Water at 718 Frames Per Second with Fastec Imaging Cameras

I have been testing out a HiSPEC2 camera from Fastec Imaging that shoots crazy fast frame rates at 720p 16:9. The camera is a small cube with a Nikon mount. It is powered by a 12 volt battery using an inverter and I must have a PC laptop tethered to it at all times to make it work. The PC controls all aspects of the camera, white balance, frame rate, and pulling down the large uncompressed .avi files from the camera’s internal memory.

If you are interested in renting these cameras, please visit Fastec Imaging. I do not have any information on pricing or availability.

I shot a quick test video and a video blog showing you how the camera works with the Sony VAIO laptop. You can watch it here.

I am using this camera to shoot a downhill mountain biking film. I took a few hours after an epic day on the hill to shoot a small brook in New Hampshire. I have always enjoyed shooting moving water at 60 frame per second using the Sony EX1. Now, with the Fastec Imaging camera, I can shoot many more frames and really get a close look at how the water in the river is acting.

I found that you get the “screen-door-effect” artifacting (in the blacks) when shooting in low light. I used mostly the Nikon 55mm f1.2, the fastest Nikon lens I own to capture these images. You need a lot of light when shooting high frames rates.

Keep in mind that this is a small brook. The resulting images make this place look like a raging torrent… maybe even class VI rapids! More high speed footage to come in future blogs.

This video is also available on Vimeo. Click Here to view it.