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R.Youden

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Apr 1, 2005
2,093
40
I am looking at buying a camera with a higher than standard FPS. Now I know very little about video cameras, give me a DSLR and I am like a pig in mud, but I have never got into video.

I am not bothered about HD or anything like that. I am wanting to video my golf swing and the higher the FPS the better. Also something that just dumps out Quicktime files is ideal.

Now for this I don't want to be blowing a load of cash and would be more than happy with an eBay job.

Any recommendations?

Thanks.
 
High framerate cameras are expensive period. You also didn't specify what you're qualifying as "high framerate" 60+, 120+, 500+, 1K
 
Also something that just dumps out Quicktime files is ideal.
That would be a challenge.

I would check Casio exilim digicams. Some of them have high speed recording capability, and they record in .avi MJPEG. Quicktime can play them just fine (not sure if you would need Perian or not since I have it installed already).

As for actual camcorder, I was looking at Sanyo Xacti camcorders, and some of them have the high speed recording feature. I don't have any of them, but according to Sanyo, they record in h.264 format, so shouldn't be a problem with Quicktime either.
 
I know my golf trainer uses some SD camera. It's nothing fancy but it seems to do the job just fine and is able to show me the flaws (which is alot :p) in my swing.
 
Casio EX-FC100... I'm a golfer too and I have always been tempted to get one of these. Most people scoff at the low resolution for the higher fps shooting modes, but that's because they don't realize you don't need as much resolution to make high fps look good.
 
Try out shooting in 60p and using cinema tools to conform to 24p. It will play back at 40%. I've shot golf swings before using this method and people seem to find it's adequate for looking at technique. If you want even better over crank abilities, youre going to have to shell out for a more expensive camera.
 
In case people don't google the Casio model #... it is a 1000fps camera for $250

Yes, but it can only shoot 1000FPS at a very low resolution.

The higher-end Casio EX-F1 ($1000) can shoot 1200fps at 336x96 or 600fps at 432x192, both of which are impractically small. But it can do variable 30-300fps at 512x384, which is useable for some purposes... and apparently you adjust the frame rate with a manual control ring on the lens (a la focus ring), which sounds pretty neat for achieving some cool artistic effects that would otherwise require expensive software or many hours of tedious work in FCP.
 
Thanks for the advice everyone. I found out that my brothers camera can do video at 30fps and 60fps so I did a test record and tried to play them back in QuickTime. It looks like they are both at the same frame rate (some native setting in QT I guess) and the ghosting is the same on the 30fps as the 60fps. Is there an easy way to get the 60fps to play back at 30fps (i.e. 1 second of video takes 2 seconds to play back?)

Thanks.
 
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