Slow-motion video capture recently received some buzz with the unveiling of the new iPhone 5S. In fact, it’s a feature that has been creeping into new digital cameras and smartphones. But to get high-resolution, super-slow video, you currently need to use very expensive equipment. Two MIT-trained engineers, however, have developed a new camera that aims to lower that price barrier and make this video capture feature more accessible.
The Edgertronic super slow-motion camera captures full-color video with a maximum resolution of 1280 x 1024, which lets you shoot up to 494 frames per second. It can reach frame rates as high as 17,791 fps when you drop the resolution all the way down to 192×96. In comparison, the iPhone 5S captures slo-mo at 120 fps and 720p resolution.
Created by Mike Matter and Juan Pineda, the Edgertronic was named after MIT professor and photographer Harold Eugene “Doc” Edgerton. Matter says the Edgertronic is designed to be a simple but professional-quality DSLR-sized camera that’s more compact and portable. It uses lenses compatible with Nikon’s F-mount and has Ethernet, USB, and audio-out ports, and an SD card slot. “There are no low-cost high-speed video cameras that offer the video quality that professional photographers demand,” the Edgertronic team explained as to why they built this camera.
Matter and Pineda have turned to Kickstarter to help fund the project, and are seeking $97,000 to manufacture the camera in the San Francisco Bay Area. If you contribute $4,895, you can snag yourself one of the first cameras scheduled to ship at the end of the year. At almost $5K, that’s not exactly cheap. But for videographers with a need to capture high-quality slo-mo, the Edgertronic costs a lot of less than current offerings.
Check out the sample videos below.
(Via PetaPixel)
