Best settings for recording Dance performances - 720/60p?

[philkiel]

Hi all, new to the forum and I've already found a lot of useful information!

I'm using the HMC151 to film some dance performances, in different locations including inside,outdoors and on stage with stage lighting. The footage will be used on the web and possibly DVDs but it not to BluRay or broadcast. I live in PAL UK.

I've come to the conclusion that the most suitable settings will be 720/60p because I don't need 1080 and 60p because of the fast motion and possible slo-mo in post.

Do I need to worry about using 59hz rather than 50hz to access the 720/60p setting?

I've previously been using consumer cameras and I've found alot of noise in the backgrounds. Is Neat Video a good place to start to get rid of it?

I'm grateful for any advice you can give me.

Thanks

Phil

[Admir]

Since UK is PAL, and europe uses 50 hz, you might get some really nasty flickering from the lights, but as long as you shoot outside you should be fine. You can get some really nice slow mo with 50 fps too! Yes, Neat video might help you out, but rather than doing that just check your settings before shooting, since the scene file settings really do help you out a lot when it comes to the noise.

If you're afraid of noise, shoot in B press gamma, and use the NORM 2 matrix. Also, add detail coring to +1, and you might want to take the master ped down to -2 or so. If this crushes your blacks to much, try to set the master ped to 0. Another safe way to go is just to take down the detail levels to minus 3-4, might give you a bit softer image, but it helps out with noise related issues!

[Jim Simon]

Working in PAL, would you not just choose 720p/50? The 60 fps seems more of an NTSC thing.

[philkiel]

Thanks for the scene file settings Admir.

Yes I didn't think of using 720/50p in PAL mode.