kingfisher slow motion

[Alan Craven]

Thanks - I completely missed that, concentrating on the player window!

[Mark OConnell]

"Mark O: after carrying buckets with fish for months, sitting in my hide for weeks and paying the rent for the phantom both my back and my pocket say it is real :-)"

Wow. The water looked a bit gelatinous in places so I guessed 3D. How did you manage the underwater shots?

[Woody Sanford]

Originally Posted by Mark OConnell

It's not real.

Even so, that is some impressive fish tossing. I'd still like to be a grunt on a project like that.

[Steve Siegel]

This post is to save someone some trouble. I watched Cees's movie and was totally blown away. Of course, I wanted to try, but it became quickly obvious that the Phantom is way out of my league. But wait, there are cameras (called Bridge Cameras, examples are the Canon Powershot SX 50, Nikon Coolpix P520, Fuji and Panasonic also make models) that will shoot video at 240, 400, even 1000 frames per second. Wow! I started doing the research. Of course, as some of you already know, the images are the size of postage stamps, and the quality is, for lack of a better word, pretty awful.

I wasn't deterred. For the purposes I intended, the image quality was not a big factor. So I bought the Canon Powershot SX 50. It performed as advertised, and in good light, not too far away, the image at 240 fps was really quite good. The only problem, and the one they never mention, was that in the "movie mode" you can't select a shutter speed. It defaults to 1/60th of a second. So with rapid motion (like a flying bird) you get crisp feathers at the top and bottom of the stroke, but a blur while the wing is moving. (Even 1/240th of a second isn't fast enough to sharpen that motion). My dealer finally admitted that all the models are the same in that regard. I guess the camera makers assume that movies are always shot at 1/60th, or 1/24th or whatever is common in Hollywood.

So if anyone is contemplating buying one of these devices to try to get some reasonably sharp slow motion, you may not want to waste your time. I'm going back to my EX3 at 720 60p and 1/500th second.

[James Manford]

Fantastic video ... reminds me of the Slo Mo Guys on Youtube - check them out if you haven't already! I believe they use the same camera, a Phantom.

[Alan Melville]

Cees,

True art...in my humble opinion. :)

Al

[Cees van Kempen]

Originally Posted by Steve Siegel

This post is to save someone some trouble. I watched Cees's movie and was totally blown away. Of course, I wanted to try, but it became quickly obvious that the Phantom is way out of my league.

Steve, it it probably nice to watch this trailer I made some time ago. It shows what a Sony FS700 can do. All the slomo in this trailer is shot with that camera. Click on the top bar of the video with the text Private Video. The password is: iwp2

Private Video on Vimeo

[Steve Siegel]

Beautiful video. Thanks for posting it. For me the choice would have to be between getting quality slow motion (with the FS700), or getting reasonable telephoto (with the small chip of the EX3, or the soon to be available PMW 300). You can't have both.

Can you answer a question for me? I have puzzled over this, but can't figure it out. If you stop your kingfisher in flight (on the FS700, not the Phantom), there is a lot of motion blur. On the other hand, if you stop the slow motion I get recording at 720 60p, shutter 1/500th sec, on the EX3 and playing at a frame rate of 25% of normal, there is very little motion blur. The EX3 slow motion capacity is inferior to the FS700. I don't understand. Please look at this EX3 clip.

stilt sandpipers fly slow motion on Vimeo

Thank you.

[Cees van Kempen]

Steve, I don't get what exactly your question is. What element of your clip do you feel is inferior to FS700 slow motion?

I don't necessarily think that motion blur is a bad thing. Indeed you see motion blur when you stop the kingfisher. But to be honest, I don't see it when playing the clip. On the other hand, if you make your shutter speed much shorter than half of the framerate you create judder, which I think can be very visible at times and make the footage look unnatural.

Please have a look at my kestrel trailer, posted in this forum on November 4th 2012. This is mainly shot with EX3. Clips at 1'05", 2'50", 2'55" and 2'58" are shot at 720p 60fps and played at 25fps. I always shoot with shutter angle 180dgr, which in this case is 1/120th sec. (When light is not sufficient I don't hesitate to shoot at 360dgr.)

[Tim Lewis]

Lovely work. I often feel that some effects can be done to death, but I never get sick of wild life in slow motion. Beautiful!

[Bo Skelmose]

WOW - this is fantastic. I dont think I have ever seen so fantastic nature slomotion recordings before.
To film this superspeed bird are almost impossible - but not for you.
Aal is perfect. You are very close to your object - get the right spots where it will dive and return to it's hunting place - and you have not tried the impossible - to follow it in flight! I will look foreward to see the film when it is finished. Guess it will take some more years if this is the quality you are going for ;=)

[Cees van Kempen]

Dear all,

Today has been an great day for me.

Last year I posted a trailer of Kestrel, a film I am making about this bird. And more recently I posted the kingfisher trailer in this thread.

I have been doing my filming as a side activity so far, running a management consultancy in daily life. However, I have recently decided to give up this secure life and put my effort full time in a new activity - Ispida Wildlife Productions - to follow my boyhoods dream and try to make wildlife films at the highest level I can possibly achieve. The switch to this new life is scheduled to start at new year.

Now today: I have signed a contract today with a national public broadcaster to produce a series of three episodes for Dutch public television and subsequently for the international market. A dream start for my new career. The three films will be broadcasted at the end of 2015 and I will spend the next two years for the production. As you can imagine I am over the moon. I will keep you informed.

[Mike Sims]

Congratulations, Cees! Best wishes for great success.

[Alan Melville]

Well done Cees, very exciting, I reckon you'll do well.

Al

[Bryce Comer]

Gefeliciteerd Cees!!!
That is certainly a dream start to your new career. Having said that, since I have watched the stuff you have posted here, i'm really not surprised you landed the contract, & would have to say I think it is well deserved!
Groeten,
Bryce