At the Bench: Introducing the Phantom VEO

A few years ago, one of our Phantom customers asked us to solve a problem: how could handheld sports shooters using a Phantom v640, which lacked any on-board controls, perform basic functions without being tethered to a computer, which was the only existing way to control the camera at the time? Figuring that it should be possible to use a micro-controller to communicate with the camera to accomplish this goal, I started working on a solution in my spare time. Using a development board wired to the camera with some buttons and some custom code, the result was a box that could be velcroed to the side of the camera. It could perform black balance and white balance, as well as switch to some frame rate and shutter presets. The device worked pretty well and was used to shoot a number of sporting events, prompting clients to start asking for "Jesse's Box."

In this Tech Talk, AbelCine's Moe Shore, Director of Advanced Imaging, discusses the history of Phantom cameras, as well as what's new for 2016 in terms of recording options.

The Phantom Flex4K camera has been out in the world since the beginning of this year and workflow support for the files created by the camera has been steadily increasing. Some significant transfer speed records are being achieved and breakthroughs in workflow support from 3rd party companies are now being implemented.