The Skinny on Casio’s High-Speed Camera

Back in October, we told you about Casio’s prototype supercamera that shoots 60 six-megapixel still photos per second (better than even pro SLRs) and standard-def video at up to 300 frames per second to make some pretty impressive slow-mo movies.

Well today Casio took the wraps off the EXILIM Pro EX-F1– the real version of the camera that you’ll be able to by in a few months for $1,000. And they’ve added even more power.

Another new added feature, slow motion view, is designed to help you grab just the right high-res still of fast action Set the camera to shoot at 30 full-res photos per second for up to 2 seconds to capture some ultra-fast event like a ballplayer swinging a bat. And it starts capturing pics before you even snap a photo. The recording starts when you press the shutter button down halfway to set focus.

Right after the fact, the 60 pics play back in slow mo so you can choose the perfect shot right on the spot. And you save just that to the memory card, instead of filling it up with an unbearable boatload of photos that you have to review after the fact on your PC.

We wanted to shoot some pics and videos ourselves—like roulette wheels in slow motion, but the preproduction EX-F1 on hand were still really buggy. Best we could do was this grainy footage of pre-shot clips playing back on the camera—a movie of a movie.

Casio says the final models will be available in March in Japan and in the US sometime later in the spring. I want one!