Looking for a camera that can shoot 240fps (or in that range) for a 6 second burst (or longer) that ALSO does that with a pre-record.

I've got to shoot some stuff that happens without warning, and get it with a high FPS.

I'll be remote triggering the recording by some means (RF remote and mechanical plunger).

Ideally, it would record to SDHC or some other form of cheap media.. certainly not tape.

And good battery life would help (LCD panel closed all the time, camera will be in a box on a pole).

Image quality isn't vital, doesn't need to be HD, can be a single chip Standard Def.

Sony has something like that, but I think it's a 3 sec (real time, with 12 sec playback) limit on the record - you can specify whether it records before or after the trigger. I'm thinking you could use two cameras, one set before, one after, and a LANC remote trigger? Probably overkill and over budget, but...

FWIW, the older Sonys had fairly low resolution for the "high speed" shooting option, but it appears the latest cams actually pull off HD rez.

Ya, 200x120 or whatever is a joke for high FPS. 60P will have to do, I suppose.. then I won't worry about triggering, I can just record all the time. I'm really enjoying not dealing with tapes anymore. Makes operating a camera much cheaper.

The Phantom HD will do it - but at £2000 a day may be a stretch on your budget!
Vision Research also make a Phantom Miro which is SLR size and much cheaper. Check it out at High Speed Cameras: Digital High Speed Video Camera Systems and Accessories. (http://www.visionresearch.com)
Steve

The Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 is the closest match.
512 x 384 at 300fps
there is an interesting continuous recording at 60fps.