Casio's High Speed Digital Camera Fun

A year or two ago Casio released a very interesting digital still camera with some amazing video capabilities. The Casio Exilim FH-20 does a very nice job of shooting high-speed video in the range of 200 to 400 frames per second. (It can shoot higher speeds, too, but not in any visually appealing way.) This camera sells for about $260 (after you add it to the shopping cart at this online vendor's site.)

Casio has since come out with a smaller, less expensive version of the FH-20, the Exilim EX-FC100, that has most of the same features as the FH-20. Marius Diethelm Kienle, from Heimsheim, Germany, decided to show what the FC100 camera can do. A video he posted to YouTube shows the camera at its best – and also shows Marius's considerable gymnastic abilities. You probably don't want to risk doing that double trampoline trick at home, but it's sure fun to watch it on YouTube.

Equally impressive is this video from three very talented fellows in the United Kingdom.

In this YouTube video you can watch Nathan Gallagher, Asher Rudolph, and Jay Baker doing flips in 30-210fps slow motion. I was interested to note that the FH-20 has another younger sibling that costs about $100 less, has many of the same features, and is very small and slim – maybe too small and slim. The Casio Exilim EX-FS10 sells for about $130 on Amazon.com , but has received some mixed reviews over there. For my money, I'll probably be buying the Casio Exilim FH-20 because I like using a camera that I can hold comfortably in my hands. A dropped digital camera quickly becomes a broken digital camera.

Here is Casio's promo video for the FS-10 (and the similar FC100) cameras.

Isn't it interesting that Casio's customers do a much better job showcasing their cameras than the company does itself? If I were Casio, I'd feature the user-created videos noted above on the Casio Web site – and send suitable monetary recognition to the people who created them.

Phil Shapiro

The blogger is an educator and technology commentator in the Washington DC-area. He can be reached at philshapiroblogger@gmail.com and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/philshapiro

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