the daily rental cost.

its looking like the SUMIX SMX 12A2C which can do 120fps at 1280x720 and costs $2000 in conjunction with a post retiming application is the most solid low cost slowmotion solution i can see at this point.. in addition the 12a2c makes a great 24fps camera for shooting an entire movie as well :)

I just looked at the Sumix 12A2C and it looks very promising. Its Pretty much the same exact thing as the Silicon Imaging mini camera that was all the rave without the silly $14,000 price tag. i mean from what i can see. (don't slap me in the head). it has all the right specifications. Nice! i need to save up for it now.

The Sumix 12A2C has:

Frame rate at resolution*:
60fps at 1920 x 1080 (75/150MHz)
120 fps at 1280 x 720 (1/2 inch)

...Forgive me for thinking that the Casio EXILIM Pro EX-F1 does the same thing.

I'm sorely tempted into buying the EX-F1 only for my high-speed work. I can't see another alternative. Can get them new in the UK for under £450 now, free next-day delivery.

Combine the 60fps full frame 1920X1080 with Twixtor to slow it down some more in post and I think I may have my solution. I wonder if I could somehow fix the Letus to it?