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I have been working with my new favorite camera system, the Vision Research Phantom HD GOLD. The camera shoots amazingly crisp high speed footage and I am using it to capture mountain bike riders around New England. Nick and I are working on a film that we hope to release sometime next year that will feature a lot of footage shot at over 1000 frames per second in full HD. We are using some sick film lenses like the Angenieux Optimo 17-80mm t2.2 zoom and a full set of Zeiss super speed primes.

The second tease we are releasing features Giant rider Alex Couture. I spend an afternoon with him at a local riding spot near North Conway New Hampshire. I captured a small bit of trail with Alex using the Phantom during golden hour. The music is by “The Whitest Boy Alive” and the track is called “Fireworks”.

This quick Phantom session is just a small portion if the super slow motion we plan to include in the up coming bike film, the “Missing Link“. The film is currently in production.

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Nick Keating and I have been busy shooting New England athletes for a new film we are working on called “The Missing Link”. We have released more sick Phantom high speed footy in the above teaser. Check it out and let us know what you think! The music is by XX. The film was inspired by the artistically fresh new biking film called “Life Cycles”.

This is our first attempt at making a bike movie and so far, we have captured some amazing stuff. The hardest part of the job is finding time around our busy schedules to produce the film!

I have put together a website for “The Missing Link” using Wordpress. You can find the site at http://www.missinglinkfilm.com. It is a work in progress and I hope that it compliments the film in content and detail. It is also a place Nick and I can post production updates and behind the scenes vids.

The release date for the movie is unknown. We are continuing the production through this fall and winter. We plan to step it up summer 2011 and finish up the project for released in local theaters and on DVD.

Nick and I are looking for support from both sponsors and athletes. We need help funding this project and would love to get companies or vendors involved with this film. We are also looking for more local talented athletes who are interested in showing off their style in front of out high speed cameras.

Please visit The Missing Link Website Contact Page and drop us a line if you are interested in working with us. If you have some riding footy online, please include that in your message.

We want to thank Kessler Crane, Letus Direct, Vinten, O’Connor, Lite Panels, Anton Bauer, RULE Boston Camera, Fastec Imaging, Attitash Mountain and Highland Bike Park for their support.

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

First of all, I must say I am exhausted. I have not slept for days. Every waking hour I think of shooting something in high speed. All of my attention has been directed at the Vision Research Phantom HD GOLD high speed digital cinema camera. If you read my blog, you are the type who would understand this “sickness”. And if you got your hands on this camera package and the assortment of expensive lenses I had access to this past weekend, you would fight sleep as well.

My good friends at Rule Boston Camera set me up with the Phantom. Rule is a TV/Film rental house located in Boston, Massachusetts. They have an extensive stock of gear and the people who work there are top notch and understand the business. I recently bought a $60,000 Sony F800 CineAlta camera package from them and I had an excellent experience throughout the purchasing process. In fact, Rule even gave me a loaner 17x Fujinon HD broadcast lens for my F800, for free, since my purchased lens was back ordered!

I have been shooting with Fastec Imaging HiSPEC2 720p high speed cameras for the past few weeks. I am working on a New England mountain biking film called “The Missing Link” with fellow downhiller Nick Keating.

The Fastec cameras I have been using are small metal boxes with a lens attached. Very compact and can take g-forces, so they are perfect for extreme sports coverage. However, the HiSPEC2 camera that I used had to be hooked up to a PC laptop at all times. You can read more about this by clicking here. These cameras are inexpensive to rent and work quite well. Check out the lacrosse commercial I shot mocking the real Paul Rabil Maverick spot shot by NFL Films camera guys on the Phantom HD GOLD. You can see my version here shot with the cheaper alternative Fastec camera.

After spending this past weekend with the Phantom, I was able to draw a few quick conclusions regarding image quality using the cheaper high speeds verses the ridiculously expensive Phantom. The Phantom excels in resolution, speed and stops of latitude between brights and darks. Dust kicked up in bright sunlight by a mountain biker has detail on the Phantom and blows out on the HiSPEC camera. Keep in mind the fact I was using a $60,000 lens with the Phantom and a $50 Nikon prime with the Fastec camera.

The Phantom does not need a laptop in the field. Very little time is needed to “render out” the high speed sequence on the Phantom. The HiSPECs need extra time between takes. The Phantom can be operated like an ENG broadcast television camera. Even off the shoulder! But I was able to shoot with the HiSPEC hand held with the computer as the viewfinder and got good results. One big surprise was the fact that the light sensitivity between the HiSPEC and Phantom was about the same. You need a lot of light to shoot high speed.

All that being said, I would still recommend the HiSPEC cameras to anyone on a budget. If you are shooting a Jaguar commercial use the Phantom. If you want a few sick shots for broadcast TV or the web perhaps the $500/day rental at Fastec Imaging is perfect for your 720p high speed needs.

Now lets talk Phantom HD GOLD and an insane assortment of expensive glass for the rest of this blog. Rule Boston Camera let me take almost anything I wanted, as long as it was not being rented for the weekend! You have a lot of reading to do, as I got a bunch of stuff to say. And the big payoff is the fact you can download a file at the bottom straight off the Phantom camera… 1050 frames per second in 1080p ProRes. Enjoy that!

I grabbed the Zeiss Super Speed prime lenses. This kit included the PL mount 18mm, 25mm, 35mm, 50mm and 85mm lenses all at f1.2 (or in film talk t1.3). These lenses were super fast, lightweight, had built in follow focus treads and a silky smooth focus barrel and iris ring.

I asked for a telephoto lens and Brian brought out a Nikon Nikkor 200mm t2. Beautiful lens with an aperture blade system that must have consisted of a hundred little blades. I had never seen anything like it. Plus the outer element was huge, allowing for a ton of light to get into the lens and onto the sensor.

I wanted a cine zoom lens. I had used the Angenieux Optimo 25mm-250mm t3.5 for a job with the Boston Celtics a couple years ago. The TV station rented the lens from Rule and I attached it to my Letus Extreme (PL Mount) attached to a Sony EX1. You can read more about that here. I knew Rule had the super sweet 17mm-80mm t2.2, but I figured it would be rented out or off limits. My buddy Mike at Rule, somehow secured it and I was good to go.

The Phantom HD GOLD included a color Sony HDVF-C30W viewfinder. When I bought my F800, I thought about this LCD color viewfinder for use with my new XDCAM. But, I had never used it before and worried that the LCD would not meet up to my picky standards. Plus the C30W costs over $11,000! So I decided to go with what I was use to on my F800, the Sony HDVF-20a black and white CRT version. We use these to cover broadcast sports everyday and they are tack sharp. Plus these high resolution b/w viewfinders cost just over $3,000. Who needs color in a viewfinder if you set up the camera properly in the first place!

I was pleasantly surprised at how sharp and vivid the color C30W was on the Phantom. I never liked the RED ONE LCD version. But the Sony was much better. It was easy to focus, clear to see and there was no trace lag in the LCD image when whipping around. I was very happy with it and had slight buyers remorse with the 20a version I bought.... but wait, I needed another eight grand to upgrade to color?!

The HDVF-C30W had a specially modified connector to plug into the Phantom. This connector stuck out quite a bit and was defiantly a possible point of failure if the camera's weight fell on the connector. In fact, on my first day of using the Phantom, the cable connector was intermittent. I should have found this problem while setting up the camera at Rule, but it worked at the time. During my shooting on location, I had to pull the connector on a slight angle to keep the viewfinder powered.

Another thing to remember is never point the viewfinder into the sun. CRTs can take more heat than LCDs. Just a few seconds of diopter magnified exposure to the sun and the LCD can be destroyed. Point those diopters DOWN!

The guys at Rule asked me if I needed a tripod and I said no. I wanted to use my Vinten Vision 10 AS. This tripod has served me quite well and I am a huge supporter of Vinten. But... this camera system with Optimo lens weighed in at nearly 60 pounds! The Vinten was rated for about 45 pounds. This extra 15 pounds of weight was a bit scary at times and I was unable to get perfect balance because I exceeded the payload rating of my tripod. I still came back with good stuff tho and made sure my assistant, Nick, was always standing next to the camera when mounted to the tripod.

Let me take a second to talk about the weight of this beast. I found it impossible and down right stupid to try to carry the Phantom by its handle with the heavy Optimo attached to the PL mount. I HAD to use two hands at all times. One hand on the bottom rods and the other on the top handle. This made carrying batteries and a tripod difficult, so strapping them to my back was the only answer when working solo. The waterfall footage in the video blog was shot by me alone at Profile Falls in New Hampshire. Not a long hike, but still a hike.

The Phantom is a power hungry camera system. It pulls nearly 75 watts of power. I tried to power it with my Anton Bauer charger and it did not have enough juice. I could have used Anton Bauer high current batteries, but I did not have them with me.

The camera did come with an a/c power supply, but I could not hike a generator with me into the mountains.

Rule sent me out with six car-like lead acid batteries. These bricks weighted in over ten pounds each and they had four pin XLR connectors on them. They were designed to power older film cameras. Each battery had two sides of power, so once one side died, I move over to the other side. I got about 30-40 minutes on each side. The biggest problem was the fact they had no gauge on them. I had no idea if the camera would die during a RAM to CineMag data transfer. When the battery died, you lose the buffer in the camera. If the buffer did not make it to the CineMag storage in time, you lost the take forever! Happened 5 times over the weekend and I cursed so loud the fifth time it occurred, birds few out of the trees above me to get away.

That leads me to storage. CineMags are the solid state devices that snap onto contacts on the top of the Phantom. These mags are filled with high speed transfer memory and I had two 256GB and one 128GB CineMag.

Let me explain how this camera records something in high speed. First of all, I have the camera set up to buffer the footage and take the clip post trigger. This means that when the Phantom is recording 1050 FPS at 1080p, I have a looping buffer of 4.1 seconds utilizing the internal RAM memory. This has nothing to do with the CineMag. The RAM is internal and built into the camera.

For example, I hit record filling the buffer, a mountain biker rips past me and just as he leaves the frame, I have my AC, Nick, push the remote trigger button. The recording loop stops and you get 4.1 seconds of time prior to the trigger. Get it? The data lives on the internal RAM memory. You do not want to lose power now or the RAM will be lost! Gotta get that footy over to the Mag.

Next, I look inside the viewfinder and set in and out points in the clip. I take only what I want because the 4.1 second is like 3 minutes of video at the 1050 frame rate. Finally, I save the clip to the CineMag. This happens so fast that it only takes seconds. The transfer rate of this memory and CineMag is crazy. Now the clip is on both the RAM and the CineMag. Once you set the camera back to record, the RAM clears out and you repeat the process for the next high speed event.

I need to mention here that one of the 256GB CineMags was not loading at times when snapped into place on the Phantom. I got a "Mag ERROR". I figured out the issue, dirty contacts. I used a cloth to wipe the large array of tiny metal pins and metal contacts on the mag and got the thing to scan and load.

All high speed cameras need cooling systems because the sensor heats up. The Phantom HD GOLD has an exhaust fan in the back that speeds up when the temperature rises. The camera also has a sick looking copper heat sink on both sides of the camera. Be careful with these, they can bend easily like the fine fins on the back of an air conditioner.

Since the camera and sensor heats up, you must black balance before every shot (or very often) to keep the black levels correct. They tend to get grainy and move towards purple when left alone. It is easy and fast to preform a black balance. Just cap the lens and execute it. The white balance seemed to hold well over time and even with battery changes.

The sensor in the Phantom is big. Not sure the dimensions, if you find them post a comment at bottom of page. A lot of amazing stuff has been shot with the Phantom sensor. Shark Week on Discovery Channel, Air Shark, BBC Planet Earth and LIFE, to name a few. Even Hollywood films are using this technology.

Looking for buttons? There are only two of them on the entire camera. Plus a knob that you can also push in to execute a command. You can adjust frame rates, ISO, resolution, trigger points, black/white balance, in and out clip points and a few other necessary procedures. You can defiantly control a lot using the simple four page menu inside the viewfinder, but to really get the camera dialed in, you hook it up to a PC laptop via gigabit ethernet. But like I said before, when in the field, you do not need to tether a computer to this high speed camera.

The workflow of this camera is tricky and I cannot really explain it in great detail on this blog because I do not totally understand it. But, I will tell you what I do know and how I am getting the footage into Final Cut Pro. Phantom does not offer free software like RED does for viewing RAW clips or accessing camera controls. Rule was unable to give me the Phantom programs for me to install on my own laptop, so they gave me a rental Mac Book Pro running Windows XP.

The CineMags hold files with the .cine extension. They are RAW Phantom files. I have never dealt with these files and do not plan on to at this point for my project. I have no way of editing them and cannot get the software easily. So I found a work around that will work with my mountain biking film and for the content in this video blog.

I take the HDSDI out of the back of the Phantom and feed it into an AJA KiPRO portable recording device. The KiPRO takes the 1080i HDSDI signal from the camera and transcodes it realtime to Apple ProRes 422 HQ. The KiPro has a built in hard drive where the files are stored. The biggest problem with doing this is the fact the camera only plays out a clip or MAG at a time! So I have to sit next to the camera and KiPro and manually play out each clip. Keep in mind I filled all three CineMags! This took forever and to make matters worse, I ran out of time and did this grueling work at 4am. I was hallucinating from lack of sleep and accidentally deleted part of my video blog on my SR11 camera at 5am. Story for another time...

I know I'm not editing with the master RAW .cine files, but the footage still looks amazing and the Apple ProRes 422 HQ codec is high bit rate. For the time being, the .cine files will sit on a hard drive at Rule for my future children to try to sort out and edit them!

In the video blog at the top of this page, I tried my best to show you how this camera works. I shot the demo in such a way that it would answer my own questions had I stumbled upon the video before I met Phantom. If you have further questions, please post them at the bottom of this page and I will try to answer them.

Also, be sure to download the high speed waterfall footage in 720p XDCAM HD 1080i for smooth playback. I am also including an Apple ProRes 422 HQ file straight off the camera. The picture of the green leaves above is a grab from the 1080p 1050 FPS footage I shot with the Phantom. This was the very first thing I ever shot using this camera system. Not very exciting, but great color and DOF. Plus, I cant post the best stuff til the film is done!

Here are a few behind the scenes videos shot on a blackberry on the slope style course at Highland Mountain Bike Park during the filming for “Missing Link”. Big thank you to my AC, Nick Keating, for using his BlackBerry to record these. Wish we could have used his 5dmk2 more, but we were both focused on carrying car batteries!

And here are a few screen grabs from the mountain biking footage shot at Attitash Mountain and Highland Bike Park. The film should be done next summer!

Big thanks to the guys at Rule Boston Camera, Mike Sutton, John Rule, Dave Kudrowitz, for giving me this chance to test out amazing gear. Also thank you Nick Keating (taking behind the scenes pictures and video) and Dave Hand for your help on location this weekend.

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

I am working on a mountain biking film shot mostly in New Hampshire using high speed cameras. I was inspired by the guys at “Life Cycles” and their artistic style they bring to biking films. I have been granted the opportunity to use Fastec Imaging HiSpec high speed cameras and a Phantom HD GOLD to capture New England riding for an upcoming film called, “The Missing Link”.

Nick Keating and I are currently in production on this film shooting at Highland Mountain Biking Park in Northfield, New Hampshire. I am also shooting at Attitash Mountain in Bartlett, New Hampshire. We are working with local riders on this project and hope to have it completed early 2011.

More information to come, but check out the trailer at the top of this page. Special thanks to Dave Hand and family for giving me a place to sleep at night while shooting in the mountains! Big thanks to Matt at Fastec Imaging, Eric at Kessler Crane and Mike at Rule Boston Camera for equipment support. Also, thank you “Spunky” for your voice on the trailer.

I just got back from Highland Mountain Bike Park in Northfield, New Hampshire. The place is about five miles off exit 19 on RT 93 and it is less than 2 hours north of Boston. If you like to downhill mountain bike or BMX, this is the place to go.

In fact, it reminded me of a condensed version of Whistler in B.C. Canada. And that is saying a lot! Whistler Bike Park, for me, is as good as it gets.

I met up with my bud Nick Keating to shoot some high speed footage of the Park with local riders. Be sure to click on his name to see his Flickr account. Nick is an excellent stills shooter and he is taking some sick MTB photos. He recently acquired a Canon 5dmk2 and a bunch of lenses and accessories from an online contest. Congrats Nick, time to step up your game!

Highland Mountain Bike Park GoPro HD Helmet Cam Test from Nick Keating on Vimeo.

Nick shot this short GoPro Hero helmet cam video as he ripped through “Hellion” at Highland. Those of you who have cruised down Whistler’s A-Line may see some similarities. Hellion is like a baby A-Line but this track it is in my backyard! And Highland just opened up a new downhill trail called “Happy Hour”. Sweet. I can’t wait to ride that.

Nick and I set up the Fastec Imaging HiSPEC2 Color 720p high speed camera at the base of the Slope Style course at Highland. The slope is a bunch of berms and dirt piles that form an incredible, air-inducing, super flowy downhill course. We worked with professional freeride mountain biker, Aaron Chase to shoot a simple high speed dirt jump sequence. Aaron is a great person and he was fun to work with. Crazy sense of humor and he is living the dream for sure. He was leaving for Whistler the day after we shot this footage!

I shot at 718 frames per second off a tripod (most of the time) and had my cam assist, Nick help with lenses and moving the tethered laptop around in the intense sun and heat. The camera shut down twice, due to temperature and the black Sony VAIO laptop got so warm, it was hard to hold. But so far, both are working well in the field.

I have to use 12 volt lead-acid batteries with a 140 watt inverter to get the camera power. At one point, the laptop died and we had to grab a power strip at the lodge to send juice to both the camera and the computer from the sketchy Walmart inverter. I have a USB powered monitor that mirrors my computer screen, but with the limited battery power, i have yet to use it on the high speed camera. It is a real challenge to follow the action without a proper viewfinder mounted to the camera itself.

Fastec Imaging has me testing out new high speed software and a firmware update to the HiSPEC2 camera. The software on the PC was version 1.0.0.0. Never fun to run that version. A bug was found and I was unable to export the high speed footage as an uncompressed .avi file. This was the workflow I was use to in my past experience with this camera and now I had to do a few extra steps. I had to export as a “.tiff image stack” and then load all the images as a sequence in Quicktime 7. The same process I use when taking stills from my Canon 5dmk2 and building a timelapse. This added extra time to the rendering and will be fixed soon.

I want to use uncompressed .avi, I think it looks better. I found the .tiff files added aliasing and moire to the camera images that I had never seen before. The .tiffs looked “digital”.

When editing the content in the lodge (waiting for a storm to pass that never arrived), Nick made the suggestion to turn the entire project black and white. I agreed with him once I looked at the footage and saw the moire and heavily blown out sky. I used Magic Bullet Looks to apply a film-like soft feel and removed all the color. This little camera has trouble with high contrast situations. It also creates the “screen door effect” where you see small black lines and texture off the sensor in dark and white areas of the picture. This can be avoided as long as the do not clip the video or shoot in very low light. It can also be removed, in most cases, in post.

I will be shooting much more at Highland this summer. Hope to get a Phantom into the bike park next! Stay tuned…

If you have any questions about this camera system, please email Matt through this contact form at Fastec Imaging.

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

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.

I am having a lot of fun up in New Hampshire testing out a high speed camera. The camera is not very easy to shoot with, no viewfinder, very shallow depth of field and requires a lot of light. Plus, you must have a laptop connected to it at all times! But I love a good challenge so I am going to shoot a few things for my website.

My friend, Matt, at Fastec Imaging, is letting me play with one of the high speed cube cameras that were used on the Discovery television show “Time Warp“. I am not here to sell these cameras, just to share my first impressions shooting in the world of high frame rates. Also, everything looks so damn awesome in super slow motion!

I will be using the camera to shoot a short downhill mountain biking film this weekend. I will be working with a few talented riders knifing berms, dusting the track, ripping down rocky terrain and jumping full suspension mountain bikes. I have shot MTB films before, but never like this with hi speed capture. I am so stoked to have the opportunity to use this Fastec Imaging camera this weekend shooting a sport I love.

It will be tricky dragging a laptop computer up the hill and trying to figure out how to power all this stuff in the field, but that is what this test day was for! Thanks to Eric Kessler at Kessler Crane for the carbon fiber sticks and the battery system.

My buddy Dave, lives in New Hampshire and he is a big fan of lacrosse. He played in college and now his son Dylan is into the sport. I figured that capturing a single high speed lacrosse move from a few different angles would make for a nice test. I needed to see how shallow the DOF would be in different lighting conditions. I also wanted to make sure that my power system for the camera (using a battery and inverter) would provide enough juice for a full day on the mountain. Then, later in post, I needed to understand how to edit the content.

Dave and I started late in the afternoon talking about the four shots in the “lacrosse shot” sequence. We were running low on daylight! The shots we decided on were: a wide shot of Dave, tight shot of Dave, shot looking into the goal (over Dave’s shoulder) and a shot from behind the net (ball fired at camera). It took only one or two takes to get the first three shots. The final shot was tricky because it required a skill shot with great accuracy for Dave to hit a certain spot in the net. I setup on sticks behind the goal and made sure the lacrosse ball could not actually hit the cameras. I also made the crazy attempt to “rip” focus to follow the ball from the stick strings to the net strings. Very difficult to pull off in .25 seconds, but we got it after about 15 shots!

The Fastec Imaging camera did not have a model number, I will find out what it is later. I really don’t care, it looks like it was pieced together from spare parts! I only care what the little silver box can do. Also, I do not know the price of this system. Remember, I am just playing with this thing! Check out the Fastec Imaging website for more information.

I used all Nikon old lenses. The same lenses I used on the RED ONE and with my EX! and Letus Ultimate. They worked very well and the focal length matched up too.

Surprisingly, I really like this camera and the workflow. It was missing some important things, however. I must use the laptop for my viewfinder, I knew that going in. But the camera and the software (made by a third party) worked perfectly. Nothing crashed the entire test day. I was able to watch the 718 FPS footy before rendering to an uncompressed .AVI file in real time. The render time was less than thirty second when I chose to keep a shot. When editing, I just dragged the AVI files into Final Cut Pro and rendered them on the timeline as ProRes 422. Not a big deal.

Why 718 frames per second? Because that is the fastest frame rate this camera can shoot in 720p. It does shoot higher than 718 FPS, but the resolution drops off. I do not plan to test that out this weekend.

Check out this 720p downloadable .AVI file of the WD 40 fireball. Don’t try this at home!
Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

A bit more info on the camera:

This camera body is all controlled by the laptop. White balance, Frame rate, record trigger, and shutter. The camera has built in RAM memory for the many frame capture. I do not know the buffer size, only that it runs about 13 seconds in a loop. You pull this 13 second “high speed event” data off the solid state internal memory to render it down to an AVI in the computer. Only PCs, no support for mac that I know of.

It does not shoot 2k or 3k or even 1080p. But 720p is enough for me. Remember, I work in broadcast tv. We deal with 720p content all the time. If the price is right to purchase a high speed camera at the 720p level, I think it would sell well. I wish I had the option to shoot up to 2000 FPS for special occasions tho. And maybe make the thing with a viewfinder!?

Fastec Imaging may have a refined version of this camera coming out in the future. I am going to try to blog about it if it becomes available. I don’t know about you, but I am sick of waiting for the RED SCARLET.

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

A lot of cameras can shoot “time lapse”, but few can shoot “time warp”. That is what the Discovery Channel people like to call it when using digital technology to slow down a high speed event and make the invisible, visible.

I purchased a small Casio point and shoot camera to replace my beat up Panasonic Lumix camera. The $228 DMC-ZS3 Lumix is an awesome camera, and I will continue to use it, but it is tricky to frame and dial in the menu since i dropped it out of a window by mistake. The camera still works, but the four story fall to the ground below cracked the LCD.

I was very close to buying an exact replacement when a new camera caught my eye, the Casio EX FC150. The Casio took 10 MP stills, shot 720p video (.AVI files not AVCHD) and it was about the same size. But what really caught my eye was the fact that the “Exilim” FC150 was able to shoot high speed video.

FROM BH WEBSITE:

The Casio EXILIM EX-FC150 Digital Camera utilizes a high speed 10.1 megapixel CMOS sensor to capture quality photos and video. Automated Best-Shot and Face Detection technology keep all of your subjects looking their very best. Even fast action subjects are easy to capture with the EX-FC150. With a continuous shooting rate of up to 40 frames per second, you’ll never miss the moments that matter.

In addition to being a fantastic stills camera, the EX-FC150 captures breath-taking HD and SD Video! With capture rates up to 1000 frames per second, dramatic recording effects are at your finger tips. Additional features include a sharp 5x optical zoom lens, powerful Sensor-Shift Image Stabilization, and 85.9 megabytes of internal memory.

With the Casio EXILIM EX-FC150 Digital Camera, creating quality photos and video is as easy as point and click.

10.1 Megapixel Imaging
The high-speed CMOS sensor of the EX-FC150 captures images at 10.1 megapixels for high-resolution photo printing. Quality imaging and fine detail are retained in beautiful prints up to 20 x 30″ in size.

5x Optical Zoom Lens
The high quality 5x optical zoom lens has a focal range equivalent of 37-185mm, providing excellent performance for everything from wide angle landscapes to portraits of friends. For distant subjects, a 4x Digital Zoom brings the cameras total zoom power to 20x.

Sensor-Shift Image Stabilization + High ISO 3200
The EX-FC150 incorporates a CMOS shift anti-shake mechanism that makes it possible to capture beautiful, blur-free images, even when shooting at maximum zoom. High ISO Sensitivity (up to 3200) provides flash-free photography under poor lighting conditions.

Advanced Face Detection Technology
Casio’s latest Face Detection Technology keeps every face in focus. Even in low light or backlit situations you can expect consistent sharpness and rapid response autofocus.

40 Frames Per Second Continuous Shooting
From the first kick-off to the winning touchdown, children at play to birds in flight, you’ll never miss any of the action with the EX-FC150’s incredible Hi-Speed Burst Mode. With a capture rate of up to 40 frames per second, you’re sure to capture the perfect moment every time.

Serial Picture Recording
High-speed Anti-shake mode uses serial picture recording to combine multiple frames into one optimized photograph. High-speed Night-time mode utilizes this process for quality low-light photography.

2.7″ Super Clear LCD
Framing your photos couldn’t be easier than with the EX-FC150’s bright, crisp 2.7″ LCD. Warm, accurate colors and a wide viewing angle make the screen easy to use, even under bright sunlight.

HD Video Recording
The Casio EXILIM EX-FC150 records amazing 720p High Definition Video. With super fast frame rates, action subjects are captured in smooth, seamless motion at the highest quality possible.

YouTube Capture Mode
Sharing your videos on YouTube is easier than ever before. Record your video content in YouTube Capture Mode and upload with Casio’s YouTube Uploader software. Shoot. Upload. Share. It’s just that easy.

I knew that the Casio EX F1 Camera was able to record at high frame rates, and I was not impressed. The F1 could shoot Hi-Speed video at 300FPS at 512×384. The video resolution was horrible. The F1 did shoot nice 720 60p video (from what I saw on the internet), but the high speed feature was quite lacking.

The new FC150 is able to shoot high speed at 480 resolution, that is a first. But do not go any higher than 240 FPS, the quality is terrible after that. What is the point of shooting 1000 frames per second if the picture is the size of a thumb tack? You could never re-size a piece of video shot 224×64 into a 720p time line!

But, as I read the specs on the new little Casio camera, I was surprised the see that it is able to record at 120 frames per second in 640×480 resolution. It would be possible to scale this footy to 720p with out the image degrading to the point of distraction. The camera also takes digital stills and has other features that I will not be testing in this blog. I will only be talking about the high speed video feature on the camera.

You must all understand that this camera cripples the resolution of the CMOS sensor when shooting in high speed. The reason for this is processing power, memory space and price tag. If this little camera could shoot 1000 frames per second at HD resolution, it would max out a 2GB card in a matter of seconds and it would cost a lot more than $350!

I found that shooting at 120FPS was quite impressive. It is basically standard definition 480p 4:3 video. I set Final Cut to scale the videos 300 percent to work on my 720p timeline. The 240FPS videos had to be scaled to about 360 percent to fit the window. You do see quite a bit of artifacting when scaling this much. You will see it in the video blog below. But this camera is cheap and lets you shoot at high frames rates. No other camera lets you do this except a Red One or a Phantom and both of those are quite expensive.

The FC150 also has a great little in-camera video editing feature. If you record a lot of extra stuff before or after the “high speed event” takes place, you can trim the in and out point of the file. This way, you can save space on your memory card and not have extra useless video date inside the camera.

The lens on the Casio FC150 was not as wide as the lens on the Panasonic ZS3. The Casio has a 6.4mm lens and the Panny has a ultra wide 4.1mm lens. This is a big deal, because I really like shooting with a wide angle using my little point-and-shoots as “life-documenting cameras”. Often times, I point the camera back at myself to shoot video blogs or other adventures.

A few other differences between the cameras is the default video picture profiles. The Lumix is very contrast heavy with deep blacks and bring colors while the Casio is very flat. This flat feature allows you to color grade in post much more easily with the Casio. But the Lumix has a better picture in low light and in auto mode. The Casio seems to struggle with focus and the manual mode is a bit fiddly. I tried to shoot mostly in manual mode, setting the ISO to 100 and shutter to 30, but the Casio camera was still drifting a bit. I will need more time with the camera to figure it all out for sure. There are ways to adjust sharpness, contrast and saturation inside the Casio, but I have not tested that yet.

The sound on the two camera (internal mic only) is about the same and quite good when about 2-3 feet away from the sound source. They both record onto SD cards, but the format that the Casio camera uses is .AVI files for video. The Lumix used h.264 AVCHD files which always crashed my Final Cut Pro if not transcoded to Apple pro res. The .AVI files do need to render, but they work much better nativity on the time line (I can scrub in preview).

A great use for this high speed pocket camera would be to bring it along to a RED ONE or Phantom site survey. You can learn real quick if a certain lighting source will flicker at high frame rates.

Take a look at the video blog below. I have only had this camera for a few days and I have been busy working. I shot this real quick before I headed into Boston to cover a Bruins game. Thanks to all the guys I work with for helping me shoot high speed stuff on my lunch break. Please download the sample files at the bottom of the page and test them out with your computer. If you have any specific questions, please comment below the video.

Please download these original .AVI files taken directly off the Casio EX FC150 memory card and uploaded to the server. Have fun with them and see how they work with your NLE. You can also watch this video on Vimeo by clicking here.

Below is some footage from a locked down shot of the goalie at the 2010 Beanpot Hockey Championships. All shot at 240 frames per second at the Boston Garden.

RAW FILE DOWNLOADS

720p 30 Frames Per Second
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640×480 120 Frames Per Second
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448×336 240 Frames Per Second
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224×168 420 Frames Per Second
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224×64 1000 Frames Per Second
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3648×2736 Still Image
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More Downloads:
1280×720 @30FPS (MP4 H.264) version of video blog posted on this blog. TRT: 9min 34sec, 208.4 MB
Note: There is a file embedded within this post, please visit this post to download the file.

]]> http://www.tomguilmette.com/wp/my-blog/archives/2842/feed 19 http://www.tomguilmette.com/wp/my-blog/archives/2677 http://www.tomguilmette.com/wp/my-blog/archives/2677#comments Fri, 01 Jan 2010 04:19:49 +0000 admin http://www.tomguilmette.com/wp/?p=2677

I just got back from Fenway Park and threw together a quick video blog from earlier today. I only shot video when it was snowing during a break in the setup. The day was long and the Canadian CBC show I am working on is quite large. We ran a bunch of cable today, some of it not working properly. We then had to run more cable. I have no idea how all this stuff will make it back to the truck when we tear out after the show. The hockey game being played tomorrow in Boston is like the “Superbowl of Hockey” as far as television goes.

I did not capture how much equipment is currently inside the ballpark because I was caught in the Fenway Magic as the snow began to fall and the Bruins took the ice for the first time. It was just awesome. I wished that I had the day all to myself…just me, a camera and a lens with shallow depth of field …and maybe some dolly tracks…

I am looking forward to covering the event tomorrow from the low right ice level hand held position for the Canadian broadcast feed. I will have the NBC shooter on my right and a Phantom high speed 12.1 camera on my left. I will be using the Sony HDC-1500 30FPS HDTV camera, but I wish I was doing puck follows at 1000 FPS with the Phantom!

Plus, about thirty feet to my right will be two HDC-1500 optical block T-cameras mounted over/under using a prism to capture stereo 3D high definition television. Look at this blog if you are interested in reading more about 3D cameras for broadcast and the innovative company, 3ality Digital by clicking here.

Lets hope the weather holds off and the stuff falling from the sky is snow, not rain. Thanks to Patrick, Pizza, Tom, Bob and Andre for making this video blog a cinematic success.

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