60i or 30p

[Ian Planchon]

I am freelancing on a project with my old station, they have the F-350's, their first HD camera. We are trying to figure out if we should go 30p on the project, or go 60i, which is what they are familiar with.

there will be lots of nature and action shots.

I was leaning to 30p, but they don't know much about it, and think 60i would be better.

any thoughts?

[Alister Chapman]

How will the programme be shown?

I much prefer P these days, it gives me far fewer issues in post production and is easier to standards convert. But if you have lots of fast action then I may be better.

[Ian Planchon]

all the video will air on TV. The video will be of the Iditarod, so lots of dogs running down a trail. so it's not like a race car, or a plane.

[Alister Chapman]

Now there's an event I'd love to shoot.

I think interlace would better suit the action and if your production is a straight forward factual documentary this may be the best approach. However if you are making a "film" about the Iditarod then P would give it a bit of the film look.

[Tim Allison]

The new trick this old dog learned when dealing with 30p is to ignore the viewfinder. 30p looks horrible on the camera viewfinders, and it will scare anyone with you that doesn't know any better. We work with small crews, so we rarely take a monitor with us on shoots. I fought against 30p for a couple of years because it looked so bad on the camera viewfinder. The viewfinders simply cannot handle horizontal motion. I finally figured out that the 30p stuff looks pretty darned good once viewed on a real monitor. We've found that 30p works very well with green screens, and it helps when re-encoding video for web delivery.

I'm still not completely comfortable with 30p because, after all, I am still an old dog, and new tricks are hard to learn. But eventually, facts over come even stubborn minds.

[Uli Mors]

Thats a good approach!

ULi

[Alister Chapman]

That's a good point Tim, P does tend to look much more juddery on CRT viewfinders.

[Doug Jensen]

Originally Posted by Tim Allison

I fought against 30p for a couple of years because it looked so bad on the camera viewfinder.

I have just the opposite reaction. I've only been shooting 30P during the last four years, and when I see interlaced on a viewfinder my first reaction is "what the hell is wrong with this camera?".

[Alister Chapman]

Doug: It's strange how we become used to seeing things in a certain way and when it's different to your "norm" it looks wrong. After shooting and working with P for the past 5 years I like you now find that I looks wrong. I also don't find I notice the "filmic" cadence of feature films as much as I used to.

[Doug Jensen]

On a similalr note, when I travel to Europe, it takes me 48-72 hours to get used to the flickering lights all around me. I can't even stand to watch TV in the hotel room.

[Anton Strauss]

Originally Posted by Doug Jensen

I have just the opposite reaction. I've only been shooting 30P during the last four years, and when I see interlaced on a viewfinder my first reaction is "what the hell is wrong with this camera?".

out of curiosity, is there a shutter speed setting you found that helps improve juddery pans when shooting p

I have a feeling 30p looks smoother, but I am in Pal country and would need to shoot at 25p and it looks bad, so I am still shooting 50i

[Doug Jensen]

My default shutter speed for 30P is 1/60th. Sometimes I'll go up to 1/80th for action, but that is my limit. Any higher and I can see the strobing.

Sometimes I'll turn off the shutter (same as 1/30th) in low light but that is rare.

For 25P and 50i, you'll want to make 1/50th your default speed.

[Anton Strauss]

okay, let me test again for awhile to see if I can get used to it

[Les Jarrett]

Originally Posted by Doug Jensen

My default shutter speed for 30P is 1/60th. Sometimes I'll go up to 1/80th for action, but that is my limit. Any higher and I can see the strobing.

Sometimes I'll turn off the shutter (same as 1/30th) in low light but that is rare.

For 25P and 50i, you'll want to make 1/50th your default speed.

Doug, on my 350 the shutter goes from 1/60th to 1/125th. No 1/80th. Am I missing something?

I shoot transportation subjects, and, like others here, I've primarily shot in I. Would love to shoot these moving machines in P, but like others here, have had strobing issues.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

[Doug Jensen]

Les,

I use the camera's ECS Shutter mode to get just about any shutter speed I want, so I'm not limited to the camera's normal preset speeds. 80hz is about the same as 1/80th.

On my F350, I am usually happy with 1/60th for just about everything I shoot, but on my F800 I have found myself gravitating towards 1/80th as my normal shutter speed. I can't explain why the two cameras would behave differently, but to my eyes, the F800 requires a little faster shutter speed to minimize motion blur.