Vision Research is billing the new Phantom v2640 high-speed camera as “the fastest four megapixel camera available.” The company said its custom CMOS sensor can reach speeds of up to 11,750 fps at HD resolution and up to 6,600 fps at its full resolution of 2048×1952.
That’s a bit of an oddball raster for film and TV shooters, but it should capture a pretty nice image, especially for a VFX element or other bit of footage that’s meant to be composited into an HD or 4K/UHD frame. Still, many users will prefer to stick with the cinema-style Phantom Flex4K, which can hit a mere 1,000 fps at 4K and 2,000 fps at 2K or HD resolution.
Beyond pure speed and resolution, the company said the v2640 boasts 64 dB of dynamic range and has an ISO of 16,000 for monochrome versions of the camera and 3,200 for color. The camera comes with a standard Nikon F-mount, but C-mounts and Canon EOS mounts are available as options. (The lens is not included.)
The v2640 ships with up to 288 GB of internal RAM — adequate, the company says, for recording up to 7.8 seconds of 12-bit footage at full resolution. (Less than eight seconds might not sound like much, but in the world of super-slow-motion, a little bit of time goes a very, very long way.) The camera can record longer clips directly to 1 TB or 2 TB CineMag memory cartridges, but only at lower frame rates. That’s because internal memory supports throughput of up to 26 gigapixels/sec, but a 2 TB CineMag can handle a mere 1 gigapixel/sec.
The camera also sports two HD-SDI ports and a component viewfinder port for monitoring, while a breakout box can provide analog NTSC and PAL output as needed.
