Best slowmo camera on a budget

M

M.R.

Active member
Hi all,

I was looking into a Fuji XT4 (or XS10) because of the 240fps.
But then I thought, maybe there's something better out there. Maybe an older RED camera for instance?
While I'm comparing spec sheets. Maybe some of you know any sleepers?

Criteria
4k is nice (to crop in) but 2k is ok
More than 120fps
Preferably not too complicated to use
Under 4500€

Bonus points if it's S35.


Has anybody had their hands on a Kinefinity Terra? How good is it? Is the High fps mode cropped?
How good or bad is the slowmotion of the FS700? Is it HD? Oversampled? Cropped?

Thoughts and suggestions welcome!
 
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I'd love to hear what people have used as it seems most cameras limit sub 240fps (I can do 240 on EVA1 with severe crop). It seems having a dedicated highspeed camera would be smarter for me than finding a middle ground that covers all bases.

I've been looking into the Freefly Wave or Chronos 2.1 HD for our studio as more and more we are shooting more slow mo content for youtube/social and its getting hard to explain to clients why you can't record slow motion better than current iphones without upping the budgets with a Phantom rental. Maybe I can fit one in next years budget if nothing else better comes out.
 
Slowmo does come in handy for things like the egg crate challenge. :2vrolijk_08:
I've hear Tiktok is a thing...
 
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Blackmagic URSA/Minis are sleepers...especially because the company makes great hardware that has a high IQ pipeline (less mushy and noisy and more quality).

S35 4K/120p in a used V2 URSA for around $1000 is probably the best deal in the world for that, but the camera comes with its own issues like a max ISO of 400 and pretty bad dynamic range outdoors. (Depending on the model, I believe some of them go all the way up to 300fps in HD.)
 
Just saw it mentioned above by someone else...and the Freefly is another good option, but more expensive than any of these (besides the obvious).

Actually almost bought a Wave during 2020 (was even notified my turn was up) - but it seemed like it had some issues, too...nothing is ever simple with HFRs.
 
Best deal in the budget world remains the venerable FS700 paired with either an Odyssey7Q or an appropriate Atomos recorder. With the recorder you can access the RAW output of the camera (make sure it has the RAW output enabled, most do) and shoot a short burst of 4K120 or a continuous stream of 2K240fps. You can record these in a RAW format but even better for workflow is to record them in ProRes video. For the price there's still nothing that beats this combination. And if you know how to expose it you can get some damn fine images out of the FS700 (hint, overexpose some).

This used to be VERY much my day to day world and I'm quite familiar with what's available out there. Personally, while I adore my Odyssey ('cause I helped design that puppy!), I would probably suggest getting an Atomos if only because the Odyssey is no longer supported by the manufacturer.
 
Mitch Gross said:
Best deal in the budget world remains the venerable FS700 paired with either an Odyssey7Q or an appropriate Atomos recorder. With the recorder you can access the RAW output of the camera (make sure it has the RAW output enabled, most do) and shoot a short burst of 4K120 or a continuous stream of 2K240fps. You can record these in a RAW format but even better for workflow is to record them in ProRes video. For the price there's still nothing that beats this combination. And if you know how to expose it you can get some damn fine images out of the FS700 (hint, overexpose some).

This used to be VERY much my day to day world and I'm quite familiar with what's available out there. Personally, while I adore my Odyssey ('cause I helped design that puppy!), I would probably suggest getting an Atomos if only because the Odyssey is no longer supported by the manufacturer.
Click to expand...

BM's aforementioned big URSA does that internally for thousands less than the FS700 with the 7Q.

Plus, BM's quality is incredibly much better (IMO) - but the FPN and dynamic range is not ideal (at least on that model).
 
Thank you for all the suggestions.

Been searching for spec sheets and tinkering when I had the time this week.

Since I will be needing a new camera for photography as well I see two options.
A hybrid camera like the XT4 for example
or
A dedicated camera for stills and a dedicated for film (with very good slow motion)

The latter is logically in most cases the best option.
Besides budget, there are a few other advantages to the hybrid option

Rambling aside.

The Freefly wave indeed quickly springs to mind slow motion wise. But I found out it’s actually not that interesting. The 2k option is of much lower quality.

morgan which zcam has 300fps?
Been looking on there website but I can’t find which model has 300fps. They seem nice cameras. I like the form factor.

I’ll give the Blackmagic ursa’s a look.
4.6k mini pro seem to go for around 3.5k (package with EVF etc). Seems a good price, but I have to see with the stills camera that I need as well.
Are there any spec sheets around of all Blackmagic models? Like a comparison chart? Some Blackmagic models are hard to distuingish.

There’s some Red models that came onto my radar as well. Their model naming is as well getting pretty confusing. Are there any rolling shutter numbers for their models? Is there a difference between an Epic dragon and a scarlet w dragon?
 
zcam.. im no expert. I think the 4k mtf has an upgrade to 160_4k or 300_hd

they might have even stopped making it.

from my research that or the gh6 (probably a better camera) are the best options unless you hit one of the $5grand versions.

personally im not too bothered about res as I tihnk there is a big market for instagram drink pours at 1000 that need to be sharp phone size.

this site is worth a read https://www.hispeedcams.com/
 
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