Kron Technologies has announced the Chronos Q12, a high-speed camera designed to capture up to 2.5K resolution at extremely fast frame rates for situations where the company says capturing the right moment with the right level of detail is critical.
Kron Technologies is a Canadian high-speed imaging system design and manufacturing company located in the Greater Vancouver area. The Chronos Q12 uses an APS-C-sized sensor (9 μm pixel pitch) with a native resolution of 2,560 by 2,016 pixels, at which it can shoot 2,313 frames per second (FPS). Cropping down to a more standard 2,560 by 1,440 pixels improves things, allowing the Chronos Q12 to shoot up to 3,116 FPS. When resolution becomes less important than frame rate, the Q12 has two additional capture modes: 1,920 by 1,080 (Full HD) at 5,148 FPS and 1,536 × 864 at 7,471 FPS.
At its highest resolution, the camera offers three bit depths. At 2,313 FPS, it captures in 8-bit. Drop that to 1,900 FPS, and that increases to 10-bit. For the maximum 12-bit, users will be capped at 975 FPS.
When frame rates are this high, it can be easy to forget how much storage they take. Kron Technologies says that 5.7 seconds of maximum-resolution recording will take up 64GB of storage. 11.5 seconds doubles that to 128GB.
“Designed for researchers, engineers, scientists, industrial professionals, and creative teams, the Chronos Q12 enables users to capture, analyze, and better understand events that happen too quickly to observe with conventional imaging systems. From scientific experimentation and engineering analysis to industrial troubleshooting and creative slow-motion production, the Q12 provides the performance needed to reveal critical moments in greater detail,” Kron Technologies says.
The Chronos Q12 can capture in RAW (CinemaDNG) to allow for the most flexibility in post-production, but it also offers compressed recording formats for longer recording sessions or for teams that don’t want the bulk: both H.264 and H.265. It can also capture TIFF sequences (with timestamps).
The back of the camera is kept super simple through the use of a touchscreen for most operations. The 5-inch screen can also be navigated with a jog wheel, which is the only physical control on the rear of the camera.
The Q12 is pretty versatile thanks to its flexible lens mount. It supports C-mount, E-mount, F-mount, EF-mount, PL-mount, and Micro Four Thirds-mount lenses via an interchangeable passive mount. That said, users will need to select which mount they want included at the point of purchase. It ships with the camera body, mounting plate, lens shim kit, multi-mount bracket, and everything else needed to start shooting. Of note, the camera doesn’t have a battery and requires active power via the included 90W DC power supply.
The Kron Technologies Chronos Q12 is available directly from the company starting at $19,995 USD for a 64GB configuration and $21,995 USD for the 128GB configuration.
