dvx100b slow motion

andythefilmer

andythefilmer

Veteran
hey guys, i an planning to do a video, and one shot calls for a close up of a bottle dropping and breaking with a black background. its supposed to be in VERY SLOW MOTION. like the shots from the show time warp (shot at 20,000 fps!) i am assuming i should use 60i, but is there a setting higher than 1/2000 for slow motion?
 
I think you have a few concepts confused. 60i is a frame rate, 60 fields per second, 60 images per second, basically. 1/2000 is a shutter speed, the length of time the shutter is open for each of the images being captrued as part of your frame rate.

As an example, if you shoot 60i (the fastest frame rate the DVX can do) with a 1/2000 shutter, then you are taking 60 images per second, and for each image, the shutter is open 1/2000 of a second.

Not much light can get into the lens in 1/2000 of a second, so you'd need a lot of light. A 1/2000 shutter is really overkill. Even for slow motion, you really only need to double the frame rate. So for 60i, a 1/120 shutter would do just fine. 1/250 is you want a little crisper look.

It sounds like you really are looking to shoot 2000 frames per second, which just isn't possible on the DVX. There are plugins like Revision FX Twixtor that can synthesize slow motion. You might get acceptable results shooting 60i and getting 120p or 240p out of it, but not much more. There are also cameras like the Phanton HD that specialize in high-speed photography. Or, shoot film, which can run at faster speeds.
 
I feel like I found the magic number for my dvx recently. What I do is I shoot at 30p with a 1/60 shutter speed, and then slow the footage down to 60% playback speed in post, and it gives me very smooth images with almost no ghosting at all. I recommend testing lots of methods in order to see what works, but the math for 30p and 1/60 down to 60% actually hits the nail pretty much on the head. Or at least it has for me. And this way, you're still shooting progressive frames and not losing a lot of definition in the process.
 
Shoot 60i with 1/120th or 1/250th shutter.

Bring into your 24p timeline.

Select "separate fields" (named different things in different NLE's)

Set playback rate for 40% of original speed.

This will get you the cleanest smoothest motion you can out of the DVX. If you do this in After Effects use "Pixel Motion" for your frame blending mode and it is even better. You can then take it into something like Twixtor or even re-import into AE and pixel motion your way to slower frame rates but with marginal results. At this point, the computer has to make up new information and it isn't always right. The simpler your subject, the simpler your background, and the less sproadically your subject moves all improve your chances. Check out the link in my signature for some shorts I shot that have a bunch of DVX slow motion in them using the After Effects workflow I outlined above.
 
i want to slow down to .10x the original speed, and its mainly stuff breaking or exploding... like the show time warp. except i cant shoot at 20,000 fps!!!
 
if you want to shoot high speed use a high speed camera the dvx was not designed to capture high speed images it can be pushed to its limits but it is not ideal and will not give you what you are looking for
 
except i am 14, and i cannot afford a high speed camera! i busted my ass to get my dvx, so i guess i will try to make it smoother in premiere...
 
unfortunately, i am using a crappy old imac, and it just failed on me. i am reinstalling it right now, but my little bro (as stupid as he is) likes to throw random stuff in the firepit and two of those items were my adobe master collection cs4 set and my fcp6 set. what should i do now??? my parents arent going to buy me another suite or expensive editing system.... and i dont have enough to get one.
 
im having a similar problem I love the progresive look ( 24p or 30p ) Im not a big fan of 60i at all.....I shoot action sports i been shooting 60i but I am considering switching to 30p and doing my slo mo also in 30p.....I like a shutter of 1/1000 it looks great when i am shooting moto cross and the dirt flings up.. kinda freeze frames it

here is a night shot i did in 60i.....the lighting was horrible so i had the shutter at 1/100
skip to 1:34 for the slo mo...let me get your opinions
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=53134424
 
William_Robinette said:
Shoot 60i with 1/120th or 1/250th shutter.

Bring into your 24p timeline.

Select "separate fields" (named different things in different NLE's)

Set playback rate for 40% of original speed.

This will get you the cleanest smoothest motion you can out of the DVX. If you do this in After Effects use "Pixel Motion" for your frame blending mode and it is even better. You can then take it into something like Twixtor or even re-import into AE and pixel motion your way to slower frame rates but with marginal results. At this point, the computer has to make up new information and it isn't always right. The simpler your subject, the simpler your background, and the less sproadically your subject moves all improve your chances. Check out the link in my signature for some shorts I shot that have a bunch of DVX slow motion in them using the After Effects workflow I outlined above.
Click to expand...


What software uses the term "separate fields"? What would the equivalent term be in FCP?




.
 
Lawsuit_Boy said:
I feel like I found the magic number for my dvx recently. What I do is I shoot at 30p with a 1/60 shutter speed, and then slow the footage down to 60% playback speed in post, and it gives me very smooth images with almost no ghosting at all. I recommend testing lots of methods in order to see what works, but the math for 30p and 1/60 down to 60% actually hits the nail pretty much on the head. Or at least it has for me. And this way, you're still shooting progressive frames and not losing a lot of definition in the process.
Click to expand...

What timeline do you put your 30p footage into?
 
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