HVX-200 Variable Frame Rate on for DV?

[Chris Bell]

Variable frame rate is only available at 720p. Not sure if there is an internal way to playback the effect in camera or if it needs to be output to FCP and played back in a 24fps timeline (like current Varicam footage).

We will all have to wait for December!

Chris Bell

[Gabriel]

VFR recording only to P2 cards, but internal downconversion to mini DV tape is possible, even from nonstandard frame rates. In other words, you can shoot for instance at 36fps and slow down to 30fps on the tape. I don’t know if it will be possible to do it to 24fps, but it would be a nice feature.

Gabriel Costache
Sales Engineer
Panasonic NZ Ltd

[Barry Green]

As Gabriel said, variable frame rates can only be recorded in 720p mode to the P2 card. According to Jan, the camera will allow you to downconvert from 720p to DV tape. So if you shot 720/60p, and downconverted it, you’d get 50% slow motion DV footage on tape. What Gabriel is speculating on above is whether you could use 24p as your timebase to base the slow motion effect off of (meaning, 60p would yield a 40% slow-mo effect in a 24p project, or 50% slow-mo effect in a 60i or 60p project).

Keep in mind that 720p is designed to offer variable frame rates (including fast motion), but there is some capability for variable frame rates even in 1080 mode or in regular DV mode. 1080 and DV both support 60i, 24p, and 30p. 30P can be used as a mild slow-mo effect in a 24p project. And you can get 4p, 6p, 8p, 12p, and 15p frame rates in 1080 or DV also, by using the slow-shutter mode and then speeding up the footage in post (i.e., shoot with a 1/4 shutter speed, and play the footage back at 6x realtime, and you will have frame-accurate 4p footage). So in 1080 (or DV) you’ll have the ability to create 4p, 6p, 8p, 12p, 15p, 24p, 30p, and 60i. In 720p mode you’ll have other options, ranging from 4p all the way up to 60p.

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[Jeffrey F. krepner]

Oh, terrific! 720p variable frame rates from 4p to 60p is just fine with me.

Barry, I had to read your post like 12 times, but I understand. I’ve always understood that VFR would only be to P2 and not tape, but thanks for detailing everything else.

In the meantime, for anyone that is interested, I found a film lab that telecines directly to harddrive in uncompressed HD. So until the new Panny camera ships, or I hit lotto and buy a Varicam, we can buy an old Bolex on eBay and overcrank/undercrank and then transfer to harddrive (as .mov or .avi) and not deal with DVCPRO HD, or HDCAM. In some ways, it makes shooting on film almost a bargain since we get to avoid any capture deck expenses. Weird, film is sort of more relevant in the coming age of tapeless acquisition using this model.

Oh, here is the link to the site for anyone that is interested. I’m in the process of getting their “test drive” now to see if their files play along on my system.
https://www.bonolabs.com/tapeless.htm

-Jeff
jeff@scuzzofilms.com