Steve Crow
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So I have been doing some further research on this issue reading online – particularly these two pages:
https://www.red.com/learn/red-101/flicker-free-video-tutorial
https://ezinearticles.com/?All-About-Fluorescent-Light-Flicker-in-Cameras!&id=3193172By merging what I think I’ve learned from both of these sources it appears that you can fix fluorescent lighting flickering by
1) Knowing the power cycle of your local electricity (60hz US, 50hz in a variety of other countries)
2) and then setting EITHER the shutter speed or frame rate of your video to some multiple or division of that power cycle number, like this:
UPDATE: AFTER VIEWING THIS VIDEO
IT SEEMS YOU MIGHT HAVE TO ADJUST BOTH THE FRAME RATE AND SHUTTER SPEED, JUST DOING ONE MAY NOT WORK!
* To use frame rate to eliminate flickering choose a frame rate this is the result of dividing the power cycle rate by some number like 1, 2 or 3
* To use shutter speed to eliminate flickering choose a multiple of the power cycle rate, like multiplying the power cycle by 1, 2, 3 etc and turning the resulting number to a 1 over fraction
So, in the United States ( a 60hz country) you could:
* Set the frame rate to 60fps, 30fps or 15fps (60/1 = 60, 60/2=30, 60/4=15)
* Set the shutter speed to a 1/60th, 1/120th (60X1=60, 60×2=120)
Then in a 50hz country you could:
* Set the frame rate to 50fps, 25fps or 12.5fps (50/1 = 50, 50/2=25, 50/4=12.5)
* Set the shutter speed to a 1/50th, 1/100th (50X1=50, 50×2=100)
Some of these setting don’t seem too practical (shooting at 12.5fps for example) and you may not be able to match the numbers exactly (1/48th shutter speed for example) but close is probably close enough.
I am not 100% sure of these calculations as math is not my strong point so please everyone correct me where I’ve goofed!
Steve Crow
Crow Digital Media
http://www.CrowDigitalMedia.com -
It’s interesting that we are talking about two DSLR filmmaking “rules” which turn out to be quite close to each other in some respects:
RULE 1 ON THE FILM LOOK: To get the film look set your shutter speed to 2x the frame rate (frames per second) This is expressed as a fraction like 1/48th for 24p footage. Now my camera here in the US doesn’t offer a 1/48th option so I select the closest speed to it which is 1/50th and that works just fine.
RULE 2 ON POWER CYCLES AND FILMING UNDER FLUORESCENT LIGHTING: To avoid the rolling bars look on your video, set your shutter speed to 2x the cycle rate (expressed in hz) of your local electricity supply. So if you are in a country with a 220v/50hz power system then you want to try to for 1/100th of a second or if that doesn’t work then multiples of 1/100 like 1/50th, 1/200. Keep in mind that as you get into the higher shutter speeds you may not like the look of the video – some people call it “jittery” or “hyper realistic” or “video like” or “lacking motion blur.”
Steve Crow
Crow Digital Media
http://www.CrowDigitalMedia.com -
I think this thread answers your questions:
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/280/7346#7361
Steve Crow
Crow Digital Media
http://www.CrowDigitalMedia.com -
You should research the Atmos Ninja external hard drive for capturing video to see if that will work for you. I believe the device can use your camera’s HDMI output to get the video signal however many DSLR’s don’t provide a “clean” HDMI signal meaning you will see all the camera control information and the red recording dot overlayed on the video so that’s no good. There could be other problems too like the lcd screen switching off when an external storage device is attached to your camera…but that’s where I would at least start my research…let us know what you find out!
Steve Crow
Crow Digital Media
http://www.CrowDigitalMedia.com -
Well I have a couple of thoughts:
1. In my Canon User Manual it says that when you select 24p it will actually be recorded at 23.976 – so they are just rounding up.
2. In terms of bringing clips into Final Cut Pro – I believe what FCP is doing is creating the project at 24.98 when you allow it to automatically create a sequence based upon the clip’s format. So they are also rounding up.
This slight difference has never bothered me – no one will ever be able to tell the difference but you could always manually adjust the timeline to 24.000 fps and FCP will render the clip into that format for you.
Steve Crow
Crow Digital Media
http://www.CrowDigitalMedia.com -
Well at least we know that it IS either the camera or the settings….
All right, how about this….reinstall the camera firmware to return it to the same condition it was out of the box new….by the way are you using Magic Lantern??? I can’t remember, but if you are try removing it and see what happens.
Steve Crow
Crow Digital Media
http://www.CrowDigitalMedia.com -
I don’t think its time quite yet for the returning the camera – here is a kind of a long shot, convert your Raw Video to ProRes using the free MpegStreamClip app or whatever you have, see if that helps at all.
Another quick test is to film someone in a different environment – perhaps outdoors or in another room and to be fair I’d make sure there was some shadow falling on the person, even if only on their forehead from their hair….the idea here is to see if the problem is related to the environment you are filming in or to the camera. If you are still getting the same issue, then the camera or its settings become more suspect
Steve Crow
Crow Digital Media
http://www.CrowDigitalMedia.com -
I’m surprised to hear that, okay try setting your white balance to one of the built in settings like daylight, shadow, indoor etc.
And you said you tried putting more light on the face also? It’s something to do with color, color balance I think.
One more thing….the screen capture you provided, was that directly from the H.264 video shot by the camera or did you compress the video into another format and THEN made the screenshot?
Steve Crow
Crow Digital Media
http://www.CrowDigitalMedia.com -
The Auto Lighting Optimizer is designed to “help” with shadows – exactly where you are having issues so that’s why I am suspicious of it – plus you have it on strong. I was able to look at the screen grab and another thing you might try is to bounce some light to the face and forehead using a reflector – not too much, just enough to help combat the natural shadows caused by the hair – give that a shot and let us know how it works out.
Steve Crow
Crow Digital Media
http://www.CrowDigitalMedia.com -
Your link is broken but:
1) turn OFF auto lighting optimizer
2) why are you shooting on all auto ?- that’s going to cause you issues even though at first it may seem “easier”
My best suggestion is to set your movie exposure setting to manual which will give you ful control over the camera. The auto setting is why, for instance, your camera set its aperture to 1/60 when 1/50th would have been more ideal – not a huge deal in this particular case but still.
3) Turn off peripheral illumin. correct – that’s for when you are shooting JPG still images
Steve Crow
Crow Digital Media
http://www.CrowDigitalMedia.com