What would you like to see included on the future firmware update?

[Tim Dashwood]

I thought of another firmware update to add to my wish list: The ability to continue scrolling down from a bottom clip in the Visual Index by simply pressing down, instead of having to go over to the down arrow on the left side of the screen. It is very counter-intuitive the way it is now.

[Will Salley]

I totally agree.

[Juan A. Diaz]

The ability to save a shutter speed (and preferably ISO/gain as well) with each Super SlowMo frame rate.

IMHO, this is the biggest waste of time on this camera, constantly adjusting shutter speed, ISO and aperture while going in to SSM and back to normal recording. The default of shutter = frame rate is simply not sufficient. The cheezy AS15 action cam produces more motion stopping power, and examining the defaults on a consumer CX760V in SSR mode tells us why... SSR (on which FS700 SSM is based, just massively beefed up memory to handle full HD resolution) automatically sets the shutter to 2x the frame rate for better action stopping.

Oh, and how about SSM start trigger that actually starts when the REC button is pressed, instead of 1.8 to 2.2 seconds later??? With a measly 8 seconds of record time at 240fps, it would really help to capture the definitive moment if the camera started recording on time...

Stunning fail on Sony's part that a consumer camera will start recording slow motion within 0.3 seconds of pressing REC, but an $8000 pro camera can not achieve this basic feat!!!

[Eric Darling]

Juan, there is no lesser camera by ANY manufacturer that can do anything close to what the FS700 does. Honestly, find me a cheaper camera that currently does 1920x1080 pixels at full resolution in 240 FPS, and maybe you'll have an argument. I don't think you understand the engineering behind true super speed frame rate capturing. The camera you mentioned doesn't do it at all (60p is a far cry from 240p, after all).

The reason you have to adjust aperture is due to the nature of how cameras work. You lose sensitivity when you push that many frames through the camera. I'm really not sure how you can compare a consumer camera to the FS700 today.

Read the manual! You can set up an End Trigger, where the camera buffers the previous 8 seconds, and allows you to hit the record button AFTER the action you want takes place. Personally, that's the way I prefer to run the camera. Even the Phantom cameras can only buffer so much media. 8 Seconds is typically plenty when you're running at 240 FPS. You're the first person I've encountered who calls 8 seconds of 240 fps "measly." By today's standards, the camera is totally groundbreaking!

[Juan A. Diaz]

Eric, I do not know a single professional stills photographer who would accept a so called professional still camera without 2 or 3 user settings memory banks. Canon & Nikon stills cameras of both prosumer & pro models have these, and you can store **every** aspect of your favorite setups in each one. Not just picture profiles, but every last detail of the camera operation. Big time saver. Maybe pro videographers have more free time on their hands? I doubt it. So just saying, wouldn't that be a great feature for pro video cameras? Yes it would.

I guess you are not familiar with Sony's "Smooth Slow Record"? This is a feature found on many of the pro tape cameras, and almost all of their consumer / prosumer video cameras. Usually goes hand in hand with "Golf Shot". It is identical to the FS700's Super Slow Motion, **except** it is at a much lower resolution, and on consumer cameras it only runs 3 seconds. On the pro cameras, it runs 3, 6 & 12 seconds. On the pro cameras, it's actually pretty good, and I've used it for years. Worthy of note is that when set to start trigger, it starts pretty much the moment you hit the record button.

Remember this: Sony is an electronics company, first and foremost. This means that building new circuits, and modifying existing ones is what they **excel** at!!! My point here is that the FS700's Super Slow Motion is a **super enhanced** version of the circuit that they have been using for **years** under the name Smooth Slow Record. For Sony, as an electronics design & manufacturing company, this modification was child's play. Engineering just needed Marketing to tell them to do it. Beef up the data bus bandwidth, add a bunch more memory, and now you have Full HD slow motion. Could you or I do it at home? No! Could Sony engineers do it in their design labs? Yes, without a whole lot of difficulty.

Now, I'm not putting down the FS700, as you seem to think I am. Electronically, it's a pretty nice piece of equipment. Ergonomically, it's a disaster, but from an image quality and electronics point of view, it's pretty sweet, and I'm quite pleased with it. But when I pay $8K for a camera, I expect it to start recording when I press the record button... for my type of shooting, Start Trigger works best, or at least it would if it started when it was supposed to. That is my point.

Very familiar with Vision Research. Beautiful stuff. But they don't have Sony's mass manufacturing might, so of course the cameras are going to be much more expensive. Boutique vs mass production. Toyota vs Bugatti.

[Eric Darling]

Juan, the resolution is everything. There are Casio consumer cameras that do very high frame rates in postage stamp sized video clips. It doesn't take a company the scope of Sony to pull that off. But, to do it in 1920x1080 takes an otherwise prohibitively expensive camera from a select few boutique companies. I'm sure that, in due time, another company like Panasonic or JVC will put out a camera that can do what the FS700 can do at a similar or lower price point. But that day has yet to come.