24f and shutterspeed

[John Cambell]

When shooting 60i it seems that when you use higher shutter speeds the footage gets cleaner and smoother. Is this the same for 24f or is it better to keep the shutter speed at 24 or 48 and will that be the smoothest footage.

[Trish Kerr]

People use the 48 shutter speed because that is the one that is the closest match to how actual film behaves. So you get a look closer to movies shot on film. Some say it has a more dreamlike quality, where the 60i footage has a more 'real' quality.

24 shutter, would be used when you need to pull in more light, but it will be even less smooth

24p in general is good for lower light situations.

for film 'look' the 24p is only part of the equation, good lighting, color grading, shallow depth of field, are all part of giving the footage a more film, less video look.

I think, though not 100 percent sure on this, if you want to transfer your finished piece to actual film for a price, you'd need to have shot it in 24p.

trish

[Bill Pryor]

I've done 60i video transferred to 35mm and it looked good. But, 24p is better.

Shooting at higher shutter speeds in 60i will cause trouble if you go too high, same with 24F. It's best to shoot at 1/60 in 60i or 1/48 in 24F unless you're looking for a specific effect, I think. You can get by with a slower speed, like 1/24 or 1/30, if nobody is moving very fast. People do that at weddings sometimes, and nobody ever notices anything weird because nobody moves very fast, except when the allegedly happy couple leaves the church, and in that case a little blurring might be an OK effect.

[Mark Fry]

Faster shutter speeds tend to make the picture look more stuttery. I shoot moving trains at 50i. I stick to 1/50 or 1/120 most of the time. 1/50 makes moving subjects look just slightly blurred, which helps to make the motion appear fluid. 1/120 makes things look very crisp, if very slightly flickery. Anything faster than that looks really odd to me, and I'll only do it if there's way too much light around (e.g. a sunny day by the sea).

I sometimes use 1/25 when it's getting dark, which is better than an extra "stop" of gain, but it gives a very particular effect to interlaced footage - a bit like animation. I try to keep the camera still, or only pan a little and very slowly, at 1/25, and avoid longer zoom settings, to catch as much light as possible. Two custom preset settings that help in low light: black stretch and normal gamma (not either of the "cine" settings). Coring is supposed to help counteract grain from gain, but I'm not sure I can see the difference...

[Hannah Bennett]

Hi, I don't know if you'll be able to help me but I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I've been given some footage to edit that was shot at 1/25 using a Z1 camera. This was chosen as the footage was filmed off a computer screen. A lot of the footage is of a white 'document' being filled in (the entire edit is a demonstration of how to use a web application).

Anyway, now that I am trying to edit the footage (which annoyingly includes pans as the camera follows the mouse) it looks blurry and flickers.

Does anyone know of a method that can be employed to minimize the flickering, to give the same smooth effect as the rest of the footage that was filmed at 1/50?

I would be EXTREMELY grateful of any help as the deadline is next Monday.

Thanks

[Richard Gooderick]

Originally Posted by Hannah Bennett

I would be EXTREMELY grateful of any help as the deadline is next Monday.

Thanks

Hello Hannah
I have just noticed your post. It's a bit late now and I don't know if I can answer it anyway.
The probable reason why you haven't had any replies is because this thread is in the Canon XH A1 section of the site.
Your best bet would have been to start a new thread in the Sony Z1 section.
If you are in this situation again you might want to suggest to the director that s/he uses a screen recorder software programme. I've used one. I think that it was called something like BSR. It records whatever you do on the screen and you can make it follow the cursor too.
I'm not going to say any more because this has gone way off the topic of the thread. As I say, post a new thread in the appropriate section of DV Info and you may get a response.

[Annie Haycock]

There is a program called Camtasia that records exactly happens on the computer screen. I don't think it's cheap, but there was an older version free on a disk from a digital video magazine some time last year - I made a note of it because I thought it might come in handy one day.

[Randy Panado]

I know this has been discussed to death but only recently has it become relevant to what I'm shooting.

I've just started shooting in 24F and I just the shutter to control the exposure leaving the aperture wide open for some creative DOF shots. I sometimes have it as high as 1/90 or even one step higher because I want to minimize blur. What type of issues would I run into with that high of a shutter speed (based on the fact most everyone says to keep the shutter speed at 1/48)?

Thanks

[Richard Gooderick]

Originally Posted by Annie Haycock

There is a program called Camtasia that records exactly happens on the computer screen. I don't think it's cheap, but there was an older version free on a disk from a digital video magazine some time last year - I made a note of it because I thought it might come in handy one day.

Annie and Hannah
I looked at Camtasia and couldn't work out why it was so expensive. I bought BSR for USD 40 and it works fine:
BSR Screen Recorder - Screen Capture Software
If you want, you can see it in action here:
This is a password protected video on Vimeo
password is vitesse.
It's 1' 10" in.

[Annie Haycock]

Thanks Richard. It looks like it does a good job. I'll bear it in mind if I can't find the disk with the free copy of Camtasia 3. Hopefully I'll get time during the winter to work on a project that I want to include some screen demos in.