What setting is best for SloMotion editing? Does the HV10 record 60 FPS?

[Brad Vaughan]

I was reading in my HDV book by Douglas Spotted Eagle that 60fps is good for slomotion editing and was wondering if the HV10 records at 60 fps?

Also, what settings would be best for slomotion? I have applied some slo motion to some of my videos and they are real blurry with the moving image (flying bird).

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Rich Dykmans]

If these guys ever do 720p60 cam at this level (which is 60 progressive frames per second) I'll be one happy camper! Right now we're getting 1080 60i which is 60 fields but only 30 fps (each field is 1/2 frame). Since I'm trying to use the HV10 for sports type shooting I'm fighting not only the HDV codec which doesn't handle motion all that well but the interlaced nature of the video as well.

Experiments transcoding to DVCPro 720p 60 and applying slomo haven't convinced me it's worth the extra time and effort to transcode at this point. I'm also playing around with HDV footage and retiming it in Shake (which has given just pristine slomo with 720p60 shot with my HVX200.)

The problem I'm finding is that not all HDV based motion footage compresses the same (when shot). Some will look fairly decent with reasonably low motion artifacts and then all of a sudden you hit the limit of the codec and it turns to cr@p (and retiming it just excerbates the problem). Once I develop what I find is the best overall workflow I'll be happy to put my .02 out there.

But I've got to think 720p60 HDV would still be better to work with then 60i. Doesn't one of the JVC cams shoot 720p60 HDV? If anyone knows how it handles motion over your garden variety 1080 60i HDV I'd love to hear about it.

[Pieter Jongerius]

My only experience in this is that 60i slows down better than 24p, because of the increase in sample rate (60 fields/sec instead of 24 frames/sec). Of course, this goes to the expense of image resolution because the fields only contain halve the vertical resolution. However, proper deinterlacing and maybe some sharpening manages to get the image 'acceptable', and you /do/ end up with 60 images taken per second. I guess in this process it helps to not slow down beyond 50%.

[Owen Meek]

Brad. the Sony's HC3/HC7 etc do 120fps (240 interlaced) for only 3 second duration that can be stretched to 12 seconds ultra smooth. but yeah.. 3 seconds.

the HVX200 gives all the option in the expensive P2 media.

[Lee Wilson]

Originally Posted by Owen Meek

Brad. the Sony's HC3/HC7 etc do 120fps (240 interlaced) for only 3 second duration that can be stretched to 12 seconds ultra smooth. but yeah.. 3 seconds.

But the quality of the Sony's slow-mo mode footage is terrible. :(

[Fergus Anderson]

I have found the best results for slow mo with the hv10 can be achieved by shooting at higher shutter speeds - 120, 250. Using Vegas I then time stretched the footage - worked pretty well - I put a thread on here about it with some samples a while back

[Tom Hardwick]

Yes, the HC3 I tested in the slo-mo mode did degrade the footage somewhat alarmingly. Of course if you need to shoot at 200 fps the camera has to open up by 3 stops, and this might mean shooting at +18 dB of gain up, which sure doesn't help.

But it's a bit like filtration. You go and 'tobacco' the sky with a deep grad and what have you got? You've got a shot that will take a great deal of work to 'undo'. But do it in post and you'll have peace and quiet, you'll be able to control the ramping, density and hue.

Same with slo-mo. Do it in post on normally shot footage and you can ramp where desired, go to whatever fps your heart desires for however long, and won't have sacrificed the original audio at the shooting scene.

These are early days for in-camera slo mo (as they are for intervalometer work) and in my view are more useful for shifting stock than for filmmaking.

tom.

[Owen Meek]

Tom do you know if its possible to achieve a faithful recreation in subtle terms, under/over cranked look i.e. if the original pal footage is shot at 25p and is slowed down to 22fps or sped up to 28fps.

i hope that made sense.

[Brad Vaughan]

Originally Posted by Fergus Anderson

I have found the best results for slow mo with the hv10 can be achieved by shooting at higher shutter speeds - 120, 250. Using Vegas I then time stretched the footage - worked pretty well - I put a thread on here about it with some samples a while back

Thanks Fergus!

Nice samples and info.

btw, how are you liking your GlideCam with the HV10? Do you have any videos to share showing it in use?


And of course thanks to all of you for the replies, the information is well taken and noted!

[Tom Hardwick]

Originally Posted by Owen Meek

Tom do you know if its possible to achieve a faithful recreation in subtle terms, under/over cranked look i.e. if the original pal footage is shot at 25p and is slowed down to 22fps or sped up to 28fps.

i hope that made sense.

Er - it didn't really make sense. ''recreation in subtle terms''? But of course any timeline worth its salt can slow down or speed up by those small amounts. A lot of people would be hard pushed to spot the change, though you'd have to keep the audio at 25 fps.

tom.

[Owen Meek]

thanks Tom (lol) it was late..