Camera Labs

I recently got three flying geckos. When they move, they're a lot faster than the crested geckos were. I'd love to see one "strike" at their food. We're talking "blink of an eye" fast though. So stills are out, as I don't want to use a trigger to get a single shot. I'm thinking high speed video is the obvious solution, but the question then is how to get it on the cheap?

Casio seem to be one notable player in this field. They currently seem to have a pair of compact cameras EX-ZR10 and EX-ZR100 which offer ever faster video speeds as the resolution is dropped. For example, the following is from their spec for the cheaper ZR10 model:
FHD (1920 × 1080)(30fps) • STD (640 × 480)(30fps) • 224 × 160(480fps) • 432 × 320(240fps) • 432 × 320(30–240fps)

240fps at sub-VGA I think would be adequate, but does anyone know of other "affordable" options here? I don't think I need any more speed above that, but would like more resolution if possible. Around VGA or SD.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

There's always the Nikon 1 cameras popo...

Or Canon's S100 offers VGA at 120fps or QVGA at 240fps.

Thanks for the additional options... hard to keep up with compact cameras! I guess part of my problem is I don't know how fast I need to go. Is 120 fps at VGA enough? Or if 240 fps is needed then the Casio models have the resolution edge there.

The Nikon 1 series was in the back of my mind, but it is going to be too expensive for what is a single task usage.

All considered I think the cheaper of the Casio's is still on top of my list, as the S100 isn't cheap either. Wonder if any of the cheaper Canon compacts also offer the VGA 120fps mode? I also need to look at the video capture time of these modes too, as anything too short wont be usable.

_________________
Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Popo - Those Casios aren't cheap to buy new - so you might look at a used device that does those things - as in the Fuji HS10. These are around at modest second-hand prices, as they don't work at all well as 'snaps' cameras in Auto or Program. However, in Priorities or Manual, the Fujinon lens - 30x / 720mm-equiv, can get quite neat results, particularly in low light, with its 10Mpix BSI-CMOS sensor. High-ISO, low-light, is oddly good for a P&S.

The HS10 does more 'slo-mo' functions than the later HS20/30 - perhaps because those are on the awkward 16Mpix EXR CMOS sensors. It has:

1,000fps / 224 x 64 - postage stamp size playback, novelty only
480fps / 224 x 168 - not much better
240fps / 442 x 332 - usable but not large onscreen
120fps / 640 x 480 - the most usable, quality quite good
60fps / 960 x 720 - good quality, but odd AR. I use added black bars (Avidemux) to get this to 1280 x 720.

The recording is in H264/MOV, 30-second limit, and of course, no audio. If needed, I run my Canon SX10 at the same time, audio-record only, in 44k-stereo, and add-back later in Kdenlive editor.

Edit-PS:- You can 'halve' playback speed with Avidemux - it does that by repeating each frame. The 120fps at 640 x 480 becomes 240fps with playback still at 30fps / 1/8th. Results are quite good. You can re-do at H264 (x264) - or, I usually do a 2-pass conversion to Xvid4. You could also use Std MPEG4.

One "halving" of speed works well, if the original is good quality - doing it twice has rather undesirable results.

Avidemux will also halve the playback speed of HD video - example, if you wanted more than the 30-seconds as above, and in correct AR 1280 x 720, etc.

Regards, Dave.

Thanks for that suggestion too. I'm failing to find a cheap HS10 in a quick search. New ones are not cheap. Used ones... don't seem to exist as far as I've found so far. Also I think 30 seconds isn't going to be long enough without causing me some pain in the process.

The Casios I linked, they're quite cheap new. I haven't checked them for recording length anyway so I might still rule them out.

_________________
Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.