frame rates 24 30 30p 30i 60 60p 60i

[maxtrack]

Greetings;

I'm about to start filming short film. I have a crew of volunteers and I don't want to mess this up, so . . . .

Is there any reason not to shoot everything in:
SD 16:9 30 frame/sec

Is there any reason to select another frame rate?

Thank you
~ Allen

[jagabo]

What are you shooting with?

Most SD camcorders only shoot 30i. Better SD DV camcorders also support 30p and/or 24p.

Obviously, HD camcorders have much more resolution. Even if your final output is to be SD DVD you may find that shooting HD and downsizing will give better results than shooting direct in SD.

[Guiboche]

For SD I would say minimum 16/9 and 30p.

If your camera can shoot 24p, then definitely use that. But, be VERY careful of sync issues between 23.976 and 23.98. On the MAC, Final Cut will ALWAYS list all 24p material as 23.98. That is a problem, because you can't differentiate between what truly is 23.976, and what got bumped outta sync to 23.98 (and yes, 23.98 is wrong. Regardless of what the editor uses to list). As well, decide BEFORE you shoot whether to use 24p regular or 24p advance. There is a difference, and mixing both types doesn't always work well.

BTW, be VERY careful as to what PROGRESSIVE means on the camera you choose to use. I recently shot something on the PD-150 (older cam, but not bad) in PROGRESSIVE mode. What I didn't know was that it shoot at 15fps in this mode. So research your cam to find what the settings truly mean.

If you can, just get a Panasonic DVX100. Still a fantastic cam throughout.

Hope this helps

[maxtrack]

I will be using a Canon XH A1, which actually offers 60i 30F and 24F frame rates. (created the subject line from all the different frame rates I have been reading about. )

I recently made a mistake, I set the frame rate to 60i while messing around and left it there while in SD 16:9 (it let me do it) then filmed 1 hr 40 min of live theatre. In another forum I wrote about the associated render problems (it has been running 1 week to simply take the first 20 min of 1hr40min to an AVI hdrive file) Someone said 60i does not exist in DV SD specifications

The bottom line seems to be use 30F in SD 16:9 to avoid NLE and rendering difficulties.

Side Bar: I have a Canon ELPH digital camera capable of recording video, and it seems to record exactly 30 fps, not 29.97
why don't they all just record exactly 30 fps ??

I apologize for any confusion my subject line caused.
~ Allen

[jagabo]

NTSC SD TV is 59.94 fields per second, 29.97 frames per second when stored as interlaced frames (2 fields per frame). Black and white TV was originally 60 fields per second. When they crammed the color subchannels in they needed to shift the frequency a bit to reduce some crosstalk problems. 59.94 was enough to eliminate the problems and was close enough to 60 that BW TV's could still sync.

[edDV]

Read this site on 30F/24F/24P/24PA issues. Although he describes 480p/24 the same issues apply at 720p/24 and 1080p/24.
http://www.adamwilt.com/24p/
another
http://www.hdforindies.com/2007/05/two-ish-more-rules-for-indie.html

You really need to understand and test this (through editor and export) before you shoot seriously. If NTSC broadcast is the goal, normal 1080i/29.97 (59.94 fields per sec) gives the smoothest playback. 720p/29.97 is a bit jerky and 24fps (23.976 for NTSC) needs special camera handling as taught in film school (e.g. heavy tripods and limited pan/zoom).

After reading above ask more. Give us more info on intended disribution formats.