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Significant blur/judder in pans on 24p footage using EX3
I’ve searched around but haven’t had much luck figuring out if our problem is on our end or with the camera. We shot a bunch of stuff for a low budget pilot on the EX3, about half at 30p and about half at 24p (don’t ask why the switch, it was operator error.)
The stuff at 30p is all silky smooth on jib moves, pans, etc. The 24p stuff is really difficult to watch when there’s much movement at all. It looks like it blurs/stutters/jitters/something. This is most noticeable on pans and jib moves, but is also pretty noticeable on simple hand held shots if there’s any unsteadiness to them.
What we’re trying to figure out now that we’re in post is whether or not what we’re seeing on the 24p footage is:
a) just the way it is with 24p on the ex3
b) due to an incorrect setting on the camera somewhere that we can’t do anything about now, but could correct for next time
c) due to an incorrect setting in our post workflow that we may be able to actually correct now
I’m not sure what other info would be helpful, so let me know and I’ll provide it. Otherwise, any advice is greatly appreciated!
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3 Replies
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24p will certainly have more motion judder than 30p. A good DP keeps to the “panning speed rules” when shooting 24p.
If you’re working in 24p your timeline must be set appropriately. If you’re trying to mix 24p and 30p in a timeline set for one or the other, you’ll likely get some odd results.
You don’t mention how you’re monitoring it though and that can certainly be the issue.
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We’re talking about some relatively slow pans and moves in some places. And the handheld stuff as well – it just seems like you’re not able to actually *focus* your eyes on the image at almost any time that the camera is moving. Like I said, 30p came out rock solid.
As far as timeline and playback, here’s what we’re doing:
We cut the 24p segments in their own timeline to start with (more than one editor was working on the project at a time) and they were dropped into the timeline and let FCP change the timeline settings to match the clip. Same thing was done on the 30p stuff in its own timeline. So editing native XDCAM EX other than rendering to ProRes. When it came time to join the two together, we copied the stuff from the 24p timeline into the 30p timeline.
We’ve tried to change settings to see what if anything helps, and so far changing the timeline settings to 24/30/60 doesn’t seem to make much – if any – difference. Not sure what other settings we might need to check on or be aware of.
The playback is happening in two places: first on dual 24″ Viewsonic monitors, and then through an MXO2 via hdmi to a Panasonic professional 42″ plasma. We’ve tried different MXO2 settings as well, and again, very little if any change. It’s hard to tell if the image is better on the 24″ lcd, it might be slightly, but not much if it is.
What else can I try? Any pulldown/smoothcam/whatever that might help that I might not be thinking of?
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[Matt Pope] “We cut the 24p segments in their own timeline to start with”
On that 24p only timeline –
Check the files going to a QC monitor from a proper output device to make sure they’re good at that stage.Make sure you have the MXO 2 setup properly.
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