This Homebrew High Speed Camera is Headed to Kickstarter Soon

Affordable, high-quality high speed cameras a tough to come by. But that might soon change, thanks to Kickstarter and years of work by one diligent engineer.

The last homebrew high speed camera created by a couple of engineers and funded through Kickstarter was the edgertronic, but even that “affordable” option still cost you $5,000 on the low end. In contrast, engineer David Kronstein says his “Chronos 1.4” will start at just $2,500.

He demoed the camera and showed off the components of his production-ready prototype in a video uploaded to YouTube this week. The close look at the components is great if you’re a DIY/engineering nerd, but the part we were interested in was the demo footage at the end. Shots like this:

And this:

Show how powerful the camera Kronstein, who goes by tesla500 online, has built. Spec-wise, the camera can shoot up to 1280×1024 resolution at 1050fps (faster at lower res), will let you save RAW video, comes with 8 or more Gigs of RAM built in, and actually works with an off-the-shelf Nikon camera battery (for now).

You won’t need to hook it up to a computer to run it, although you certainly can, and the resulting video can be saved to an SD card, USB drive, or SATA hard drive. He’s also included flash triggers, audio inputs, and an HDMI connection so you can hook up a monitor or viewfinder as well.

ports_1

The Chronos 1.4 is a labor of love that Kronstein has been working on in one form or another for years, and it’s almost ready for prime time. According to the video, he plans to put it up on Kickstarter “in the next few months,” with a base model (8GB of RAM) going for around $2,500.

We’ll keep an eye out and let you know when that happens. In the meantime, enjoy the demo footage at the top or drop Kronstein a line of encouragement on YouTube.