Phantom HD, how does it work (super high fps camera)

[gregulator]

Does anyone know how super high speed digital camcorders work such as the Phantom line of cameras? It is some sort of prism that splits the light through the lens to multiple image sensors? Do they have an extremely sensitive sensor that can capture/dump the information that quickly?

I know the camera basically records to a ring buffer and you dump the buffer when you have the footage you want (and I hear it is a very small window, like a few seconds)... but I would love to know how they are getting so much information from the image sensor(s).

 

[Kaido]

If you like slooooooow then check out the Weisscam:

http://www.weisscam.com/

Sample reel:

http://vimeo.com/8563127

Mostly it's about storage speed. Lights moves at lightspeed, it's more about how fast we can capture it that matters - that's the biggest limitation, and we'll see higher FPS as our storage speeds increase. Most of these high-speed cameras work off either memory banks or solid-state drives to capture the incoming data. Also like you mentioned depends on the sensor, global vs progressive, that sort of thing. But I think it mostly boils down to storage speed - for example, on the Weisscam, you can get 2000fps on 1080p, but you can get 4000fps in 720p - less image size, but more bandwidth.