Most people working in their basement on a project are lucky if they manage to construct a table that stays sort-of upright. Electronics engineer David Kronstein has built an affordable high speed camera system from scratch.
Entitled the Chronos 1. 4, it is a slow mo shooting labour of love that has taken Kronstein several years of what we can only imagine was hellishly gruelling work. Now after a dedicated push, Kronstein is not only selling early versions of his device but plans to launch a Kickstarter soon so as to polish off development completely.
The Chronos 1. 4 is named such because it has a 1. 4 Gigapixel per second throughput. At its top resolution of 1280x1024 the Chronos can shoot at a rate of 1050fps. However with sufficient drops in resolution the recording framerate will rise exponentially. Reportedly, the maximum frame rate is an utterly astounding 21,600 FPS. What’s more it can record all of this in RAW format.
TAOFLEDERMAUS /YouTube
The menus are simple but functional, as you might expect from a homebrew project. The system even includes the ability to quickly scroll through and edit down recorded clips so you aren’t suffering through hours of footage later at the editing suite. Kronstein has even implemented a basic shuttle wheel to make this task substantially easier.
Storage-wise, Chronos will take SD cards, USB drives, or SATA hard drives. It doesn’t require a PC for operation, though it can be hooked up to one using one of the several different connections available. Those connections include audio inputs and a HDMI port to link up a viewfinder if you need one. Even the camera’s choice of power supply is user friendly, depending on a standard EN EL4A Nikon replaceable battery. Kronstein claims Chronos will have 8, 16, or 32GB of RAM to run the system processes, although it’s unclear if RAM will be upgradeable.
tesla500 /YouTube
The demo videos for the Chronos in action are fantastic at showing off it’s bullet-time abilities. There is a very slight washed out lack of colour vibrancy to its captured footage but these clips still make clear that Chronos is a premium-level piece of equipment. Surprisingly, Kronstein says that he will be selling the completed models of his camera for US$2,500 apiece. This may sound like a lot, but is a relatively tiny amount compared to the tens of thousands that specialist high speed models can fetch. Even the lower-end Phantom Miro C110 costs US$11,900 though its specs read almost exactly like the Chronos.
The Chronos 1. 4 isn’t available for purchase just yet, but Kronstein is planning to launch a Kickstarter for his creation in a few months time. We’ll be sure to let you know once it’s underway.
In any case, we offer our sincerest congratulations to this man with an undefeatable vision and the determination to make it a reality. Now would someone lend him a copy of Dark Souls 3? Since he obviously has too much time on his hands.
. digitalrev.com2016-10-26 03:00