We have a Casio here, and while it does shoot at 300 FPS, the images produced at that rate are very blocky and look BAD, this even with decent lighting.

EX1 or 3 shot in 720P@60 and slowed to 24fps is clean. Our clients much preferred that, even though it is not as slow. And yes, Phantom and other true high speed cameras, though incredibly expensive, are by far the right tool for the job. Street people have no idea what it costs to do good HD slow mo, they just expect to flip a button and blink the magic wand for perfect results - UGH.

This is another company with some great cameras to rent for high frame rate work.
Fastec Imaging LP - High-Speed Digital Video Cameras - Lucid

Paul thanks for posting up the Brainfarm demo reel link. Outstanding and inspiring as you say.

You are welcome Andrew. If someone is in the business this is a must see. Click for full 1080p sit back and enjoy the ride.

Yeah that BRAIN FARM Reel is sweet!

Yes, Paul the Brain Farm Crew has a sweet setup and their productions stand out. This Nike commercial was shot with the Phantom Gold as well... It is also inspiring... Makes me want to take out a equity line, put myself further underwater.... :) and buy one as shooting with it once is not enough... It is addicting! They rent for 2500 per day on average... 40+ day shoots would pay for it... :)

Agree Jason once you try it which I have only done in house you are hooked. The Fastec imager is 720p and a small hand held unit. I am going to check that out at the factory. less then 1/4 of the cost of the Phantom. I have a few clients close to going for the rental so hopefully it will happen soon.

$2500/day is with out glass and mag.

@ Paul:

I'm curious about the image quality: Somehow I always fear these 'industrial highspeed cameras' produce 'Hi-8 colors'. So, if you rent one: can you show us the result?

Yep, 2500.00 for the phantom rental was bare bones... We already had glass though and the mag was an extra 500.00 on a deal as normally I think it is over 700.00 which sucks.... so you can quckly be at over 3000.00 for the day. Makes buying one seem like a better option more and more if you will use it a lot.


The Fastec was tested by Tom Guilmette see his Blog below for some testing and a small review... It is only 20,000 to buy and about 500.00 per day to rent. It will shoot 718fps at 720p and must be tethered to a laptop. Still a very cool unit and the price is much more reasonable but it has some drawbacks, if you can live with them it is a great little unit. I am trying to talk my wife into selling the house and getting a Phantom... :)

Fastec Imaging High Speed Fun – Lacrosse Test 718 Frames Per Second « Tom Guilmette

Beat me to it Jason with Tom's blog post. They have another unit that is self contained that I will check out. Once I have more info I will post what I find. But if you can live with 720p the Fastec might be a good path.

Thanks for posting the Nike ad. I really enjoyed the visuals. This style of shooting reminds me of macro photography for some reason. Highly specialized, really cool but with limited application.

If you guys have any specific questions you would like me to ask next week at Fastec let me know? I will try and take stills of the gear and hopefully be able to post some test clips if allowed.

I really just want to know purchase price across the product line (and I see a few lines on their site) and whether they have rentals in New York City. It's only way I can offer them for my clients. Of course maybe a simple "what's the least expensive"

Will do Craig I will try and get the pricing on the full line and see if there are rental options in NYC.

If Nike were one of my clients I'd buy a Phantom...sure, why not?