60 FPS?!?

[islandpopper]

Hello... I am new here, been coming for the last few days checking out the forum and found it very adequate and full of helpful friendly comments... and this is my very first post!

And it regards DSLR video on 60 FPS... I recently got a new T2i... video capability being one of the main reasons... (I also have a Nikon D60), you know for getting some good quality shots of my daughter... now, after setting the video at 720 60FPS, I find the motion on playback to be 30 FPS.

I have shot film many times before, also video... and frankly I'm New to DSLR video... I've checked all the settings on the menu, the camera is very intuitive, but for sure there's something I don't know, or something wrong... because I can't get any 60 FPS shots.

A reply would be greatly appreciated!

[bpaulette]

Playback on the camera will always use the framerate its shot at. So, if you shoot at 60fps, and then play, it'll play back at 60fps (aka realtime). If you shoot at 24, it plays back at 24, 30 at 30, etc...

60fps isn't slow-motion off the shelf. Its only slow motion if you shoot at 60, then play it back at 30 or 24 fps. (i.e. import a 60fps clip into a video sequence set to 30fps and export) Make sense?

If you want to shoot at 60, and get a feel for how it'll look on a 30 fps timeline on the camera's lcd, just play back using the "Slow Motion" function, and then use the dial on top to slow it down to about half speed.

[islandpopper]

Thanks!!! I tried that slow motion before and I could clearly see it was a simulated effect, sort of like a DVD or DVR slow motion... but now you clarified it... so when I import to Final Cut and play them at 24/30fps it will look like 60 FPS on film then I guess... Well thanks a bunch.

Now I'll transfer the clips to the laptop and see if in Quicktime they play at 60 FPS.

Thanks again!

[islandpopper]

Well sad to say... it didn't work!!! In Quicktime, it plays at 30 FPS... then I used MPEG Streamclip to export the video, I put 24 there... then 30... no dice I get the same motion!!!... I have seen 60fps videos of this camera Youtube and all... yet I can't make it work!

[Firotechnics]

Put in into final cut pro and place it in a 30 fps sequence and it will work

[bpaulette]

You really just have to change the way you think about this. To get slow motion, you're changing the rules of a clip - and most players follow the rules.

For example, you keep saying it "plays at 30 fps". By this, I'm assuming you mean that it's playing in realtime. "30fps" is only realtime with clips shot at and played back at 30fps. Realtime for a 60fps clip is 60fps. Quicktime sees that you're trying to play a 60fps clip, and so it plays it at the clip's native 60fps. Just like if you played a 24fps clip, it would, by default, play it at 24fps.

When you used MPEG Streamclip, telling it to convert to 24fps and 30fps, it just threw away a bunch of frames, and basically just did exactly what you asked it to do... converted a 60fps clip to a 24 or 30fps clip. Then when you played those, they (once again) played in their native 24 or 30 frames per second.

Again, to get the slow motion effect, you need to set up a 30fps sequence in Final Cut, then import your 60fps clip - but make sure that Final Cut actually uses every frame of your clip, and doesn't auto-adjust it to fit... In Premiere which is what I use, I set up a 30fps sequence, then pull in the 60fps clip, at which point Premiere auto-adjusts the length to fit the 30fps timeline - it cuts it in half, throwing away half the frames. So I set the duration to exactly twice that, at which point it uses every frame, taking twice as long to play, in smooth slow motion. I don't know if Final Cut does this too, someone who uses FC could clarify that, but be aware that it might.

Make more sense?

[islandpopper]

Yes I see... I'm sure it does... I just never came across any high speed shot footage that automatically played in "realtime"... and when I saw it had audio synced to it, I just asked myself "what?, how?"... thanks, again for your help.

Now it's up to me to figure the rest by myself!... which is half the fun.