Are you shooting 30-50-60 FPS?

[SCUBA Hank 5]

Hello All,

 

When using our DSLR to capture video, are you typically using 1080p 30,50 or 60fps?

 

Do you change it when shooting macro vs. WA? If so why?

 

I know if you want to slow something down in Post production you should shoot at a higher FPS rate but is that the only reason?

 

I am not shooting in 4K and don't plan to be anytime soon. I plan only to share things via the Web or output to a standard TV occasionally.

 

Also are you manually white balancing every 10-12 feet or so or leaving it in auto?

 

 

I'm shooting with a D7200, Kraken Video lights in a Nauticam housing. Just finding my footing with this setup and looking for what others are doing to help reduce the learning curve.

 

 

Thanks,

 

Hank

[kc_moses 142]

If you have the option to shoot at 60fps, shoot at 60fps and you can always re sample to 30fps in post. Since storage media is not an issue for 1080p, 60fps is manageable. The advantage of 60fps and slow down to 30fps is so that you can "stabilize" your footage without scarify pixel (which happen when you post process to stabilize a video using rotate+zoom algorithm).

 

If you have an option to shoot 4K, by all mean shoot 4K, it makes your footage kind of future proof, and 4K gives you the flexibility to zoom and crop, especially for macro subject and output to 1080p. If you are shooting video for artistic reason, 4K is prefer because 3 years from now, people would still watch 4K content. If you shoot at 1080p, your content will become obsolete very soon, just like not many people is interested to watch DVD these days because they are only 740x480.

[MikeVeitch 0]

I shoot 30 on my 7200, 60 is not an option at 1080p. No need to shoot 25, 60 would be a nice option on that camera though. As KC mentioned, its about being able to slow it down. the 25 and 30 comes from the days of PAL and NTSC i guess, NTSC (30) is the north american version, PAL (25) is the European model. PAL was a bit better as it had more resolution 720 x 576 as opposed to NTSC which is 720 x 480. And then there is movie film which is/was 24 fps... But I think its all mumbo jumbo now

 

The key thing is to keep the same ratio: if you shoot at 30fps and 60fps you are golden. If you shoot at 25 then you will want to mix that with 50. don't mix 25 and 30 or 25 and 60 sort of thing. Stay consistent..

[thetrickster 328]

Its a really good question, and one which I find intriguing due to the recent onslaught of 4K@60p

 

Most of my cameras I've had, were limited to 25/30p in 1080 - so never really have actually shot much on my GH3 and GH4 at 1080p60 - i think the lure of UHD sort of spoiled the benefits of shooting 1080p60, and even now I'm hard pressed not to like my 30p stuff.

 

As the guys have said above, and from recent videos, underwater footage shot at 60p and played back at 30p - looks lovely. For me, its not that it looks 'slow mo' but that you get to appreciate the coral scenes more, the fish aren't so jumping around, the movement of the soft coral is more smooth and for sharks and the like, they look so much more defined slightly slowed down - yet you feel like the movement is still normal. On the other side, playing 60p back at 60p to me, looks awful from the youtube stuff I've watched - too real, too jerky and doesn't lead it self to storytelling - so for delivery to youtube etc I would still upload at 30p

 

I'm still shooting 30p at UHD, but instead of upgrading this summer, I'm going back down to 1080p and having a look at what my stuff looks like 2x slowed down.

 

As to WB - if I'm using lights, the WB is set to the Kelvin of the lights, or if not I'm Manual White Balance every few meters.

[ScubaBob 37]

A couple points of consideration:

 

1) 60p requires a faster shutter speed and, subsequently, more light. Depending on what you are shooting, and how you plan to treat the footage in post, 1080p60 may be a better option then 4k 30p. In general though, the 4K I've downrezzed looks better than native 1080 footage.

2) While true that standard definition footage doesn't look as good on a 1080 or 4K display, a high quality source (especially true 480p footage from a DVD) looks much better than more compressed and especially interlaced footage. Also, the negative affects up upscaling are much more apparent going from 480 to 1080, then going from 1080 to 4K. The size of the display (and quality of the scaling) make a big difference here as well. I believe some of this has to do with what the human eye is able to perceive in detail. The same (quality) 1080 footage may look perfectly fine on a 8k 60" display at home, but when projected on a large screen at 8k the drop in quality will be more obvious.

3) I'll still watch a great dive film in any resolution

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited May 10, 2017 by ScubaBob

[Nick Hope 151]

I disagree that 1080p will become obsolete very soon. There is plenty of life left in that format. My YouTube stuff is watched more on phones than any other device these days, and only The Six Million Dollar Man or a Sony Xperia salesman can tell the difference between 1080 and 4k on a phone. 1080p on a TV is also quite acceptable to most normal people.

[A.Y. 15]

I always shoot 60p for lifelike smooth 60fps playback and slow-motion editing on a 60p timeline. It makes no sense converting 60p to 30fps playback if your TVs and computers can handle 60fps videos.

 

It's great that consumer cameras are starting to feature 4K 60p and more are on the way.

 

Shooting 60p with 1/60sec shutter needs the same amount of light as shooting 30p with 1/60sec shutter. Shooting 30p with 1/30sec shutter requires very steady hands to avoid blurry videos.

Edited May 28, 2017 by A.Y.

[A.Y. 15]

 

Shoot 60p with 1/60 shutter under low-light situations!

Edited June 9, 2017 by A.Y.