Storm chasers are a special breed. When the rest of us take cover, they rush toward the danger. Now, thanks to filmmaker Dustin Farrell, we can watch these powerful electric storms in awe without worrying if a cow might fly by. This past summer, Farrell drove 20,000 miles over 30 days chasing storms in Arizona and the Great Plains with Chad Cowan to capture some amazing time-lapse footage using the Phantom Flex4K. Check out the video below, then read on to learn more about Farrell's process.

A project like this is not for the faint of heart. Farrell explains, "On several occasions I found myself uncomfortable either mentally or physically. Chasing storms with a Phantom Flex4K is stressful even when things are going well. There were at least 10 days where I returned home with my tail between my legs and nothing to show after a ten-hour chase and 500 miles."

Nevertheless, Farrell forged ahead along with Cowan, and the images are, well, striking. Farrell explains that the Phantom Flex4K in high-speed mode constantly captures and rewrites its RAM data, so when lightning struck, Farrell used the camera's post trigger capability to save the previously recorded images to the card. All of that saved data added up to 10TB over the course of Farrell's journey. Because shooting at high frame rates requires a lot of light, Farrell mostly shot with Zeiss Otus 28mm, 55mm, and 85mm lenses wide open at F1.4.

If you're now inspired to chase some storms or if you just want to learn more about how to shoot high frame rates with the Phantom Flex4K, check out this workshop about the camera's distinct workflow.

Source: Dustin Farrell

phantom flex 4KHigh Frame Rate
Cinematography & Cameras