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30fps coming in at 29.97
Hey, I’m new to the EX1 so pardon my ignorance on this, but we recently shot on the XDcam ex1. The footage looks great, but we were shooting at 30fps and syncing to a 30fps slate. the footage appears to come in at 29.97 in FCP. I did some checking in both FCP, AE and QT and the info continually comes up as the compressor is “XDCAM EX 1080p30”, but the playback rate lists as 29.97. Am I missing something?
Should it not come in at a true 30fps? It’s an effects heavy shoot with many takes so I would prefer to not have to manually adjust every clip.any knowledge would be appreciated.
thanks,
adam. -
5 Replies
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30p is actually 29.97 NTSC. 60p is actually 59.94. It’s the nature of NTSC compatibility.
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29:97 it is just the time base for 30 frames of video.
Good Luck
Michael Palmer -
i understand ntsc standards and i understand 59.97 for 60i, 29.97 for 30 for broadcast purposes. But it isn’t true 30fps then. If I am compositing or doing a 3d build I have a choice of working at 30fps or 29.97 and there is quite a difference when it comes down to synching something if the shot is lengthy. If I work with a film plate 24fps is true 24 not 23.976. Anyway I guess I’m wondering if there just isn’t a true 30fps on this camera or if this was a camera error or import error.
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Adam,
If you’re working on a NLE, the film origional, whilst shot at “true” 24fps, is converted to 23.97 when telecined. You can create “true” non-fractional speeds in all the cameras too, but be very careful, they won’t sync with the sound.
JS
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Adam,
I don’t have a great deal of experience with that camera, but I can speak from experience with other HD cameras. I own two Panasonic HDX900s and they shoot 29.97fps and 59.94fps, even though the menu choices are 30 and 60 fps. That is actually normal and it is most likely the case for the EX-1 and EX-3.
The only camera I know of that has the option to shoot true 30 and 60 fps is the Varicam (it actually shoots either way) and I believe the Sony F900 also has that option. For compatibility with NTSC broadcast, 29.97 and 59.94 are best, although that may be a bit of trouble for your special effects.
Can FCP import as 30 instead of 29.97 or can you do a “fit” function after importing? After all, your FCP can do pull downs and reverse pull downs with 30fps converted to and from 24fps, right?
Steve Brown
10-20 Productions
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