Text from an unposted comment for this article (hispeedcams.com) I originally wrote in March 2017 (spam filter denied me posting it), and now found again:
(Posting here just in case anyone is interested)
If all of that is actually true, then some professional cameras such as HC-X1 and HC-X1000E with 2160p@60fps video recording and HFR cameras such as Sony's new RX10 bridge camera/RX100 compact camera and also the new GH5 (1080p@180fps) are about to face huge competition.
Smartphones are not fully functional cameras (despite the LG V series have an extreme range of camera functionality, such as the independent setting of bitrate, framerate and resolution, and all manual capture controls are independent from each other.), but they combine many features into one portable device, that you always carry with you, and is equipped with features you could always need. Maybe the most practical device ever. Torch, camera, camcorder, internet and many other features dependent from the device, even sensor measurements are included into that device. The processing performance can be used in such a versatile way. For normal user interface functionality, devices from 2015 already had such a high processing power, that improvements were barely needed to boost notably, which is maybe not more than a few milleseconds of difference. But for huge calculations such as video recordings, virtual reality and loading speed of huge application, or maybe multimedia connversion can always be improved. But ever thought, that the smartphone is a wirelessly chargeable torch with internet access and built-in speakers, camera and the ability to contact so many people, even with video call, and also a barometer, that you carry into your pocket, which is an alarm-clock and a clock itself at the same time? Ah, yes, it can be used as MicroSD-card reader, despite of bulky MTP. What else? Sound recorder. You can make voice notes with it. All of this inside of the shower, if the device is protected against penetrating water. What else? Cinema. Pocket cinema, one that can be used to measure your pulse, while watching an exciting movie. Ever thought about that?
The GH5 with it's 1080p@180fps, which is not limited by a specific recording time, has really impressed me. 60Fps already looks very smooth, but 120fps looks even more realistic and gives you more room for video editing, especially when slowing down, you have twice as much framerate to spare. Or you watch it at full refresh rate on a gaming computer screen or high refresh rate television monitor.
The rumored 2160p@120fps equals 995328000 pixels per second. But I wonder, why 1080p at even 240fps has not been reached yet for time-limitless (until overheating, space full or maximum allowed filesize, or battery empty, one condition reached) video recording, because that equals 2160p at 60fps, which can easily be done by the image sensors, is already possible on some camcorders (HC-X series from Panasonic) and cameras (GH5). The Galaxy Note 3 even reached 2160p@30fps and 1080p@60fps and even 720p@120fps¹ with just a fraction of the processing power from the Galaxy S7, which did not improve the framerate so far, only with 720p at 240fps and real-time with sound encoding. But some other devices, such as the OnePlus 3 T are still stuck at 120fps.
But as the administrator of HiSpeedCams.com suggests, the limitation of why lower resolutions with proportionally increased framerates are harder to record at, despite of the same data rate, could be caused by the limitation of image sensor framing. This poses the question, why the S7 actually shoots at 240fps with 720p, but not anything above 60fps at 1080p. 1080p and 1440p do now finally support VdiS (digital video stabilization boost, adds up to optical stabilizer), which will significantly increase the required CPU performance, and even for the image sensor, if the recording area changes. (maybe, it shoots at 1620p but crops out moved 1440p, who knows?) As far as I know, the same image sensor used in the newest camcorders and smartphones does actually support recording at higher framerates, even up to 960fps. But this high framerate can only be maintained temporarily, until the stacked buffer gets filled up. But another framerate limitation is posed by the memory transferral bandwidth. That are the connections between image sensor and the device's processors.
That's what limited the Huawei Mate 7's and iPhone 6s's front camera to 720p video recording, which is not even a quarter of the image sensor resolution. The maximum possible widescreen video would be exactly 1458p, if not 1440p, because some five megapixel sensors actually have 2592×1944 The Galaxy Note 4 and newer Galaxy phones do a good job there: full 1440p video recording at thirty frames per second on the front camera. The HC-X1 and HC-X1000e are capable of recording 1080p at 60fps. But because they can even record 2160p at 60fps, which the GH5 does while shooting 1080p at 180fps, which is a good balance between 120fps and 240fps, I am sure, that the both mentioned Panasonic camcorders are actually capable of recording at a framerate, which isn't any lower than 120fps at 1080p, and at least 240fps at 720p, and maybe even 960fps at WVGA or D1 or W360p. For a camcorder capturing 2160p at 60fps, a limitation of 60fps at 1080p is ridicolously low, (which is) far below the hardware capabilities, that these devices preserve.
The page has an exact viewing count of 1920, by the time I wrote this text. Sounds like a co-incidence.
By the way, I already imagined, how the processor of a professional camcorder can be used to boost a slow computer. This idea jumped into my mind a few years ago, because it is also possible with Linux computers. So why not with a powerful camcorder processor?
Edit: Converting HTML <b></b> and <i></i> tags into markdown.
(post is archived)