Casio demos 'world's fastest-shooting' digicam
VGA video at 300fps, anyone?
IFA 07 Casio has developed a digital SLR camera capable of capturing 60 shots every second. That's stills - it can capture 640 x 480 video at a stunning 300fps. The company heralded the device as the 'world's fastest-shooting' snapper.
Casio's 'world's fastest' camera prototype
Not that you'll be able to buy it in the shops any time soon. The camera exists solely as a prototype model, which the Japanese manufacturer showed off at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin today.
For what it's worth the camera on display was a six-megapixel job with a 12x optical zoom lens array, a 2.8in display and an electromechanical image stabilisation system.
We hope it's got high capacity SDHC memory card support. At the camera's capture rate, it's going to fill up the on-board memory in the blink of an eye.
Casio stressed that it has yet to decide what the finished product's specifications will be, what it'll look like and even what it might be called, so don't read too much into the prototype's details.
COMMENTS
Looks like an SLR
I notice the optical viewfinder (on the back), has no matching window on the front, which would suggest it either has a miniature LCD in there (why bother if you have the main back screen) or it IS an SLR.
It actually doesn't look that different to my own 1991 vintage Chinon Genesis III, which IS, I can assure you, a genuine 35mm SLR.
http://www.eastman.org/fm/mees/htmlsrc/mC54000003_ful.html
this thing looks fun
I can see some really good uses for a camera that can shoot at these speeds. It would be a great tool in school physics labs and would probably be quite fun for other things as well.
Maybe they could sidestep the problems of speed and capacity of memory cards by either having an unspeakable amount of cache or designing it to simultaneously accept several cards and write to the in sequence, i.e. say 5 cards put the first image on the first card the second image on the second card and so on then back to the first card for the sixth image. I could see this being prohibitively expensive for consumer use though.
why 300 fps?
Your right I can't see 300 fps that is why I want a camera that can capture 300 fpos. I do sparring and I can not see whathappened in real time. If I watch a 300 fps movie at 30 fps or 10 fps I can see what happened.
SLR != quality glass
An SLR is no guarantee of the quality of the glass. A bridge camera (as they've been called here), is more appropriate for the majority of people. It'll come with glass as good as the average bundled zoom lens, with a greater range and there will be less danger of getting dust on the sensor when changing lenses too. People will continue to buy SLRs because they think they're inherently better, will make them better photographers, or simply as a status symbol.
People are obsessed with numbers. An usually the big numbers too. 80mm beats 75 mm. 200mm beats 80mm. 12x beats 10x. They probably think f5.6 beats f2.8 too. For instantly better looking photos, they should get a 50mm prime lens that will open up to f1.4. (28mm or 35mm prime for APS sized sensors).
Casio
"They are crap and still are!"
Well, there speaks an expert, obviously. Dpreview, whose opinions on cameras count for rather more, concluded that "the Casio EX-Z750 [was] the best ultra-compact 7 megapixel on the market today for the serious photographer"
WRT the timing, I was quoting in milliseconds, too. That's what 'ms' is short for...
