Porta and the Birds (at 300 frames/second)

Slow-motion movies of animals reveal previously unavailable information about the complexity and dynamics of motion that we have seen only in fast-paced real time. High-speed cameras (now relatively inexpensive) provide all sorts of fresh and interesting slow-motion views of sports, dogs, cats, birds, dance, water–as well as the usual explosions, bullets through apples, and breaking eggs.

Andrei Severny and I made this video of animals in slow motion with a new Casio Exlim EX-F1, which provides video at 300, 600, and 1200 fps (frames per second). We first took movies of Porta, the dog, at 300 fps, which means that motion is slowed tenfold.

Later that afternoon, we did bird movies also at 300 fps. In the video, the birds move rather fast at 1/10 speed! About 32 minutes of video were edited down in FinalCut to 2:26. A special effect in the second segment was created in the edit.

This video is also available on YouTube and Vimeo

Spatial resolution per frame decreases as temporal resolution increases, as shown by the specs for the EX-F1:

Hi-Speed Movies (HS):
512 x 384 (300 fps, 30-300 fps)
432 x 192 (600 fps)
336 x 96 (1200 fps)

It would be wonderful to see Max Diving in slow motion as well as in the sequential stills in Beautiful Evidence