HDX900 slo mo

[Russell Lasson]

It doesn’t officially support slow motion, but if you shoot at 720/60P, then in post you could conform that to 24P, 25 or 30 fps using a program like Cinema Tools or After Effects. I would definitely shoot on a different tape to simplify the digitizing process.

-Russ

[Robin Probyn]

Hi Russell

Thanks,yes I heard its not officail,but others have posted here thats it works fine,same as varicam 60p.And yes thanks for the tip separate tape,also has been mentioned in the past.
I wonder why its not officially recognised ?When ever I,ve used the varicam for slo mo I,ve always shot at the max ie 60p,so I,d much rather do this with the HDX900,which is great,rather than the bigger varicam.

Thanks again for your time Russell

[Russell Lasson]

I don’t completely understand how the Varicam adds flags to the footage, but evidently Panasonic decided not to have the HDX900 have the same ability to add flags. It will still add flags if you record at 24P so you can remove the duplicate frames, but it doesn’t add flags to reconform 60P to 24P while digitizing.

I’m sure you’re all ready aware of all this. So while you can achieve the same 60fps slow motion with the HDX900 that you can with the Varicam, you just have to go about it a different way.

I’d really like to see Panasonic release a P2 camera that will do 120fps because often 60fps just isn’t slow enough.

-Russ

[Robin Probyn]

Hi

No I didnt know that.. interesting so its a different process to get to slomo effect.

Someone on this forum mentioned some software in post that could double up the 60p to 120p.

Thanks again

[Nick Gardner]

Hi,

To clear up a little confusion…..The 900 does add flags at 60fps, and the process of making it slow-mo is exactly the same as the varicam. Just wraped 105 days of shooting with the Varicam as the A camera and the 900 as the B camera. lots of stunts and both cameras would do one take at 24 and then one at 60. No tape changes, and no problems at all cutting in final cut. just drop the FRC on the clip and poof – slo-mo. Also did a lot of speed ramping with the varicam, worked out great.

The only thing I didn’t try was shooting at 50fps on the 900 and slowing it down because I would have had to change the system frequency, and I wasn’t sure how that would have worked out. I would sometimes shoot at 32, or 36 fps on A and have B run at 30 for a slightly dreamy quality. I did shoot a few FX shots on the 900 at 1080 24p at the request of the FX editor for the slightly higher resolution, and he was very happy with the results (keying blood splatter -so misty tiny bits).

Don’t fear off speed 900 stuff,

Nick Gardner

[Robin Probyn]

Hi Nick

Ok thanks.So you dont even have to change tapes? obviously you shot 720p to match your A camera.Had you been cutting footage in with HDCAM would you have shot 1080i for the non slomo material or stuck with 720p?

Just out of interest do you usually shoot with one of the film gamma,s or just the HD setting for general doco work.

Thanks

[Thomas Mcdonald]

Can you slow mo footage shot on an hdx900 at 1080i 30p through Final Cut or afterfx and have it look decent? Also is it difficult to mix 1080i and 720p footage(60p) in a 1080 timeline? Thanks for the info.

Tom McDonald
LA Based DP