Why 60fps for video?

[Shane Ross]

That camera doesn’t shoot 60fps…it shoots 60i. 60i is 60 interlaced FIELDS, and there are 2 fields per frame of video…so 30fps.

The only HD cameras that shoots 60fps or more are the Varicam (DVCPRO HD) and higher end HD cinema cameras…and the Phantom.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
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[Allister Gourlay]

sorry i meant 60 shutter speed!

[Steve Eisen]

Keep in mind, PAL is 25 frames per second and NTSC is 30 frames per second.

Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Board of Directors
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group

[Shane Ross]

[Allister gourlay] “sorry i meant 60 shutter speed!”

Shutter speed has nothing to do with frame rate or slow motion or anything like that. It allows more light in, also if you point the camera at a TV that is 60hz, that matches the frequency so that it won’t look all TV freaky on you (dunno the term). But since I am not a shooter, I don’t know all the reasons.

Another one might be to get the PRIVATE RYAN look…the one during the battles.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Phil Balsdon]

I think you are confusing shutter speed and frames per second. PAL is always 50 interlaced fields per second. An odd field and an even field together make up one frame and so 25 frames per second. Hence the term 50i. PAL will always record at 25fps. For NTSC footage interlaced footage can only be shot at 29.??? fps or approximately 60i.

Setting the shutter speed exposes each frame for that setting (like in a still camera) but does not change the frame rate. So setting a shutter speed of 1/60th shows 25 frames per second (PAL), but each frame only exposed for a 1/60th.

For slow motion this gives less blur on moving objects but setting faster shutter speeds creates a strobe effect on video played at normal speeds which gets more obvious as the shutter speed increases.

I used to shoot a lot of sport for a major Australian sport program, the preferred fastest shutter speed for action sport was 1/400th of a second. Faster speeds than that tended to make video replayed at normal speed too jerky to watch.

Cameras that shoot progressive scan can be set to shoot a limited selection of frame rates, 24p, 30p and 60p in NTSC land and 25p, 50p and often 24p in PAL land.

Cinematographer, Steadicam Operator, Final Cut Pro Post Production.
https://www.steadi-onfilms.com.au/

[Sean Oneil]

[Shane Ross] “Shutter speed has nothing to do with frame rate or slow motion or anything like that. It allows more light in, also if you point the camera at a TV that is 60hz, that matches the frequency so that it won’t look all TV freaky on you (dunno the term). But since I am not a shooter, I don’t know all the reasons.”

It has more to do with it than just that. The shutter speed defines the temporal rate of motion. 60i captures 60 unique moments in time, per second, not 30. Modern televisions decode 60i to 60p. When deinterlacing and encoding 60i for the web, one would actually have to encode to 60p, not 30p, if they want to retain all the temporal info. So to me, when discussing digital video workflows (as oppose to discussing electical engineering) it’s makes vastly more sense to refer to 60i as “60fps interlaced” – or perhaps “60 half-res frames per second.” When shooters and editors think about and talk about “frames per second” they’re not concerned with electrical scan rates. They’re concerned with motion in time.

Sean