1920/1280 60p or 30p?

[Kent Beeson]

So what exactly is the difference between either 1920 or the 1280 60p and 30p and why would we use one over the other, in what scenarios? In other words, what is 60p over 30p or visa versa?

Danke

[Ivan Gomez Villafane]

1080p (what you call 1920) is 1920x1080 pixels of resolution, 720p (what you call 1280) is 1280x720 pixels of resolution.

60p refers to 60 frames per second, while 30p naturally refers to 30 frames per second. You can't shoot 1080p and 60p, you must lower the resolution to 720p.

It's a very broad question when to use which one... in my case I only use 720p 60p if I intend to do some 50% slow-motion afterwards, for example when I shoot sports. If you won't do slow-motion I don't know of any reason why you would shoot 60p, although maybe you could want to use the extra frames to have less motion blur.

Otherwise I simply shoot 24p for maximum quality and personal look preference, unless a more standard tv look is needed. In that particular case I shoot 30p, and in both cases I shoot 1080p even if the project is going to end up in a 320x280 player.

[Kent Beeson]

Thanks for reply - I did know about the frames per second bit but was wondering if 60p is somehow better over 30p or why would a person use one over the other aesthetically?

[Tim Polster]

Kent,

Do you have access to an HD camera with these framerates? If so, shoot a lot of test footage with the different settings, get some popcorn and watch them on an HDTV.

This is the only way to decide what you like to see out of your footage and what you think would be best for each situation you film in.

Some people only film in 24p while others never film in 24p. It is all up to personal preference and the "look" you want to achieve. Also, have you searched around this site for other posts?

[Kent Beeson]

I'll search site for other posts.

[Walter Brokx]

Some people shoot 720p at 60p (or 50p) to be able to downscale to interlaced Standerd Def 60i or 50i with smoother motion than 30p.

[Craig Seeman]

720p60 has high temporal resolution good for fast action sports.
1080p30 good for talking head or slower dramatic based stuff.

[Ian Skurrie]

One important reason to shoot 50p is that if you want to broadcast material, especially in Pal land like Australia where everything is broadcast in interlace, you can readily easily downscale into interlaced format retaining the smoothness of fast pans and fast action that you had with the 50p format( each frame goes to one field ). The downscale to from 720p is also better than from 1080p in my experience.

regards

Ian Skurrie

[Gints Klimanis]

I shoot most everything in 720p60 for the motion signature, and I am hesistant to shoot 1080p30 due to the filmic reduction of motion information. To my eyes, the preview on the EX1 LCD of 30 fps is very stuttery and not indicative of the actual loss of motion. Its important to know that the light sensitivity of the EX1 doubles in the interlaced 1080i60 mode, and there is promise that superior deinterlacing methods of the future will yield better results than today.

I wish the adaptive deinterlace methods were universal, and that we could be assured that all viewing platforms used them for 30 or 60 fps display. Likewise, there is little support for 1080p60 viewing in the case that video editors could use the superior deinterlace methods to produce 1080p60 files

[Erik Phairas]

Its important to know that the light sensitivity of the EX1 doubles in the interlaced 1080i60 mode

I keep reading this. Why have I never been able to see this? Out of the box if you try to push the gain, i60 is brighter but so noisy it's usable. I record in 30p and suddenly I can use 18db and still to me get a usable image. I saw no usable difference in sensitivity between i60 and 30p

Why is i60 so noisy?

[Aaron Scheiner]

I've noticed that you get a lot more grain in the image if you shoot at higher shutter speeds (like 1/2000th of a second)... lower shutter speeds have an averaging affect that may create an apparent reduction in grain... not to mention additional light being gathered.