Dr. Adrian Smith, an Assistant Professor at North Carolina State, has shared an incredible slow-motion video on his YouTube channel Ant Lab that showcases various insects taking off for flight at 3,200 frames per second (fps) with a Phantom Miro LC321s.
To keep the video interesting, Smith opted to record ‘the weird stuff.’ In other words, rather than bees, house flies and more common insects, Smith chose less-photographed bugs. Specifically, the video covers (in order): plume moth, firefly, painted lichen moth, leafroller moth, rosy maple moth, common stonefly, mayflies, fishflies, aphid, scorpionfly and lacewing.
In addition to the incredible visuals throughout the eight-and-a-half minute video, Smith also shares facts about insect flight and discusses the different flying mechanisms different insects use. Smith also shared the following tweet showing off what gear he used to capture this video.
If you're curious here's 100% of the gear I used to film this: 1-phantom miro LC321s; 2- @laowa_lens 60mm 2:1; 3-cheap LED (background light); 4-roscolux #116 (background); 5-focusing rack; 6-cup & acrylic platform; 7-expensive & super bright LED (subject light); 8-magic arm https://t.co/1FqPvpeoMKpic.twitter.com/gRNrYxI8od
So video start with total evolutionist bs pretending to know how everything started before 300 millions of years. Then he is trying to film at high speed perfectly designed and self replicating insects. Because absolutely have no idea how they operate. And with great hope to steal some ideas....... And we are not able to make 1/1000 of this tech used in this insects but we are absolutely sure what exactly happened before 300 millions of years......... Wait we are not able to replicate simplest organism from scratch - single cell bacteria!!!! This is called pseudo-voodoo-science, produced by scientist-aka-shamans. And this is supposed to be exact sciences. Even the ancient philosophers did not speak such phantasmagoria. It is not shameful to say I do not understand but is pure shame and lie when you try to make up facts when in reality you have no idea!
Very nice. That beetle moving all its legs aside to make room for 180 degrees wing flaps. And weak flyers, as they are called, have high technical skills too!
what stops a normal camera that can do 4k/30 from recording at a lower/faster resolution/rate? E.g.: 1920x1080 @ 60, 1280x720 @ 120, or 640x480 @ 240. I've had cheap cameras that could do this, so why don't expensive ones? The Nikon AW1 could do 1200fps. I know the resolution wouldn't be useful for splicing into movie unnoticed, but that's not the only use of high speed video.
Many cameras support 1920x1080 @ 120. For extreme framerates, RAM is a main limiter, since we don't have any media that can handle 4GB/s writes. The LC321S has 12GB of RAM to buffer 4000 HD frames. For comparison, the 24MP Sony A7 III has a ~30 frame RAW buffer, which is about 1.5GB.
You also need the sensor to support ultra-high framerates, which requires some electrical optimization that's generally much easier with a low-resolution sensor (2MP) than a super high-resolution one, even if an oversampled 4K60 video requires a similar number of pixels read per second as a 1000 FPS HD video.
Expensive cameras _could_ have more RAM and have their sensors tweaked for higher framerates, but it's a pretty niche application-- and I doubt you could get to such extreme framerates without sacrificing much more important things like max resolution, minimum ISO, and color depth. Most people are happier to have a camera that's $100 cheaper than one that has 8GB more RAM!
I feel like the majority of cameras have around those specs these days. Its the 480fps and faster that are less achievable.
Largely has to do with sensor size and readout speeds I think? Like if you're normally capable of capturing 100mbps 24fps 4k, once you slow that down to 240fps 1080 your max bitrate is 10mbps (once slowed down) which might not look great. Phones and action cameras with their tiny sensors have a way easier time getting those framerates. Like an RX100 or Galaxy S9 offering pretty usable 960fps footage.
There are physics limitations related to the propagation of electrical signals across a large sensor that present challenges with larger sensors. Commonly discussed relative to the speed of light, and believe it or not the speed of light is a factor and not negligible when it comes to signals traveling across a 36mm x 24mm sensor. A cell phone sensor is obviously much smaller and therefore easy to get the signals off of it faster. This is also the basis for why the readout is such a challenge on full frame sensors.
Capturing Motion: My Life in High-Speed Nature Photography by Stephen Dalton- is a fabulous book if anyone is interested in a photographer who pioneered high speed photography with various subjects like this... "In 2015 the Society of German Wildlife Photographers (GDT) awarded Dalton the Fritz Steiniger Prize. The citation notes that "The results of his experiments in high-speed flash photography and his subsequent publications were landmark events in the world of photography and caused a great stir worldwide" and that "his work of fascinating intensity and striking beauty has set visual and artistic standards that are still valid today" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Dalton_(photographer)
S. Dalton inspired me to take up this type of photography.
The slo-mo guys have larger viewers (in the millions) base so they make way more money on videos. Their equipments are more expensive.
But the point is not bragging about equipment tech. This guy did a good study on the insects, what I got is most insects do a jump before flapping their wings. Plus they are ugly alien-looking creatures (which macro photography can show) Slo-mo guys do other cool stuff too.
But, the headline did confuse me for a minute. When I saw that it said, "...insects taking flight at 3,200fps", my first thought, since we were talking about insects in flight, was that the 3,200fps must have been referring to a speed of 3,200 feet per second.
Then I remembered that a speed of 3,200 feet per second is the speed of a rifle bullet, and just over 2,100 miles per hour. Some insects are fast, but they're not that fast.
@MikeRan I read it at flaps per second too, and had to dig in to see that even the fastest does not get more than just above 1000flaps per second (Midge) https://www.si.edu/spotlight/buginfo/insect-flight
I thought the same thing and was in awe that an insect could take off that fast and had to see this . Then when the video starts you realize what the title is trying to say .
Wow! This is amazing. I wondering where you can rent these rigs (or borrow it from a research lab). $50K camera is definitely not something armature can justify buying. I doubt many people here have the patience to do this kind of work, given the amount of time spent arguing about camera gears.
I saw that link too. A couple of weeks rental can buy a nice FF camera already. The video is not that long, but I dare not ask how much time it took to produce it. Feel embarrassed looking at brick photos and argue about various photo gears while Ms. Smith and people at BCC or National Geographic produce all these amazing videos.
Awesome videos. maybe he used the new Canon R5. 8k@30fps means 36MP/s, means 4k@120, means 2k@480, means 1k@1920fps... so 614*345 would be the resolution für 3200fps ;)
VPN? To use a VPN you need a knot on the other end. Now, you can get some proxies with questionable owners. But a VPN for y youtube videos is quite oversized for most people.
Not sure what you mean, "knot". Been using a VPN for this (and other) specific purposes for years with no issue. Just do a bit of research for a good one. Hope this helps.
@vscd Get yourself on a service like Private Internet Access or similar. They typically cost 10 euros a month and give you access to multiple servers in many countries. I use it all the time to get around silly drm politics.
(no affiliation with PIA just a satisfied customer).
@Garyster A vpn needs a computer on the other end to establish that connection. This "knot" was meant. As others wrote, you can pay for this or use free ones... Both have advantages and disadvantages.
@Roland Thanks for that, this is actually very interesting. So perhaps if OP got on his dog sled and moved a few hundred miles over to a different territory he might be able to play the video :-)
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