[Dabhand16]

Casio Computer Co. Ltd. has developed a digital still camera that can shoot at a rate of 60 photos per second at full resolution.

A prototype of the camera will be unveiled later Friday at the IFA show in Berlin. It has a large 12X optical zoom lens behind which sits a 6.6-megapixel image sensor. In burst shooting mode it can take up to 35 images at the 60 frame per second rate-- the equivalent of just over half a second of action. That's much faster than is possible with competing digital still cameras.

There's also a high-speed shooting mode that manages as many as 300 images per second, but not at full resolution. The images are restricted to VGA quality (640 pixels by 480 pixels) and are recorded not as individual JPEG files but as a Motion JPEG movie file. Each frame can be seen by pausing the movie and advancing frame-by-frame.

Casio will also build in a pre-shot function that lets the camera capture images and buffer them before the shutter button is actually pressed. That means you'll still be able to capture action even if you're a little slow at pushing the shutter button. When the button is pressed, the camera records the images taken from that moment and onwards, and also those captured in the viewfinder immediately beforehand. The amount of buffering has yet to be decided.

Such high-speed photography is usually restricted to high-priced specialist cameras. The price and launch date of Casio's new camera has not yet been decided.

Other features include a 2.8-inch rear monitor and a viewfinder. The prototype measures 127.5 millimeters by 79.5 mm by 130 mm ad weighs about 650 grams.

Yahoo Feed

[JMitchell]

Nice

[brian wright22]

Sounds like a movie camera to me. lovelly for fast moving subjects I expect it will record dolby 5.1 sound as well!Thats the great thing about technology it never stands still. With a body size the same as todays DSLR, what a fantastic engineering achievement.
Brian

[JMitchell]

but Brian, the thing about this is that it can record at 60fps in full res, which is quite a feat in itself, and perfect for many types of adventurous new photography, not just 'point and shoot like a movie'

[brian wright22]

Originally Posted by JMitchell

but Brian, the thing about this is that it can record at 60fps in full res, which is quite a feat in itself, and perfect for many types of adventurous new photography, not just 'point and shoot like a movie'

Thanks for that John, you have prompted me to read the spec again and I missed the very point you highlighted.
Brian.

[_MB_]

I can see this being very useful actually. I do a lot of photomicrography and often struggled to get a given cell fully in focus - if this can autofocus whilst focus on a microscope was being adjusted it would be very useful to get sharpness all the way through for composite images.