High frame-rate webcams?

Si_CreweSi_Crewe Posts: 40,202
Forum Member
Anybody know if there are any webcams that offer insanely high frame-rates, over 1,000 fps or more?

I'm looking for something to record fast events and then play them back in super slow-motion.
I've had a quick look and I know I can buy a compact camera that offers 1,000 fps recording but they're a couple of hundred quid, at least, and I was just wondering if there's a cheaper option available.

Picture quality doesn't have to be great. Even 240 x 180 resolution (or whatever) would be okay.
I just need to be able to see whether something is happening or not.

Comments

  • flagpoleflagpole Posts: 44,641
    Forum Member
    even at 240x180 that is a data rate of 123MB/s by my calculation. more than twice the theoretical maximum of USB 2.

    you would need to encode it on the fly. this does not sound like something that would be cheap.
  • Si_CreweSi_Crewe Posts: 40,202
    Forum Member
    flagpole wrote: »
    even at 240x180 that is a data rate of 123MB/s by my calculation. more than twice the theoretical maximum of USB 2.

    Uhuh,

    That did occur to me but I was just wondering if, perhaps, somebody might have invented a webcam with onboard RAM or summat so it could buffer the video.

    Kinda like how you can get those "novelty" USB microscopes and endoscopes, it just occured to me that somebody might've invented a cheapo "slow motion" webcam of some kind.

    What I'm actually doing is trying to check whether a valve is bouncing as it closes under spring-tension.
    I've actually got a partial result by recording the sound and analysing it using Audacity, which shows a couple of distinct "clonks" as the valve seems to be bouncing.
    It'd be nice to find something that could actually prove it though.
  • GetFrodoGetFrodo Posts: 1,805
    Forum Member
    ✭✭✭
    Forget webcams, look at normal cameras. See if something here floats your boat.
  • nvingonvingo Posts: 8,619
    Forum Member
    You want an analogue TUBE video camera - No buffer memory.
    Align it correctly (axis of valve movement parallel to the long edge of the frame) and illuminate the subject.
    It scans at 50 hz 312½ (25x625) lines.
    That's around 15KHz.
    What you will see is instead of a full-frame image at that rate, is a single line or, in a freeze-frame at the point of action, one or more lines where the subject does't line up vertically with its rest positions.

    Just a suggestion.
  • Si_CreweSi_Crewe Posts: 40,202
    Forum Member
    GetFrodo wrote: »
    Forget webcams, look at normal cameras. See if something here floats your boat.

    Good article, thanks.

    I have looked at regular digicams for this but I was just wondering if there might be some kind of "novelty" item around that could do the job without spending a lot of cash.

    Just seemed like the sort of thing that a company might produce so people could monkey around making slow-mo video clips etc.

    Maybe the missus will get a new digicam for her next birthday or summat? :o
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