A new video camera, the fastest by far, has set a staggering speed record. It films 5 trillion frames (equivalent to 5 trillion still images) every second, blowing away the 100,000 frames per second of high-speed commercial cameras. The device could offer a peek at never-before-seen phenomena, such as the blazingly fast chemical reactions that drive explosions or combustion.


Researchers at Lund University in Sweden demonstrated the camera’s speediness by filming particles of light traveling a distance as thin as a sheet of paper, then slowing down the trillionth-of-a-second journey to watch it.

The gadget works by repeatedly flashing a laser at a subject, with each flash getting a unique code. The subject reflects the flashes, and those reflections are combined into a single image. Then, an algorithm separates the image into a video sequence based on the codes, the scientists report March 15 in Light: Science & Applications. A German company is developing the camera for laboratory use. It could be ready in about two years.