Canon C300 mkII what increment to use with 180 angle shutter?

[Todd Terry]

I’m not sure what the problem with your footage might be (hard to guess without seeing it), but I don’t think you did anything wrong.

The “shutter increment” which you say was set at 1/4 doesn’t have anything to do with, well, anything, if you were shooting at 1/50th.

Let me back up… ok the 1/3 vs 1/4 setting is only affecting the amount the shutter speed changes, when you change it. First of all, that setting is only changeable when you have the shutter speed set to “speed” mode, and since you said you were shooting with a 180° shutter, that lets me know you were shooting in “angle” mode, rather than “speed” mode. In “angle” mode, the 1/3 vs 1/4 option is grayed out, you can’t even change it if you want to.

That being said, these days most people probably shoot in “speed” mode rather than “angle” mode. I would imagine that “angle” mode is really probably only used by old-school shooters who were used to shooting with real film in a variable shutter camera. But that being said, it’s really all the same thing, those different modes are just different ways of expressing the exact same thing. For example, if you shoot at 24fps as we do here in the colonies, a “normal” shutter speed would be 1/48th, which is exactly the same as a 180° shutter. The end result would look no different because it is exactly the same.

If you were in “speed” mode, changing from 1/3 to 1/4 only affects how much the shutter speed changes with each click if you click it up or down. That’s all.

So, I don’t think you did anything wrong. What is considered a “normal” shutter speed (which is the equivalent of a 180° shutter in a film camera) follows the equation “one over twice the frame rate.” Here in the 24fps world, that makes a normal shutter speed to be 1/48th of a second (one, over 2x the 24fps frame rate). So, since you are shooting 25p with a 1/50th shutter speed, that is exactly what it usually should be. But… back when you were shooting in angle mode, if you were shooting 25p with a 180° shutter speed, that is 1/50th of a second… it’s exactly the same…. and makes no difference whether the increments were 1/4 or 1/3.

I know that’s a long and probably very complicated answer, all to say “You did nothing wrong.”

If there is an issue with the way the footage looks, it’s probably something else. Hard to say without seeing it.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Sara Jones]

Thanks so much Todd,

Really appreciate you taking the time to respond. I would share the footage, but I am in a very remote location, where email barely works (never mind uploading any video clip). I’m very reassured by what you say. It may be that I just expected to make a mistake- and then just imagined that the footage doesn’t look quite ‘normal’ with the movement and speech (almost as if there was a tiny lag).

If this is not necessarily an incorrect setting (and the shutter increment irrelevant in this case), then it is more likely that my laptop is just a bit overwhelmed by the 4k footage, and that this is affecting playback of the larger files. I will down-convert some more footage and look at it again. But you have given me hope!!!

Still, quite beyond the technical lesson, it reminds me that you owe it to yourself to insist on time to fully prepare before a shoot, or you let everyone down!
Best, Sara

[Dave Harrison]

I just wanted to quickly say that your response was awesome Todd. It’s great to see how supportive this community can be!