Vision Research have announced a new addition to their Phantom Flex 4K range of cameras. The Phantom Flex 4K GS features the addition of a switchable global shutter to eliminate rolling shutter artefacts from high speed footage. The camera is primarily aimed at scientific and industrial applications where motion artefacts would mean a standard Phantom Flex 4K with a rolling shutter wouldn’t be appropriate to use.
Having said that it’s a very rugged camera, able to be used in temperatures ranging from -20° to +50°. It also features a flexible lens mount that can be adapted between the standard Nikon F/G, PL and Canon EOS.
The Flex 4K GS has a 9.4MP Super35 sensor that’s capable of recording up to 1,000fps in 4K. Or if you’re happy with 2K output you can capture up to 1900fps. There are some penalties to dynamic range in the Global Shutter mode, especially if you want to shoot in colour: the base ISO in colour for the Global Shutter is 640 as compared to 320 in Rolling Shutter mode.
There’s also a monochrome mode that’s substantially more light sensitive. Base ISO for Global Shutter in monochrome mode is 5000, and in Rolling Shutter mode it’s 2000.
The camera accepts mortgage-worthy Cinemag media and records in either CineRaw or ProRes formats. If you’re using 2TB media Vision Research claim you’ll get ‘several hours’ of recording time when shooting in ProRes. That’s a lot of things happening very slowly.
No details on price or availability just yet, but considering the regular Phantom Flex 4K hovers around the $100K US mark, this won’t be an impulse buy. Perhaps one to rent first…
