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Why does my HPX Shoot 720P/60P and 720P/30P as 720P/24P
I have been using my HPX 170 occasionally for the last year, but always shooting in 720P/24PN. I never tried any of the other 12 modes until last week.
Finally, hoping to get slow motion video, I tried to record in 720P/60P. But I noticed that when I put the camera in the MCR Mode to view the video clips in the camera, when I view the thumbnails of the clips I can see that they were NOT recorded in 720P/60P, but rather 720P/24P (as it shows in the bottom of that window – next to the DVCPROHD icon).
Just to experiment, I tried to record in 720P/30P to see if I had the same problem – same result – it recorded in 720P/24P.
Strange thing though, when I Log and Transfer the clips into Final Cut Pro, I can see in the Browser Bin that these two clips I recorded in 720P/60P and 720P/30P, although they actually recorded in 23.98 fps (so 24P right?) Final Cut Pro assigns them a Compressor of DVCPRO HD 720p60, so maybe FCP knows somehow these were originally intended to be recorded at a different frame rate than the resulting 23.98fps.
I have since checked all of the 11 other record modes (from 1080i/60i down to 480i/24PA) and all seem to be working properly.
Hope you guys are not as confused as I am.
Do you think the camera was like this brand new and I missed it? I’m not a professional like alot of you guys so I didn’t even think to check that all the record modes were working properly when I took it out of the box.
I don’t think I dropped the camera or did anything to physically abuse the camera, and even if I did, why would only two record modes be affected?
Is this camera still in warranty? Does a warranty cover something like this?
Any help would be much appreciated.
Bruce
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2 Replies
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Did you put the camera into Film Mode first?
Noah
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Did the two test clips that you shot have audio? On the LCD, when shooting 60p does the frame rate show as “60p” or “24:60”?
RECORDING SETUP > REC FORMAT should be where you set the size and frame rate for normal shooting.
To shoot with under- or over-crank you’d set the REC FORMAT to one of the 720pN options, then adjust to your desired shooting frame rate with the SCENE FILE > FRAME RATE field.
If you were to shoot in 720pN24 with a frame rate of DEFAULT or set to 24 then you’d have the usual 24p clip you’d expect. But set the FRAME RATE to 60 – and now you’re recording 60 frames per second for your 24p movie – 250% slow motion. Setting the frame rate to 12 would give you double-speed clips… 12 frames per second recorded, played back at 24. And since all 3 of the above examples are recorded as 720pN24 – they’d all show up (rightly) as 24p both during playback and in Log & Transfer.
The reason your clips show up as DVCProHD 60p is that the Native (pN) shooting mode is specific to these cameras, and it is not a standard 720p format. HD 720p spec requires 60 frames per second – so the Compressor field in FCP shows up at DVCProHD 60p – there is no other setting unless you pick 720p50 (PAL).
All the non-pN shooting modes are all ‘over 60’. Shooting 720p30 or 720p24 result in a clip with the look of 30 or 24p, but over a 60p signal. Lots of duplicated frames… which is why shooting pN is so much more efficient.
I think your camera is fine. Do some testing and see if things make sense.
-Adam
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Video Photographer / Avid & Final Cut Editor
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