Best shutter speed for 1080 60i shoot in the UK? at DVinfo.net

Andy Taplin · October 5th, 2010, 02:10 PM

Hi All

I'm a British cameraman who is shooting 60i for a US client here in the UK which is 50hz mains. The shoot is in labs which are lit with fluorescents. I assume with the shutter off I'm going to get some strobing from the lights, so should I set the shutter to 100th (a multiple of 50) or use the flicker reduce setting? I'm using a PMW 350. Any better ideas?

Thanks.

Dan Crowell · October 5th, 2010, 06:37 PM

Andy, I had a similar issue in Spain last year. My suggestion is to use ECS mode and dial in any scan rate you need. But,dependening on the Hz of the florescent lamp, in most cases you should be able to simply scroll through the shutter speed switch while viewing the image in the view finder and adjust the shutter speed to the appropriate setting. I wish I could remember exactly what I did but in any case it was one of the options describe above and it took no more than a few minutes to figure out the right setting.

Good luck....

Andy Taplin · October 7th, 2010, 03:49 AM

Thanks for the reply Dan.

The shoot was yesterday and it appeared that only certain lights, and not the overheads, caused any flicker. Setting the shutter to 100th cured it completely. My main worry was that I might have to use 50th which you can't do with 60i. My backup plan was to shoot at 30P which they could easily convert to 60i if necessary and then I could shoot at 50th.

October 5th, 2010, 02:10 PM	#1
Andy Taplin Regular Crew Join Date: May 2009 Location: Cambridge, UK Posts: 39	Best shutter speed for 1080 60i shoot in the UK? Hi All I'm a British cameraman who is shooting 60i for a US client here in the UK which is 50hz mains. The shoot is in labs which are lit with fluorescents. I assume with the shutter off I'm going to get some strobing from the lights, so should I set the shutter to 100th (a multiple of 50) or use the flicker reduce setting? I'm using a PMW 350. Any better ideas? Thanks. __________________ Andy Taplin www.andytaplin.co.uk

October 7th, 2010, 03:49 AM	#3
Andy Taplin Regular Crew Join Date: May 2009 Location: Cambridge, UK Posts: 39	Thanks for the reply Dan. The shoot was yesterday and it appeared that only certain lights, and not the overheads, caused any flicker. Setting the shutter to 100th cured it completely. My main worry was that I might have to use 50th which you can't do with 60i. My backup plan was to shoot at 30P which they could easily convert to 60i if necessary and then I could shoot at 50th. __________________ Andy Taplin www.andytaplin.co.uk

October 5th, 2010, 06:37 PM	#2
Dan Crowell Regular Crew Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Brick, New Jersey Posts: 47	Andy, I had a similar issue in Spain last year. My suggestion is to use ECS mode and dial in any scan rate you need. But,dependening on the Hz of the florescent lamp, in most cases you should be able to simply scroll through the shutter speed switch while viewing the image in the view finder and adjust the shutter speed to the appropriate setting. I wish I could remember exactly what I did but in any case it was one of the options describe above and it took no more than a few minutes to figure out the right setting. Good luck....