What is the cheapest camera that can capture decent slow motion video? By slow motion I mean at least half normal speed (but with same frame rate of course).

You are talking about a slow motion film camera right? Cuz if you're using DV the easiest way is to slow it down in your NLE.

I don't know much about film cameras and prices but I think most film cameras can be undercranked. Slow motion is produced by under cranking a film camera (not digital), which reduces the frame rate and adjusts the shutter speed to suit the chosen frame rate.

Slow motion can be done in nle systems but this just copy frames from the set frame rate inside the dv camera, which isn't anywhere near as good as using an undercranked film camera (unless you don't want the smoothness of real slow mo).

Surprisingly enough, there are several low-end digital camcorders that claim to be able to record in a special slo-mo mode.

I have no idea which ones are better than others (as I'd never heard of it 'til today... I just looked up some search engines)

JVC GR-D290

JVC GR-D270

JVC GRDF450US

Sony DCM-M1 (was this even made?)

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...but as mentioned above, if going for cheap and video... might be best to just slow it down in your editing software.

:cool:

If you undercrank the camera you'll end up with a fast-motion clip. You'll have to speed up the film to get a slow mo clip at the same frame rate.

As opposed to just repeating frames in slow mo, high end digital video editoring software will actually create frames to link two frames for slow mo hypothesizing based on the two frames that are being linked. Depending on the nature of the shot, many times it looks fantastic when slowed down in an NLE even to extremely slow speeds. I once slowed down a quick glance and smirk from a steady shot to 2.5% of its original speed and it looked great! But if you have a shaky shot, the camera is moving quickly or your subject is moving very quickly in your shot the slow mo will look worse when done in an NLE.

If you undercrank the camera you'll end up with a fast-motion clip. You'll have to speed up the film to get a slow mo clip at the same frame rate.

As opposed to just repeating frames in slow mo, high end digital video editoring software will actually create frames to link two frames for slow mo hypothesizing based on the two frames that are being linked.

You're right, my mistake :blush: . What high end digital video software creates linking frames? I've never heard of such a thing! Sounds like a good idea if it works.

You're right, my mistake :blush: . What high end digital video software creates linking frames? I've never heard of such a thing! Sounds like a good idea if it works.

If I'm not mistaken, Premiere Pro 1.5 creates frames to link two exisiting frames in slow mo. I I assume this is what it does because I have taken clips of just 5-10 frames and slowed them down to about 5 seconds or 1-2 frames per second. The transition remains smooth instead of seeing a jump every half second or so. This is true unless the shot is really shaky or moving really quickly. Premiere is the only editing software I've ever used so I'm not sure if others will do it too.

Maybe someone else could shed some light on this. Am I mistaken about slow mo in high end editing software?

After Effects does a great slow motion effect. Very fun to play with the velocity envelopes!