Recording volleyball game at 30FPS

[lordhutt]

So I just upgraded my old school Sony HDR-SR12 and bought a Canon XA50.
I videoed my daughters volleyball game at 4k 30 FPS and was standing center court and tracking the ball left to right using a monopod.
While the video looked great while not really moving the camera ... when following the ball the smoothness of the video was far from satisfactory.
Would this have been better if I recorded at 1080 @60FPS?
Is this even the best camera choice for this kind of recording? It will mainly be used for recording events like sports with lots of motion.

[Cornucopia]

Easy answer: yes (1080p60, vs 4k p30), if you wanted smoothness of motion.

Whether it is the best cam for your needs is still your call, based on your priorities & sensitivities.


Scott

[jagabo]

You need to record 30i or 60p for smooth flicker free motion (25i or 50p PAL).

There are a few things you can do to make 30p a little less jerky. Use slower panning (may not be practical in your case). Set the shutter speed is as long as possible to increase motion blur. Use a shallow depth of field (probably not possible in your case).

[lordhutt]

Thanks for the replies guys. I will do some tests in 1080p 60 and see how it goes.

If I wanted to do 4K 60FPS is there a camcorder in this price range that can do that that also has a 1" sensor?

[4kblurayguru]

Change the shutter speed to 1/60 if you're hell bent on shooting 4K.

[lordhutt]

Change the shutter speed to 1/60 if you're hell bent on shooting 4K.

Not saying I HAVE to have 4K... just trying to get the highest resolution without sacrificing quality. There will be a lot of movement in most things I use it for.

As for shutter speed... is this something I can do with this? Just looked through all the video settings and don't see anything for shutter speed.

[_Al_]

Not saying I HAVE to have 4K... just trying to get the highest resolution without sacrificing quality.

There is another side of it. Even if you shoot that event with 4k 60p using auto and big DOF (perhaps necessary), while encoding , you'd get gigantic bitrates for 4k. Sort of, be careful what you wish for.

[jagabo]

As for shutter speed... is this something I can do with this? Just looked through all the video settings and don't see anything for shutter speed.

It's also called exposure, or exposure time.

Automatic modes on many cameras/camcorders have options for fixed aperture (you set the aperture and the camera adjusts the shutter speed to get a good picture), or fixed exposure time (you set the exposure time, the camera adjusts the aperture to get a good picture).