Messages

46

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Filming a welder?

« on: September 21, 2017, 03:39:18 PM »

The excessive heat and UV radiation emitted by welding can damage all camera sensors if exposed to for prolonged times. This discussion on dpreview about the subject throws in using a UV filter to get that UV light filtered out of the sensor.  https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3258116

What I would do is use a UV filter and an ND 4 or 6 and test is enough light can come in, to still get the shot and see if I need to reduce the filter stack to get something usable.   Halfway through the last Eclipse my camera solar filter detached from my poorly improvized clamping system and exposed the camera a GH4 to the sun on a 400mm lens for about 15-20 seconds until I noticed and put it back on. After close inspection with a macro lens, no damage had been done visually or while taking footage or images.  However, it was exposed when the sun was at 56% occultation which may have helped.  Direct full sunlight would have probably burned my sensor in some way. 

Here is another discussion on the welding/camera subject: https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/12590/how-can-i-photograph-welding

47

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Shipping has begun on the main batch!

« on: September 01, 2017, 12:51:18 PM »

Congratulations on the hard work paying off! 

48

Software Dev / Re: Software update V0.2

« on: July 13, 2017, 03:35:39 PM »

This is great, can't wait to get those dark pixels out of the way.  I know the camera will be amazing with the software development.  Congrats, I'll share this update soon!   

Update went without a hitch. Also kudos on making it update proof by not using a firmware flash but opening software from the card.  Glad to see a device that is ready to go after the update without a reboot. I was put off at first but it's a sweet feature to have.

49

Chronos User Discussion / Re: User Manual draft - Comments/suggestions/revew requested

« on: July 05, 2017, 02:21:51 PM »

Pretty good first draft, very easy to follow. Good to know the appropriate power down procedure and the 4 second rule of hard reset.


I still cannot find a way for the camera to shoot lets say 500fps at 1280*720p.  Every time I put the frame rate at 500 or 0.500 00 K or any combination it either reverts back to the 720p preset of 1502fps or spits out a crazy number like 3.20978797 fps and a crazy time. 

What would be ideal is to have a slider or arrows that go up 10fps increments up or down in the setup window and if left pressed would jump in 100fps increments.  Also, the Manual should have a table of examples on how to input the frame rate and time in the proper way as to allow for a quick learning curve.

In any case, I would appreciate guidance in altering frame rates that stick.  And once they do it would be very useful to allow them to be saved for recall later.   I am interested in 240fps 720p, 500fps 720p and 1000fps 720p as a start to learn the proper values.   
Thank you! 

50

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Camera case

« on: June 27, 2017, 01:04:14 PM »

Very Nice Anton, love the battery rack in the foam.  Should keep the camera very secure.

51

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Chronos 1.4 Footage Thread

« on: June 19, 2017, 05:59:05 PM »

Now that is troubleshooting!  They should send the link to the OEM

52

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Chronos 1.4 Footage Thread

« on: June 19, 2017, 05:03:05 PM »

Funny how both the dark "Spotting" non-linear pixels and the black lines both show up in under exposure. Could it be that it is the same problem that a 3 point calibration could solve?

I have seen the lines myself at high shutter speeds and could be some AD problem from the readout timing.

53

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Macro lens suggestions

« on: June 15, 2017, 11:29:06 AM »

Big fan of your channel, keep up the good work!

I am using the Canon 100mm 2.8 USM lens and I have to get really far back to be able to focus.  It is 392mm equivalent on the Chronos.  However for very small things like a fly, for example, you just need around 1 meter distance for it to be nearly all of the frame.

Lenses like the Nikon or Canon 60mm macro are also good options with not as long a throw at 235mm equivalent.  I use a fotodiox EF to C-mount adapter.  You need to multiply everything by 3.92x to get the 2/3 sensor vs full frame crop.

54

Chronos User Discussion / Re: How Long Does Black Calibration Take?

« on: June 14, 2017, 02:45:21 PM »

I am getting the occasional black single frame or skipped frames 1-4frames in certain clips. Funny thing is it happens sometimes and mostly don't so it is unpredictable. It may be a ram flush problem or transfer from RAM to SD card. I Tried 3 cards all Sandisk, all skip at some point. Not all clips are affected.  I'll keep testing to see if battery voltage remaining could be part of the problem as in AC Adapter and Battery difference.

BTW How do I choose in 720p, for example, lower frame rates than 1502fps?  I plug in the lower frame rate and try to lower the exposure time and resets back to the preset.

55

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Inexpensive neck strap mounting on the Chronos camera

« on: June 09, 2017, 07:35:34 PM »

I find it works well and it is very sturdy.  Only thing as you say is sometimes it can get in the way but it is not a big deal. if you want to use it to go shooting as in point and shoot you can always attach it on the bottom screw.    For my style of shooting I much rather use a tripod to aim and record, easier on the back too since the camera is very heavy!

56

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Inexpensive neck strap mounting on the Chronos camera

« on: June 09, 2017, 06:53:45 PM »

Nice work & Video,  Here is another option that is cheap but uses the 1/4" holes!   
http://www.hispeedcams.com/chronos-camera-must-accessories/

57

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Spotting

« on: June 09, 2017, 02:41:48 PM »

Canon 100mm Macro 2.8 USM! It becomes like a 400mm due to the nearly 4x crop factor (3.93x) of the 2/3rds chip!  I sometimes have to step way back to get framing properly. Which is good as wildlife is more forgiving due to the distance.

58

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Spotting

« on: June 09, 2017, 02:03:26 PM »

Thanks Critters, I dusted off my photobucket account ;-) has been a while since I posted images in forums!

59

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Output formats

« on: June 09, 2017, 01:57:05 PM »

That said the files as of now are very good quality @ 39Mbits/sec give or take depending on the scene.  For 720p this is excellent and I have seen no MP4 artifacts anywhere even zoomed in besides noise in under exposed areas.  Color correction is easy and you can push it quite well in a 16bit composition in After Effects. 

That said it would be ideal if the camera saved Exif information on the clips themselves...  that saved the frame rate, shutter speed, gain and other values. Therefore it could help in recreating a specific look or shot in controlled situations. There is a lot of power in the camera and we are barely scratching the surface.  I agree the H.264 encoding is very fast, great implementation.

60

Chronos User Discussion / Re: Spotting

« on: June 09, 2017, 01:48:59 PM »

In theory, you could but since the pixels are not dead but changing according to brightness levels you would have to adjust accordingly as the scene changes for them not to look odd. Depending on the scene the changes could be less apparent.   They are individual pixels but since the de-bayer process averages the neighboring ones you get a cross pattern that is much more apparent. My camera has around 173 pixels that exhibit this problem as far as I could tell by the cloning post I did. Here is an animated gif of the zoomed pixels and the cloning fix in After effects.