Freefly Wave Highspeed Camera 2TB SSD

Freefly Wave Camera 2Tb SSD High Speed

The company is better known for its drones and gimbals, but this is the first time that the company has produced a camera. Such an undertaking is not one to be sniffed at, but rather than just produce yet another cinema camera it has decided to give us a very specialist tool. An ultra high speed slow motion camera that can record a 17:9 4K image in compressed RAW at up to 422fps, with much higher frame rates available in other aspect ratios and resolutions. This peaks at an absolutely astounding 9259fps in a 16:1 aspect ratio in 2K width or up to 3275 at 4K width.

Form factor

In looks the camera appears much like a block milled mirrorless style form factor with very simplistic controls. Not surprisingly the camera is small and light enough to fly on Freefly's drones. The sensor is a S35 sized affair, an ams CMV12000 with a pixel pitch of 5.5μm x 5.5μm and a native resolution of 4096x3072 and a a global shutter. Native ISO is rated at 250.

In order to give maximum lens choice the company has opted for a Sony E-Mount. While the body of the camera has 1/4” mounting points on the top and bottom with two M3 fixtures on each side of the device.

There’s an HDMI output at 1080p for external monitoring, a DC input, 6-pin GPIO, and a USB-C port. It’s not clear if the latter allows for external SSDs or not, but given the data rate requirements for many of the frame rates this seems unlikely. There’s also WiFi 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth v4.2.

Freefly Wave summary

Whilst we know of the dangers of new camera manufacturers promising the earth and then disappearing off the face of the planet, Freefly Systems is an established company that is used to dealing with sophisticated drone control systems and gimbals. The Alta drones for example are very highly respected bits of kit.

OVERVIEW

Freefly 950-00104 (95000104) Wave High Speed Camera with 1TB SSD Card. PLEASE NOTE: COMES WITH US PLUG BATTERY CHARGER (BUT CAPABLE OF 110/220V).
Workflow
Freefly designed Wave to be the most efficient high speed camera. It’s small, light, and insanely fast.

Locking E Mount

Ultra lightweight locking E mount so you can adapt to anything.

Resolution & Speed

Wave processes up to 3,774,873,600 pixels per second continuously using a lightweight 5:1 compression.
It sets a new level of efficient imaging, consuming less than 5nJ/px, or 5mW/(Mpx/s).

Global Shutter

Say goodbye to rolling shutter artifacts. Wave uses a global shutter to capture the world as accurately as possible.

Scientific Applications - Wave can go even faster
By selecting a smaller frame size, Wave can shoot at up to 9,259fps for scientific applications. Users can also dial in exact frame rates or use.

INCLUDED IN BOX

1x Wave Camera (2TB SSD)
1x Battery Charger (US plug but capable of 110/220V)
1x USB A-C cable
1x 3.0mm hex drive (straight tip)
1x Travel Case