Casio EX-F1 has 1200fps and Hi-Def video!
 

Casio has announced:
EXILIM Pro EX-F1, with the world's fastest* burst shooting performance
This model incorporates a high speed CMOS sensor and a high speed LSI processor. With this model, Casio has achieved an ultra-high speed 60 frames per second (fps) burst rate for still images, together with 1,200 fps high speed movie recording that captures movement faster than the eye can see for ultra-slow motion replay. Moreover, the new model can record movies at full High-Definition.

Ton's more info and video at Engadget and other sites.....can't wait for the DVinfonetters to get their hands on these and relate impressions!

Some information, specs and the press release here: http://www.dpreview.com/news/0801/08010601casiof1.asp

This is really cool looking, but it sacrifices resolution to get the higher framerates.

Can't wait for the first reviews when it's released. If this delivers on image quality I'll sell my HD2 and buy it. Looks like it has manual focus/zoom, more dial as opposed to menu controls, mic input, super slo-mo (at lower res.) and supposedly its going to be under £500!

If it is anything like the Sony cameras 300fps I doubt this will be anything much to look at.

• Hi-Speed: 512 × 384 (300 fps), 432 × 192 (600 fps), 336 × 96 (1200 fps)

Yea... My FX7 does 120fps (240 fields per second) ... @ 480 x 270... which is useless...

I believe this is recording progressive/frames because it is a still-camera that's doing movie, every still camera's movie mode I've seen is progressive...

I'm not sure. I saw this cam at CES, and talked to the rep.

The camera lacked some of the things I would want, such as 24p, zebras and stuff, so I didn't study it as deeply as I might have. I don't recall it having an external mic input either, but I might be confusing it.

It does have a lot of glass though for a video camera in that price range. My impression was that it was a nice first effort, but it might not meet prosumer needs. The super high speed thing is killer though, if that's something you would find useful. (Useless on a "people" documentary, killer if you are doing action moves and blowing stuff up!)

according to the specs on the web it does have a mic input. I'm not too bothered about the potentially low quality of the high speed as I am not aiming to sell my videos and it would be cool for messing about with friends etc. especially on skiing holidays, getting my friends bailing in super slo-mo would be awesome!

I think that's a perfect use. I saw the Samsung slo-mo camera too, and the footage of a guy doing Kung Fu moves looked great. Well, not Hollywood great, but really great for YouTube stuff. And the Samsung cam doesn't shoot nearly as fast as the Casio.

I don't believe it's meant to be a film/video camera at all... I've had times where I wanted to record a short video and I grab my still camera and record it, has a small mic and does 320 x 240 @ 30fps... I drag and drop the .mov file from my card-reader and render it in Vegas real quick to a .wmv and upload it to my website.

Saves the hassle of pulling out the FX7, making sure a tape is in and not one I need, setting the settings, recording, grabbing the firewire cable, capturing the video, cropping/resizing/deinterlacing, then rendering it out.

This is a digital photo camera, with some highspeed capabilities built in...

The rep implied that it was a hybrid. Its sensor lacks the pixels of a typical SLR and it does HD and high speed video, yet it has a still-cam body. It has characteristics of both a still and a video cam. He said it was a bit of a product category experiment.

That said, I had a hard time imagining doing a video shoot with that camera body. Tracking everything with a still cam could make the shooter look like an obsessed nerd. (Not that many of us don't already fit into that classification...)

EDIT

Regarding the hassle of the FX7/tape/firewire cable, many of the new video cams that record to solid state would similarly reduce the hassle factor. For instance, the new SD9 has a quick on feature that is activated in less than one second after you open the LCD monitor.

Aside from the body shape, the difference in features between still and video cams is starting to blur.

I spent some time checking it out at macworld. The high-speed stuff is really meant for things like motion analysis, but the interesting thing is the 60-frame full res(6 megapixel) burst capability. It can buffer continuously so that when you hit the shutter button you actually get 30 frames before your press and 30 frames after - hard to beat for capturing the perfect frame in action, especially considering many non-SLR digital cameras still have shutter lag which makes it hard to time shots like that.

Evan,

A lot of the current cams (motion and still) capture video (in AVCHD or some other video coder) continuously. They also have the burst mode in which the frames are captured as JPEGs, but for a limited duration.

I think the Casio has both video and burst capture modes.

I know a lot of still cameras capture video, but I'm not aware of any that can capture bursts at full 6mp resolution at anything close to the 60fps this one can - most do at best 2-3 and a few get up into 8-10 speeds.

Here is the casio website:
http://www.exilim.com/intl/ex_f1/

Chip size 1/1.8 ins. Shoots 1920x1080 at 60p, recording H.264/AVC to SDHC cards. There is an external microphone socket.

Unfortunately no video clips as yet.

Patrick