Last Thursday, David Pogue covered a remarkable new camera:(emphasis added)

In pre-record mode, you half-press the shutter button when you’re awaiting an event that’s unpredictable: a breaching whale, a geyser’s eruption or a 5-year-old batter connecting with the ball. The camera silently, repeatedly records 60 shots a second, immediately discarding the old to make room for the new.

When you finally press the shutter button fully, the camera simply preserves the most recent shots, thus effectively photographing an event that, technically speaking, you missed.

Or, let the camera do the work:

Then there’s the motion detector. In this mode, you put the camera down on something steady, press the shutter button and back away. It sits there, waiting for hours if necessary, until it detects movement in the scene — at which point it auto-fires 60 burst shots.

The above is at full resolution. But wait, there's more:

Most stunning of all, this camera can film at outrageously high frame rates: 300, 600, or even 1,200 frames a second. The result is incredibly smooth, extremely slow motion, like something in an Imax nature movie. No still camera has ever offered anything like this feature.

Want to see the exact movement of a bird's wings? Endgadget grabbed some examples from Impress in Japan.

Casio's EXILIM PRO EX-F1 site has more info and sample videos.

Back to Pogue ... the camera may not live up to its remarkable potential:

Unfortunately, this highly unusual, almost experimental piece of equipment includes nearly as many downsides as breakthroughs.

Read the article for details.

Hat tip: michael parekh on IT.