BROADCAST FILM AND VIDEO DIRECTORY

SlowMo High Speed Camera Hire

Contact SlowMo High Speed Camera Hire

Company:

SlowMo High Speed Camera Hire

Mobile:

07961483137

Website:

www.slowmo.co.uk

Contact:

Mark Johnson

Email:

Address
84 Thorley Lane,
Timperley,
Cheshire UK,
Altrincham,
WA15 7AN,
England

About SlowMo High Speed Camera Hire

Slowmo offers a professional high speed camera hire service to suit your requirements. It has been running successfully since 2003. It is run by Mark Johnson who works closely with Photron Europe Ltd to provide the best possible rental service.

Slowmo provides high speed cameras for filming all types of applications:

Broadcast and Media
Ballistics and Munitions
Sport
Industrial and Diagnostic

Since 2007, Slowmo has filmed over 65 commercials including major brands such as Pepsi, Direct Line, McDonalds, KFC, Ribena, Audi, Subaru, and Finish Diamond Standard. It has covered major television productions including ITV's The Cube and Heston at Home for C4.

The Photron BC2 HD is favoured by many directors and DOPs because of its superb sensitivity, high frame rate at full HD and its excellent reliability, no additional cooling required even under very hot lights. It was voted best camera for image quality in a review in Definition Magazine, beating both Phantom models. The Photron BC2 comes with PL, B4 and Nikon lens mounts and can be fitted with 19mm bars, matte box, focus systems etc. Playback can be viewed immediately via HD-SDI. The Photron BC-2 HD camera is compatible with SONY HD viewfinders and can easily be powered from V-lok batteries. It has been fitted with the maximum on board memory of 32Gb.

Slowmo can cover 3D high speed shoots. It filmed on the recently released 3DTT film featuring the Isle of Man TT motorbike races. In 2011, it filmed a wildlife series in 3D featuring various bugs, spiders, and butterflies plus a BMW sponsored 3D shoot involving Olympic gymnast Louis Smith. On the same sporting theme, Slowmo has provided high speed cameras for the LTA to cover the ATP Masters tennis tournament at the O2 arena in 2010 and 2011. Natural History film making is a big advocate of high speed and Slowmo has been providing cameras, especially to the BBC and John Downer Productions, since 2004.

Hiring a HD high speed camera is not cheap (the cameras cost around £75K) - however Slowmo believes it can provide a cost effective solution. It keeps overheads to a minimum and concentrates solely on optimally maintaining and updating its high speed camera equipment without being side tracked with ancillary kit.

Slowmo covers more than broadcast, hence it has vast experience in all kinds of high speed events including bullets and explosions, which can have media applications.

View our website to see extensive media client list. For hire rates and/or to discuss high speed cameras in general, call or email Mark at Slowmo.

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Company News

05/12/2016

Digital high speed age that has revolutionised the broadcast industry

Over the years Slowmo has been part of the digital high speed age that has revolutionised the broadcast industry. Slow motion footage is now commonplace in commercials, television programmes and music videos. It has filmed approximately 100 commercials for major brands such as Pepsi, VW, Audi, Direct Line, McDonalds, Ribena and Finish Diamond Standard. It has provided high speed cameras for several series of The Cube on ITV, Richard Hammond, The One Show, CBBC plus an extensive list of BBC Natural History programmes. Natural History film making has been a big advocate of high speed and Slowmo has been providing camera kit for major productions since 2005. Its Photron cameras have travelled the world capturing some of the iconic footages we have seen on television, for example, great white sharks breeching out of the sea whilst hunting seals and red salmon negotiating grizzly bears whilst making their way up river.

If you like to know what we have filmed in the past and what productions we have been part of, please contact Mark on 07961 483137.

05/12/2016

Slowmo triggered into action

PRIMETAKE

High speed images were required showing the terminal effects of different AP rounds on metal plates, fired from a distance of 550m, There was 15 firings in 7 series of trials, all of which were required to be recorded. Trial site regulations meant that no-one could be forward of the rifle.

The problems to overcome were firstly, how is the camera to be triggered and secondly, how can the recorded shot be downloaded quickly and the camera re-armed. Automatic download and re-arm has always been a built-in function with Photron cameras.

However, due to the time between firings only being around 15s, the stored memory needed to be trimmed first before saving (this is normally done manually on the laptop) otherwise the download time would be too great. A unique way of triggering the camera had to be developed and in order for the shot to be trimmed appropriately, this trigger had to be generated by the bullet hitting the plate (T=0s). Pre-determined mark in/mark out points could then be set allowing for a fast download and re-arm, ready for the next shot.

With the help from Photron Europe Ltd, a custom impact trigger sensor was made. The impact sensor was clamped to the metal frame work holding the target plate. Upon sensing an impact/knock, it generated a TTL signal which triggered the camera (Photron SA-X2 mono high speed camera). Trimming points were set at just 100 frames before the trigger and 100 frames after. Using a connected laptop, the camera was armed and everyone retreated behind the rifle.

From this point onwards the process was fully automatic – rifle fired, bullet impact on plate detected, camera triggered, 200 frames saved to the laptop with a time stamped filename, camera re-armed ready for next firing, and so on. This whole process took about 12s. It worked perfectly and every firing was captured.