Event cameras—which detect pixelized, spatiotemporal changes asynchronously as opposed to frame-based triggered cameras—are commercially available and the topic of considerable research recently for computer vision and robotics applications. We hypothesize that these novel devices can be of utility in understanding mechanical motion by performing functions similar to high speed cameras, but with reduced bandwidth and simpler processing. To test this hypothesis, we applied multiple measurement modalities to a simple high-speed mechanical tool, including accelerometer, acoustic, and event-camera images. We also explore the utility of onboard inertial measurement units which are often integrated into these devices. Our analysis shows that these measurements are possible and consistent across modalities, possibly leading to novel new architectures for image and sensor based measurements.