In order to perform experimental identification of high strain rate material models, engineers have only a very limited toolbox based on test procedures developed decades ago. The best example is the so-called split Hopkinson pressure bar based on the bar concept introduced 100 years ago by Bertram Hopkinson to measure blast pulses. The recent advent of full-field deformation measurements using imaging techniques has allowed novel approaches to be developed and exciting new testing procedures to be imagined for the first time. One can use this full-field information in conjunction with efficient numerical inverse identification tools such as the virtual fields method (VFM) to identify material parameters at high rates. The underpinning novelty is to exploit the inertial effects developed in high strain rate loading. This paper presents results from a new inertial impact test to obtain stress–strain curves at high strain rates (here, up to 3000 s−1). A quasi-isotropic composite specimen is equipped with a grid and images are recorded with the new HPV-X camera from Shimadzu at 5 Mfps and the SIMX16 camera from Specialised Imaging at 1 Mfps. Deformation, strain and acceleration fields are then input into the VFM to identify the stiffness parameters with unprecedented quality.