Is there really no affordable high-speed camera option in 2026

[CursedLemon]

Was just perusing the internet for availability of a camera that will do modest high speed frame rates at a reduced resolution, maybe 720p1000.

There's nothing.

This surprised the hell out of me. It's not like I need to do forensic analysis of bullet impacts and need a million frames a second at 4K, I was just maybe interested in analyzing golf swings lol

The absolute most "affordable" option seems to be Pixboom which starts at $14,000.

Is anyone else surprised by this? I feel like even a 640x480 camera that did 1,000FPS and sold for $500-$1,000 would have a healthy market of people looking to do things like amateur sport analysis or whatever.

[TreeTops]

Not enough people that are interested in doing high speed photos means not too many consumer cameras that do it for a reasonable price.

[pandy]

Was just perusing the internet for availability of a camera that will do modest high speed frame rates at a reduced resolution, maybe 720p1000.

This is not so easy - high frame rate reduce amount of light converted by imaging sensor to electric current so single pixel need to be bigger or you need to do some form of binning (effectively reduce amount of pixels).
Side to this physics there is also enormous amount of data generated by high framerate camera.

Is anyone else surprised by this? I feel like even a 640x480 camera that did 1,000FPS and sold for $500-$1,000 would have a healthy market of people looking to do things like amateur sport analysis or whatever.

For cheap approach you may search for something like this https://github.com/ElvinC/PiSpeedCam - this what people do to acquire high speed video.
Verify your idea for business - do market research and start company - GoPro started similar business and made success.

[CursedLemon]

This is not so easy - high frame rate reduce amount of light converted by imaging sensor to electric current so single pixel need to be bigger or you need to do some form of binning (effectively reduce amount of pixels).
Side to this physics there is also enormous amount of data generated by high framerate camera.

For cheap approach you may search for something like this https://github.com/ElvinC/PiSpeedCam - this what people do to acquire high speed video.
Verify your idea for business - do market research and start company - GoPro started similar business and made success.

That's a very interesting project. I'd be curious to know what the 640x75 resolution is about.

[pandy]

That's a very interesting project. I'd be curious to know what the 640x75 resolution is about.

You can always stack few camera (with corresponding RPi) and later combine this in single larger frame - there is only problem in synchronizing (at least start and stop but perhaps there is possibility to synchronize multiple RPis also at lower level - perhaps using some time reference).

[ProWo]

https://www.amazon.com/QILOVE-Global-Shutter-USB-Camera/dp/B0F5GZWSW2?crid=1QXKG46OOXV...s%2C222&sr=8-3