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Dear subscribers,
Thanks to those who replied to my email regarding Casio’s range of
high-speed cameras. Please see below for a summary of emails that I
received.
Regards,
Paul Glazier
Sheffield Hallam University, UK
-------------------------------------------------
Dear Paul,
One of our customer is using 6 Casio cameras in his biomechanical lab with
our software. If you would like I can try to get a contact for you so you
can ask them about their experience. As far as I know they are quite happy
except the two facts that they can not 100% synchronize the cameras and to
start all cameras and import the files is not very comfortable. Every camera
has to be started single. So you need about 6 people to do it...
Philipp
Simi - moments of motion
Philipp Russ
Simi Reality Motion Systems GmbH
85716 Unterschleissheim / Germany - Phone/Fax +49-89-321459-0/16 HRB
100170 - HR Muenchen - Geschäftsfuehrer/President Andreas Russ
mailto
hilipp@simi.com - http://www.simi.com/
------------------------------------------
Hi Paul
We have experience using the Casio EX-FH20 in field situations. Very easy
hand-held use, big backscreen for playback and good picture quality means
the camera is a hit with coaches and athletes. Downside heavy on batteries
so need to keep one set on charge ready to switch as required, and no
firewire connection so no computer control.
After comparing the Casio EX-F! with the Casio EX-FH20 we settled on the
latter because of the 20x Optical zoom (vs 12x for F!) . Cost approx 600
USD. We could find no other comparable high speed camera.
regards Barry
Dr Barry Wilson
Biomechanics Consultant
Institut Sukan Negara
Bukit Jalil, Sri Petaling
Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
HP +60 18 3544 890
NZ +64 21 0245 0630
--------------------------------------
Hi Paul,
We have some EX-F1s that we are very happy with. So far they have mainly
been used for student practicals and projects, for which they are well
suited. They are easy to use, and popular with the students. The high-speed
files are large but, given sufficient RAM, they have worked fine with our
analysis software (which is Quintic Biomechanics).
They've been used successfully at 300fps indoors - with spotlights - as well
as outdoors.
I think they'd also be ideal for coaching and consultancy. Well worth the
price!
Best wishes,
Sandy Willmott
University of Lincoln
--------------------------------------
Dear Paul,
I had the same question you did about a year ago and decided to purchase the
Casio EX-F1.
The camera is outstanding. I had worked with redlake cameras before and one
limitation was that they recorded only 1-2 sec videos.
With the Casio you can record at 300, 600, or 1200 Hz for as long as your
flash memory card can handle.
In other words, with a 32 GB flash memory you can record more than 30
minutes of high-speed video.
The 300 Hz video is full screen and in the higher resolutions the image
keeps the horizontal dimensions and shrink in the vertical direction.
The camera does it in the way so that for a certain storage space you can
record the same amount of time in each resolution.
Hope it helps, if you have any specific questions, please let me know,
Osmar.
---
Prof. Osmar Pinto Neto
Department of Health & Kinesiology
Texas A&M University - USA
and
University of Camilo Castelo Branco - Brazil
---------------------------------------
Hello Paul,
I have used three different high speed cameras including products from
Redlake, Fastec and a similar Casio Exilim camera. The Casio is great in
terms of convenience however if you plan on using it as a research tool the
major drawbacks I immediately think of are:
1) No synchronization/Triggering options. If you are collecting any other
metrics (analog signals, accelerometer, etc) you would have to synchronize
through visual means (No audio on high speed recordings so you can't use a
click). Also, you can not sync-lock between multiple cameras or strobes.
2) Resolution. At 1000fps a typical research camera will give you in the
range of 1+Megapixels. The Casio drops resolutions quickly at 512 × 384 (300
fps, 30-300 fps), 432 × 192 (600 fps), 336 × 96 (1200 fps). While this looks
nice on the tiny LCD on the camera, once you import it to a PC and scale it
the resolution limitations are obvious.
Interestingly enough, I find I reach for the Casio camera first when running
pilot experiments simply due to its form factor and ease of use. It has
proven very helpful as a quick and easy tool to aid in identifying a problem
that could later be captured using high end equipment.
Ryan Ouckama, PhD Student
McGill University, Canada
http://icehockeyscience.mcgill.ca
---------------------------------------
Dear Paul,
We are using the Casio Exilim Pro Ex-F1 in our lab.
The camera appears to be very suitable in field work, because capturing
300fps is possible in a regular gym without any additional lightning.
However, I work at the German Sport University in the Institute of Sport
Psychology and in general our research question are more on the "behavioral
level", so that the system works quite well for us. The movie format is
*.mov, that works perfect on our Mac systems. However, the resolution in
300fps is 512x384 pix, played back @ 30 hz. Attached you find a video so
that you can better estimate if the system is suitable for you. You have to
keep in mind that if you want to use the 600fps or even the 1200 fps
feature, that "normal" lightning will not be sufficient und you get only
half the spatial resolution at 600fps and only one fourth the resolution in
1200 fps. Movies are recorded to a SD-Card, whereas in 300fps, 3 second of
video need about 1 mbyte.
If you have more specific questions, feel free to contact me.
All the best,
Tom
---
Thomas Heinen, PhD
German Sport University Cologne
Institute of Psychology
--------------------------------------
Dear Paul
I have one of this camera. It works well. You have to know that the
resolution depends on frame rate. The format is quite good and is easily
load intoo matlab. Like with every high speed the light you use is very
important. I can send you some video i take with if you want
Best regards
Xavier Bonnet
--------------------------------------
Hi Paul, we purchased one about 3-4 months ago now and are really impressed
with the quality and features of the camera compared to high speed cameras
well above the price of the casio. As a standalone camera it's definitely
worth the money especially as it's very versatile being a still and video
camera and also HD at normal frame rates. As well as high speed video it
also captures still images at 60 frames per second. As with most high speed
cameras, lighting is the most important factor and as long as you are
outdoors, or well lit indoors I can't see any reason to buy a more expensive
camera unless you need direct connectivity or faster frame rates than
1200fps for video. If you also check out youtube and search for the casio
ex-f1 there are quite a few examples on there to see what the quality is
like. Pixmania.co.uk currently have it for sale at £525 inc VAT.
Regards
Stuart Dixon
Senior Technician
Sport and Exercise Sciences
University of Sunderland
---------------------------------------
Dear Paul,
Hello, I am Yuji OHGI, Keio University.
I have three CASIO high speed digital cameras. We are using these cameras
for the three dimensional analysis sometimes.
Important specifications of this camera are
1 Pixel resolution : for 300Hz, 512x384. it is not enough for the high
quality analysis
2 It has no function for the synchronization, so we usually use heavy LED
spot light via synchronizer when we want to use other equipment or other
high speed cameras.
3 There is a lack of instruction manual for the camera setting. In my
experience, high speed video mode is influenced exposure setting and ISO
setting and other settings. But there is no instruction on these things.
However, it is very cheap and easy to use for the students. I let my
workshop's student use this camera to learn about DLT method. Color image
makes us understand several markers.
Please download our experimental image video and please check the LED light
on the red mat.
http://web.sfc.keio.ac.jp/~ohgi/Tmp/HighJumpVideo.MOV
--------------------------------
Dear Paul,
I have been using the Casio F1 for the past couple of months for qualitative
feedback with elite rowers with really positive responses from both the
coaches and athletes. For rowing, I have only been using 300 fps but there
is sufficient light for good bright images even on murky mornings on the
water!! I have not used it for any indoor filming though. The newest
version of Silicon Coach can also take the files but I have not had a go
with this yet.
Kind regards,
Jennie Coker
AUT University, New Zealand
----------------------------------
Our lab has a Casio EX-F1 and I think it is an incredible tool. We do some
running and golf analyses and we use this camera to augment our 3D motion
analysis evaluations. When we purchased the camera about a year ago, I had
been searching for a high speed color video camera and had almost settled on
an entry level traditional high speed camera. I was very surprised when I
came across the Casio camera which had similar video specs for much less $.
I had some reservations since I assumed that "you get what you pay for", but
this camera has exceeded all my expectations. At the 300 fps speed, the
video images are perfectly adequate as far as resolution and image quality.
Our clients are very excited about being able to immediately see what they
are doing in "slow motion". We also work with some physical therapists that
see a lot of patients with running injuries and they have started using this
camera in their clinic on a daily basis to help diagnose improper running
mechanics. In addition to the exceptional high-speed video capabilities
that were the reason I purchased the camera, it also a number of other great
features that we use quite a bit:
* high-def video camera (60 fps)
* full resolution (6MP) burst mode at 60 fps for 1 sec.
* 12X optical zoom still camera
With all of these features, I think that this camera is an excellent value
and a good addition to our biomechanics lab.
Best regards,
bryan
____________________________
Bryan P. Conrad, Ph.D.
Senior Engineer
Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation University of Florida PO Box
112727 Gainesville, FL 32611
Phone: 352.273.7412
Fax: 352.273.7407
------------------------------------
Paul,
Casio also make the EXF20 which is even cheaper. Drop the resolution to 480
x 360 pixels and the movie frame-rate can be set to either 30 to 210 frames
per second. You will need to convert the video file to AVI. But it works
very well.
Rafael E. Bahamonde Ph.D., FACSM
Professor of Physical Education
School of PETM
901 West New York St.
Indianapolis, IN 46202
Phone: 317.274.2344
Fax: 317.278.2041
Email: rbahamon@iupui.edu
Webpage: http://mypage.iu.edu/~rbahamon/rafael.html
------------------------------------
Hi Paul,
I've got a EX-F1 and it is quite handy but I'm not sure I'd actually
recommend it for general biomechanics use. The 300 fps option is fairly low
resolution and it is clearly a still camera with video features. It just
isn't as easy to use as a dedicated video camera. For general work I'd
honestly recommend a 720p60 video camera - there are a few affordable ones
around. The Casio is 1080i60 which is much more troublesome to work with.
However it does have a neat 60 frame full resolution buffer (6 megapixel)
which is probably what you'd actually use for something like a golf swing.
You get 60 very sharp frames in a second and you can post trigger. I would
recommend the smooth slowmo on the Sony video cameras too. The resolution
and frame rate is broadly similar to the Casio and it is just much easier to
use. Sadly though the Sony cameras are also 1080i60 rather than 720p60 until
you spend a lot of money.
The real plus of all these cameras compared to dedicated high speed cameras
is that their light sensitivity is much higher which is really useful. What
will happen soon is that other manufacturers will start to offer higher
frame rates. I'm really looking for a Canon 5D with 120 fps. I'm sure it
will happen!
Cheers
Bill
--
Dr. Bill Sellers Email:
William.Sellers@manchester.ac.uk
Programme Director of Zoology Skype: wisellers
Faculty of Life Sciences Tel. 0161 2751719
The University of Manchester Fax: 0161 2753938
3.614 Stopford Building Mob: 0785 7655786
Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PT, UK http://www.animalsimulation.org
----------------------------
The important thing to keep in mind is that the resolution is reduced by a
factor of about 30 in going from the still image to the high-speed image (at
300 frames per second). Also, you need very good lighting to get good
images. I have a less expensive EXILIM camera (cost was about $300) which I
bought to document the motor development of my daughter. I would be cautious
about using the camera for research projects because of the low resolution
of the high-speed images, unless you are focusing on a small region of the
body.
Ted Milner
----------------------------
I personally have not used such a camera before, though our group looked
into purchasing one because of its portability and relatively inexpensive
price. We continue to use one of the top-end products from Phantom, though
it is extremely pricey. From what I've heard about the Casio EX-F1, at the
top frame rates they don't have great resolution, and you will need a lot of
light if you are planning to use them indoors. Sunlight should be fine for
outdoor use. Hope this info helps.
Dave Fortenbaugh, M.S.
Biomechanist
American Sports Medicine Institute
833 St. Vincent's Drive Suite 100
Birmingham, AL 35205
davef@asmi.org
(205) 918-2119 Office
Thanks to those who replied to my email regarding Casio’s range of
high-speed cameras. Please see below for a summary of emails that I
received.
Regards,
Paul Glazier
Sheffield Hallam University, UK
-------------------------------------------------
Dear Paul,
One of our customer is using 6 Casio cameras in his biomechanical lab with
our software. If you would like I can try to get a contact for you so you
can ask them about their experience. As far as I know they are quite happy
except the two facts that they can not 100% synchronize the cameras and to
start all cameras and import the files is not very comfortable. Every camera
has to be started single. So you need about 6 people to do it...
Philipp
Simi - moments of motion
Philipp Russ
Simi Reality Motion Systems GmbH
85716 Unterschleissheim / Germany - Phone/Fax +49-89-321459-0/16 HRB
100170 - HR Muenchen - Geschäftsfuehrer/President Andreas Russ
mailto
hilipp@simi.com - http://www.simi.com/ ------------------------------------------
Hi Paul
We have experience using the Casio EX-FH20 in field situations. Very easy
hand-held use, big backscreen for playback and good picture quality means
the camera is a hit with coaches and athletes. Downside heavy on batteries
so need to keep one set on charge ready to switch as required, and no
firewire connection so no computer control.
After comparing the Casio EX-F! with the Casio EX-FH20 we settled on the
latter because of the 20x Optical zoom (vs 12x for F!) . Cost approx 600
USD. We could find no other comparable high speed camera.
regards Barry
Dr Barry Wilson
Biomechanics Consultant
Institut Sukan Negara
Bukit Jalil, Sri Petaling
Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
HP +60 18 3544 890
NZ +64 21 0245 0630
--------------------------------------
Hi Paul,
We have some EX-F1s that we are very happy with. So far they have mainly
been used for student practicals and projects, for which they are well
suited. They are easy to use, and popular with the students. The high-speed
files are large but, given sufficient RAM, they have worked fine with our
analysis software (which is Quintic Biomechanics).
They've been used successfully at 300fps indoors - with spotlights - as well
as outdoors.
I think they'd also be ideal for coaching and consultancy. Well worth the
price!
Best wishes,
Sandy Willmott
University of Lincoln
--------------------------------------
Dear Paul,
I had the same question you did about a year ago and decided to purchase the
Casio EX-F1.
The camera is outstanding. I had worked with redlake cameras before and one
limitation was that they recorded only 1-2 sec videos.
With the Casio you can record at 300, 600, or 1200 Hz for as long as your
flash memory card can handle.
In other words, with a 32 GB flash memory you can record more than 30
minutes of high-speed video.
The 300 Hz video is full screen and in the higher resolutions the image
keeps the horizontal dimensions and shrink in the vertical direction.
The camera does it in the way so that for a certain storage space you can
record the same amount of time in each resolution.
Hope it helps, if you have any specific questions, please let me know,
Osmar.
---
Prof. Osmar Pinto Neto
Department of Health & Kinesiology
Texas A&M University - USA
and
University of Camilo Castelo Branco - Brazil
---------------------------------------
Hello Paul,
I have used three different high speed cameras including products from
Redlake, Fastec and a similar Casio Exilim camera. The Casio is great in
terms of convenience however if you plan on using it as a research tool the
major drawbacks I immediately think of are:
1) No synchronization/Triggering options. If you are collecting any other
metrics (analog signals, accelerometer, etc) you would have to synchronize
through visual means (No audio on high speed recordings so you can't use a
click). Also, you can not sync-lock between multiple cameras or strobes.
2) Resolution. At 1000fps a typical research camera will give you in the
range of 1+Megapixels. The Casio drops resolutions quickly at 512 × 384 (300
fps, 30-300 fps), 432 × 192 (600 fps), 336 × 96 (1200 fps). While this looks
nice on the tiny LCD on the camera, once you import it to a PC and scale it
the resolution limitations are obvious.
Interestingly enough, I find I reach for the Casio camera first when running
pilot experiments simply due to its form factor and ease of use. It has
proven very helpful as a quick and easy tool to aid in identifying a problem
that could later be captured using high end equipment.
Ryan Ouckama, PhD Student
McGill University, Canada
http://icehockeyscience.mcgill.ca
---------------------------------------
Dear Paul,
We are using the Casio Exilim Pro Ex-F1 in our lab.
The camera appears to be very suitable in field work, because capturing
300fps is possible in a regular gym without any additional lightning.
However, I work at the German Sport University in the Institute of Sport
Psychology and in general our research question are more on the "behavioral
level", so that the system works quite well for us. The movie format is
*.mov, that works perfect on our Mac systems. However, the resolution in
300fps is 512x384 pix, played back @ 30 hz. Attached you find a video so
that you can better estimate if the system is suitable for you. You have to
keep in mind that if you want to use the 600fps or even the 1200 fps
feature, that "normal" lightning will not be sufficient und you get only
half the spatial resolution at 600fps and only one fourth the resolution in
1200 fps. Movies are recorded to a SD-Card, whereas in 300fps, 3 second of
video need about 1 mbyte.
If you have more specific questions, feel free to contact me.
All the best,
Tom
---
Thomas Heinen, PhD
German Sport University Cologne
Institute of Psychology
--------------------------------------
Dear Paul
I have one of this camera. It works well. You have to know that the
resolution depends on frame rate. The format is quite good and is easily
load intoo matlab. Like with every high speed the light you use is very
important. I can send you some video i take with if you want
Best regards
Xavier Bonnet
--------------------------------------
Hi Paul, we purchased one about 3-4 months ago now and are really impressed
with the quality and features of the camera compared to high speed cameras
well above the price of the casio. As a standalone camera it's definitely
worth the money especially as it's very versatile being a still and video
camera and also HD at normal frame rates. As well as high speed video it
also captures still images at 60 frames per second. As with most high speed
cameras, lighting is the most important factor and as long as you are
outdoors, or well lit indoors I can't see any reason to buy a more expensive
camera unless you need direct connectivity or faster frame rates than
1200fps for video. If you also check out youtube and search for the casio
ex-f1 there are quite a few examples on there to see what the quality is
like. Pixmania.co.uk currently have it for sale at £525 inc VAT.
Regards
Stuart Dixon
Senior Technician
Sport and Exercise Sciences
University of Sunderland
---------------------------------------
Dear Paul,
Hello, I am Yuji OHGI, Keio University.
I have three CASIO high speed digital cameras. We are using these cameras
for the three dimensional analysis sometimes.
Important specifications of this camera are
1 Pixel resolution : for 300Hz, 512x384. it is not enough for the high
quality analysis
2 It has no function for the synchronization, so we usually use heavy LED
spot light via synchronizer when we want to use other equipment or other
high speed cameras.
3 There is a lack of instruction manual for the camera setting. In my
experience, high speed video mode is influenced exposure setting and ISO
setting and other settings. But there is no instruction on these things.
However, it is very cheap and easy to use for the students. I let my
workshop's student use this camera to learn about DLT method. Color image
makes us understand several markers.
Please download our experimental image video and please check the LED light
on the red mat.
http://web.sfc.keio.ac.jp/~ohgi/Tmp/HighJumpVideo.MOV
--------------------------------
Dear Paul,
I have been using the Casio F1 for the past couple of months for qualitative
feedback with elite rowers with really positive responses from both the
coaches and athletes. For rowing, I have only been using 300 fps but there
is sufficient light for good bright images even on murky mornings on the
water!! I have not used it for any indoor filming though. The newest
version of Silicon Coach can also take the files but I have not had a go
with this yet.
Kind regards,
Jennie Coker
AUT University, New Zealand
----------------------------------
Our lab has a Casio EX-F1 and I think it is an incredible tool. We do some
running and golf analyses and we use this camera to augment our 3D motion
analysis evaluations. When we purchased the camera about a year ago, I had
been searching for a high speed color video camera and had almost settled on
an entry level traditional high speed camera. I was very surprised when I
came across the Casio camera which had similar video specs for much less $.
I had some reservations since I assumed that "you get what you pay for", but
this camera has exceeded all my expectations. At the 300 fps speed, the
video images are perfectly adequate as far as resolution and image quality.
Our clients are very excited about being able to immediately see what they
are doing in "slow motion". We also work with some physical therapists that
see a lot of patients with running injuries and they have started using this
camera in their clinic on a daily basis to help diagnose improper running
mechanics. In addition to the exceptional high-speed video capabilities
that were the reason I purchased the camera, it also a number of other great
features that we use quite a bit:
* high-def video camera (60 fps)
* full resolution (6MP) burst mode at 60 fps for 1 sec.
* 12X optical zoom still camera
With all of these features, I think that this camera is an excellent value
and a good addition to our biomechanics lab.
Best regards,
bryan
____________________________
Bryan P. Conrad, Ph.D.
Senior Engineer
Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation University of Florida PO Box
112727 Gainesville, FL 32611
Phone: 352.273.7412
Fax: 352.273.7407
------------------------------------
Paul,
Casio also make the EXF20 which is even cheaper. Drop the resolution to 480
x 360 pixels and the movie frame-rate can be set to either 30 to 210 frames
per second. You will need to convert the video file to AVI. But it works
very well.
Rafael E. Bahamonde Ph.D., FACSM
Professor of Physical Education
School of PETM
901 West New York St.
Indianapolis, IN 46202
Phone: 317.274.2344
Fax: 317.278.2041
Email: rbahamon@iupui.edu
Webpage: http://mypage.iu.edu/~rbahamon/rafael.html
------------------------------------
Hi Paul,
I've got a EX-F1 and it is quite handy but I'm not sure I'd actually
recommend it for general biomechanics use. The 300 fps option is fairly low
resolution and it is clearly a still camera with video features. It just
isn't as easy to use as a dedicated video camera. For general work I'd
honestly recommend a 720p60 video camera - there are a few affordable ones
around. The Casio is 1080i60 which is much more troublesome to work with.
However it does have a neat 60 frame full resolution buffer (6 megapixel)
which is probably what you'd actually use for something like a golf swing.
You get 60 very sharp frames in a second and you can post trigger. I would
recommend the smooth slowmo on the Sony video cameras too. The resolution
and frame rate is broadly similar to the Casio and it is just much easier to
use. Sadly though the Sony cameras are also 1080i60 rather than 720p60 until
you spend a lot of money.
The real plus of all these cameras compared to dedicated high speed cameras
is that their light sensitivity is much higher which is really useful. What
will happen soon is that other manufacturers will start to offer higher
frame rates. I'm really looking for a Canon 5D with 120 fps. I'm sure it
will happen!
Cheers
Bill
--
Dr. Bill Sellers Email:
William.Sellers@manchester.ac.uk
Programme Director of Zoology Skype: wisellers
Faculty of Life Sciences Tel. 0161 2751719
The University of Manchester Fax: 0161 2753938
3.614 Stopford Building Mob: 0785 7655786
Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PT, UK http://www.animalsimulation.org
----------------------------
The important thing to keep in mind is that the resolution is reduced by a
factor of about 30 in going from the still image to the high-speed image (at
300 frames per second). Also, you need very good lighting to get good
images. I have a less expensive EXILIM camera (cost was about $300) which I
bought to document the motor development of my daughter. I would be cautious
about using the camera for research projects because of the low resolution
of the high-speed images, unless you are focusing on a small region of the
body.
Ted Milner
----------------------------
I personally have not used such a camera before, though our group looked
into purchasing one because of its portability and relatively inexpensive
price. We continue to use one of the top-end products from Phantom, though
it is extremely pricey. From what I've heard about the Casio EX-F1, at the
top frame rates they don't have great resolution, and you will need a lot of
light if you are planning to use them indoors. Sunlight should be fine for
outdoor use. Hope this info helps.
Dave Fortenbaugh, M.S.
Biomechanist
American Sports Medicine Institute
833 St. Vincent's Drive Suite 100
Birmingham, AL 35205
davef@asmi.org
(205) 918-2119 Office