Slow motion footage sales

Hello all,

I'm new around these parts, so new my uploaded videos still haven't been approved / reviewed after nearly 2 weeks! I've been shooting film/video for nearly 10 years now and just recently started to get into stock footage. Anywho, for those that have slow motion footage up, how do your sales do in that area? I'm considering buying another camera for slow motion clips but I'm not sure if it's worth the investment. And some cameras are only capable of shooting 720p slow motion too and it seems that 1080p clips are selling the most. So I have a few things to consider.
If some people could chime in and let us know how your slow-mo clips are doing that would be great!

Slow motion does sell. Whether it justifies the purchase of a specialty camera I can't say. About half of my sales are slow motion. About a third of those are 60fps rendered at 30 or 24. Some of those are extreme slow, while others are moderate. A few are 30fps slowed approx 1/4 - not true slow motion. I use the FS700 for pretty much everything, I would not personally consider shooting only at 720, although it totally depends on the content. When I was camera shopping, I had to choose between FS700 and PMW-200 or whatever that one was - and when I asked another worthy on this forum for advice, they stated that they would not spend the extra dough "just" for slow motion, and I never forgot that. I think I've made my money back, but some of the shots could have been made with a 60 fps conformed to 30 or 24, so it's hard to say. The one shot https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/23752686 that made the most did almost pay for half the camera - I would not have been able to make the shot without the FS700 at hand. Otherwise I'd say if you can, rent a hi-speed camera for specific slow motion shots if that is how you work. For myself, I like to be able to switch on the fly since I seldom know what I'm gonna shoot next, and renting gear is difficult in small town Alaska!

Good luck!

Hi Mizamook. Thanks for the thorough response! You've given me a lot to think about. At this point I would be supplementing my Black Magic Pocket Camera with a 60fps camera but I don't have enough funds to get a camera that is specifically meant for slow motion work or even a decent camera with slow motion capabilities such as the FS700 or the PMW-200. At this point I'm limited to something like a Canon 60D, 600D or possibly a G6, once I get a chance to compare more clips of said cameras. And unfortunately renting is not an option for me due to various reasons. Plus having something like a 600D would be good for time lapse stuff as well.
Shooting at 1080p is a huge plus for me. Having shot on some slow film stocks, I've successfully been able to uprez a 720x486 film transfers on digibeta to 1080p but I haven't tested DSLR 720p footage uprezzed to 1080p and honestly I don't have high hopes for a good uprez of Canon DSLR footage even if at best it was shot with no visible noise! But idk, just my thoughts, i'd love to see some good 720p to 1080p uprezzed footage to give me more to think about.
For me the best thing would be to buy an actually camera because i'll be doing some traveling and it'll just be easier overall and less expensive. Plus like you I would have no idea what I'd be shooting next, at least no further than a week or two ahead.
Oh there was one other thing I was curious about, are slow motion shots also prone to moire, with cameras that have moire issues?
BTW that flying eagle clip is amazing! Alaska is such a beautiful state. I spent some time there shooting with a friend on his 35mm rig but boy that was quite a while ago.

Take a look at Panasonic range of camcorders if 60p is good enough for you, I have the X920 the evolution of the TM 700 series. I slow the 60p in my editor by half and get great half speed slow motion. I don't do slow motion as much as I should.

Welcome to stock footage!

hey thanks Normstock. I'll definitely check out X920 slow mo footage this weekend on the inter webs. What turns me off about that camera though is that it has a fixed lens. But like I said I will check it out and compare with the others!

The FS700 does lose detail and exhibit moire when in slow motion mode. Noise is more likely an issue as well due to the fact that the light falloff due to high shutter speed results in use of higher ISO/Gain. More so at 240fps than 120. The higher frame rates are a joke unless you wish to downsample. Can be fun though -

Stupid Slowmo TestWould be interesting to see what barriers the Odyssey 7Q breaks with regard to this issue. Again, most people I talk to or hear sayin', 60p to cut in half is usually sufficient for many shots ... I'm totally down with that. The higher rate slow motion stands out as a specialty shot more than the much more usable half-speed. And I think ALL cameras should have built-in intervalometers or time lapse modes. But they don't.

Yeah i was mostly thinking of shooting no more than 60-100fps. The canon 600D seems like a good compromise for me at this point as it's only going for about half a grand right now, spending any more than that at this point, well I wouldn't be able to justify it. But this weekend i'll be comparing slow mo from a few different camera models and then make a decision sometime next week. I'll have to read up on different ways to avoid moire that's for sure.
I'm really trying to keep things minimalistic but nowadays that's proving to be harder and harder with all the different options, way more than back in the mini-35mm adapter days!
Hope you're having a ball with your FS700 Mizamook, haven't played with it yet but it definitely looks like a hardy camera.

the gh4 is going to do up like 100fps I believe.

Yeah - that makes it a strong contender for off-the-cuff running and gunning (or, in today's litigious oligarchy, more like gun then run)

My FS700 is now kinda covered with sawdust, as I had a renewed interest in screwing around with 480 and 960fps and a saw....why is it that sawdust flies willy-nilly when you don't want it to, but when you want it, the blade cuts clean?

Moire was really quite fascinating as it was disgusting when shooting 960fps. Cam crops into sensor to shoot at that rate, so it's reserved for goofy stuff.

Also remember with removable lens cameras you are going to get dust on the sensor. Ideally you want both a DSLR for shallow depth of field and a camcorder for run and gun and large depth of field so everything is in focus especially moving objects.