FS-100 and slow motion?!

B

Brian_Broz

Active member
Hi,
I am hoping someone has tried shooting variable frame rates and recording to an FS-100 !?
I understand that 720/24PN is not available with the FS-100, as the FW out provides a 60P output ("NTSC" camera).
For shooting slomo...does one set the record format to 720/24P and then set your frame rate to do the conversion in post (Final Cut Pro 5.1).
If anyone has done this, any tips or comments would be much appreciated. I have been searching and calling people for an answer and keep getting conflicting information re: shooting 48fps at 720/24P with the FS-100.
Any comments or help is very much appreciated!
Thanks,

Brian Broz
 
Actually, you can do 720, but 24p? I'll be on the phone with Focus in the morning about it. Be sure to check out the July edition of Event DV magazine for all this information!

If someone emails me and reminds me, I'll do sneak peaks in a few days when our testing is done (HVX200, FS-100, 17" Powerbook, Quad Core G5, CineSaddle, FCP 5.1).
 
they probably said 48 FPS for the fact that when you slow it down, or want to speed it up, it can easily cut back into 24 FPS. As for slo mo on the 24p setting, i havent heard much about it. sorry.
 
Ok, so after some further testing today...you can indeed shoot variable frame rates at 720/24P (of course not "Native") with the FS-100!
Make sure you download the frame rate convertor from Panasonic's website and install it into your editing application (I use FCP5.1) and voila! Highlight the clip, apply the frame rate convertor from the pull down menu bar...then remove the extra frames (which takes rendering) It works! I had 60FPS footage playing back at 24.
Now the funnny, thing is...before the Fs-100 came out I understood to achieve the "slomo" effect with the Firestore, the extra frames would have to be removed via the frame rate convertor in post. (As described above). However afer listening to numerous people (dealers and end users with HVXs and FS-100s) that said it flat out can't be done...had me confused! I even know of 1 person who returned multiple FS-100s because he couldn't get it to work...and was told (by several dealers) that there is no way to shoot slomo (36, 48, 60FPS) with the Firestore!
Just thought I would pass my findings along. Just trying to help clear any confusion out there! Thanks to David at Panasonic Canada for double confirming my findings!
Hope that helps,


Brian Broz
 
The idea that you can't do it is a pernicious rumor that I keep trying to kill off. Thanks for verifying again that it definitely can be done.
 
See my various posts around the site that indeed it can be done. I have done. I am writing about it. I am doing a video tutorial about it. The only problem I encountered is that for some reason the FRC plug in will not work if the footage is in a logging bin in FCP but it works if the clip is loose in the browser window. so, shoot 24p at whatever frame rate; capture with Firestore; import into FCP but do not remove extra frames at ingest; run the FRC; create new clip and import into FCP automatically; drop into a 23.98 timeline.

Next person to spread that rumor gets a visit from my wife when she is in a lousy mood. I assure you that you would never spread that rumor again.

Ned Soltz
 
I'm getting started on the video tutorial. Doing some preliminaries this weekend and hope to get someone to shoot it first of the week.

Ned
 
"Make sure you download the frame rate convertor from Panasonic's website and install it..."

I can't find it, you got a URL to this convertor?
 
Ok, here's a problem. From Barry's tutorial on the Studio Monthly site, you can only do variable frame rate, the in-camera slo-motion, using 720/24pN, not regular 720/24p. Ok, I've confirmed that.

So the FS-100 won't react if you're in 24pN mode.

So if I shoot regular 24p mode, you say I can get the in-camera slo-mo by using this FRC from Panasonic, eh? Where's this FRC to download?

Am I understanding this correctly?
 
Ben,

Glad you found it.

Here were my steps in FCP 5.1.1:

Shoot 720 24p at say 12 fps to FS-100
Import into FCP 5.1.1 with the remove duplicate frames box UNchecked
Highlight clip in Browser. Apply Tools->FRC. Presuming a 23.98 timeline, use the 23.98 pulldown. I have it write a new movie and reimport into FCP. This gives you the opportunity to name movie and specify destination.
Drop that movie into your 23.98 timeline and voila...

As I said, for some reason, the FRC would not even come up if I imported the clips into a logging bin. It only worked loose in the browser. But that was on a G5 tower which has been a little wonky lately. I'll try it on another machine and see what happens.

Ned Soltz
 
Oh, there is, my bad! Working on a deadline, too fast.

Why would you not simply remove the unnessisary frame on import?
 
Good speaking with you yesterday, Ben. According to the docs on the FRC, the FRC needs to do the extra frame removal in order for variable frame rate to work. I've just decided to accept that on blind faith.

Ned
 
I tested it. I had four clips recorded in 720p24 mode. Frame rates were thus:
1- 24fps
2- 30fps
3- 48fps
4- 60fps
Then I made a Sequence in the 720p24 Easy Setup.

Phase One:
Imported all directly from P2 in-cam and used the pulldown option (FCP).
1- 23.98
2- 29.97
3- 59.94
4- 59.94
All played at normal speed in the Sequence.

Phase Two:
Imported all withOUT the pulldown. Then applied the Frame Rate Converter to match the 24p Sequence. Saved all out as QT movies, re-imported (actually, that step is done automatically). All clips at 23.98fps. All clips play at different speeds in Sequence.

54.9MB original QuickTime comp clip is avaialbe at
http://www.wolfdigitalmedia.net/public/SpeedTestComp.mov

This clip is full screen, full res, compilation of all together for comparison. I even did a 60fps at 50%. And the normal speed 24fps clip at 50%.

So, yes, you do have to use the Frame Rate Converter to do this.
And, no, the FRC tool will work with clips in a bin marked as a logging bin. But you have to select them one at a time. FRC won't batch multiple clips for processing at one time. I imported into a logging bin and had no problems at all.
 
Interesting that you could get the FRC working with clips in a bin. I suspect something si going a little nuts with my G5. I'm in CA right now and just have my G4 PB with me, and when I get a chance I'll try that on the PB.
 
Is there only a framerate converter for FCP? If so does that mean that you can't do slowmo with firestore if you are not using FCP?

ps - first post, great forum!
 
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