Frequently Asked Questions

If you have not shot slow motion 4K footage before, you will likely have a lot of questions about lighting and workflows.

Please get in touch or take a look at some of the more common questions.

 

Is the phantom available for rent outside of Melbourne?

Yes. Our Phantom VEO 4K is available to travel anywhere within Australia.

Is an experienced operator also required?

The Phantom camera is not a typical film camera and operates differently to a standard film camera. Due to it’s specialist nature and data management requirements, an experienced cinematographer / operator will accompany the camera to your production to keep things running smoothly. If you already have a preferred experienced Phantom camera operator in your crew that is known to us we’ll be happy for them to operate the camera on your behalf.

Why is the workflow different when shooting on a Phantom camera?

Phantom cameras are unconventional in that you will typically trigger (roll record) the camera immediately on or after the action – as the camera can always be caching footage before the trigger is pressed. The recording fills up all (or a portion) of the 72GB internal RAM of the camera. The operator marks the in and out points on the recording in the RAM to determine how much of the recorded clip you wish to keep. The camera’s RAM (72GB) can be customised to fill up on one shot, or be segmented to allow many shots before data offload is required.

For example, one 5.5sec take shooting 1,000fps @ 4K will fill up the entire 72GB internal RAM. That’s 3min 40sec of realtime playback. The operator can choose to ingest the whole clip onto SSD over approx 3min, or can select IN and OUT points around the desired action to only copy the portion of the shot required, and thus speed up ingest time before the next shot.

Can the Phantom record new shots whilst downloading existing footage? 

Yes, our workflow can minimise waiting for data downloading and allows the camera to record new shots whilst the old ones are still being backed up to SSD.

What format does the camera shoot in?

The Phantom 4K VEO records a 12bit RAW CINE format. Playback is immediately available in-camera or once ingested off the camera, playback is native in DaVinci Resolve and can be transcoded there to PRORES or a codec of your choice for editing.

What hi-speed frame rates can the phantom shoot?

• (4096 x 2160) 4K @ 1,000fps
• (2048 x 1080) 2K @ 1,977fps.
• The Phantom can achieve up to 50,000 fps as you decrease resolution.

What size is the sensor?

Slightly larger than a Super 35mm sensor (27.6mm x 15.6mm)

Does the kit come with a monitor or viewfinder?

Yes, we provide a 5″ Atomos Shinobi SDI monitor with mini magic arm clamped to the camera body. For additional monitoring the Phantom 4K VEO camera has 2x BNC ports and 1x HDMI port.

How much light do I need when shooting high speed footage?

Every project is different, so please feel free to chat to us about your needs. As a general rule, every time you double your frame rate it is equivalent to closing down your lens one stop and thus you require twice as much light to expose your shot. Thus to light for 1,000fps, you need approx a multiple of 5.25 times the amount of light you would to light the same shot at 25fps. So a very loose guide, an overcast day will just give you enough exposure to shoot 1,000fps outdoors at 1250iso, T2.8 and 180 degree shutter.

Is lighting flicker a potential issue when capturing slow motion footage?

Yes. And we only work with lighting gaffers who have tried and tested their lighting equipment on previous slow motion shoots. Old and / or faulty lights and ballasts will potentially cause flicker in slow motion play back and this cannot be removed from the footage without expensive post production work. If unsure, we are happy to test your lighting fixtures with our Phantom 4k camera prior to your shoot.

What lens mount does the Phantom use?

PL, EF mount or F-mount for manual lens only.

When I hire the phantom 4k VEO from Robotface does it come with a lens?

Typically no, unless you ask for a lens specifically, as every project has different requirements and may already be using an existing set of lens amongst other cameras.

However we do have a set of Cooke s4 (T2.8) primes (18mm, 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 75mm, 100mm) and a Canon Cinezoom (17-120mm T2.95 PL), and would be happy to include these in your quote.

Does the phantom come with a data kit?

Yes it does if fast data offload is required (which is most cases). The camera is connected to the data station with a 20m cable loom (contains power, video links, 10G ethernet).

The camera’s lightning-fast 10 gbps ethernet connection to a PC or MacBook (approx 300-600MB/sec) allows our software to offload 72GB of internally cached media in just under 2-3 minutes to our lightning fast SSD drives. Alternatively if connecting to a PC or MacBook is not practical we can provide you with CFast v2 cards to have footage offload internally from the RAM, though this is a slower data transfer.

Is the camera insured?

Yes insurance is included in the quoted rate. However in the case of an insurance claim arising from loss, damage or theft of the kit, the production will be invoiced an insurance excess of $1,400.