Hmc ...30P for dance recital?

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firehawk

Veteran
Hi everyone. I have a dance recital coming up and this will be the first with my new cameras (used to shoot SD 60i with 16X zoom).

I would prefer to shoot 720 60P but I don't think the 13x zoom on the hmc150s will be enough for the cameras further back. So...
I'm thinking of shooting 1080 30p to give me some extra zoom (reframing in post on a 720 timeline).
Obviously 1080 60p would be great, but the cameras don't do it. I don't want to deal with 60i.

Delivery will be DVD and some Blu rays.

There may not be time for me to test ahead of time so I thought I'd ask the experts here.
Will 30P be ok for theater dance with some fast dances?
 
The HMC150 does not resolve much more detail in 1080 than in 720 mode. Bumping up to 1080 with the intent to do "Crop-zooming" in post will not produce all that great of results. I would recomend staying in 720 60p.

Yeah, the zoom on the 150 isn't massive but I have not been in a theater yet where it is not adequite, especially for dance where you don't really need to get closeups of facial expressions. Also, remember that if you drop to 30p, you will be back at a 180 degree shutter and especially with dance, you could introduce some strobing on quick pans and movements.
 
ohhwell said:
Yeah, the zoom on the 150 isn't massive but I have not been in a theater yet where it is not adequite, especially for dance where you don't really need to get closeups of facial expressions. Also, remember that if you drop to 30p, you will be back at a 180 degree shutter and especially with dance, you could introduce some strobing on quick pans and movements.
Click to expand...

Unless you can't get close enough to where this is a problem. If you end up getting some leeway in panning motion because of the 13x zoom of the HMC, then I would recommend setting the shutter to 1/30.

I have shot stage shows with that and it's actually not bad if you're not moving the camera much.
 
ohhwell said:
The HMC150 does not resolve much more detail in 1080 than in 720 mode. Bumping up to 1080 with the intent to do "Crop-zooming" in post will not produce all that great of results. I would recomend staying in 720 s.
Click to expand...

That makes sense. There's one possible plus here I forgot to mention; The camera furthest away will be an AG hck10 (mini hmc40) and while it has only a 12X zoom, it starts out tighter so it actually can zoom in a little more than the hmc150s, plus it's full raster 1920x1080, so perhaps if necessary to do the 1080 30p crop zoom, it would produce better results than the
150s.

My goal is to test ahead of time but in case that can't happen, I was wondering if the 1080 on a 720 timeline crop zoom would work. 30p seems to work on other things but I've never shot dance with 30p.

Gary, Im not sure I understand. What circumstance are you recommending using 1/30 shutter, just if I end up needing to shoot 1080 30p? Otherwise use 1/60 shutter?


Thank you guys for the help.
 
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firehawk said:
Gary, I'm not sure I understand. What circumstance are you recommending using 1/30 shutter, just if I end up needing to shoot 1080 30p? Otherwise use 1/60 shutter?
Click to expand...

Ideally, your shutter speed will always be twice the frame rate, so 1/48 for 24p, 1/60 for 30p, and 1/120 for 60p. You can make the shutter match the frame rate if there's not too much motion going on, as it helps with lowlight.
 
The shutter speed being half the frame rate is typical of cinematic film, but not typical of video, particularly of the "live" variety.
 
I've been using 1/60 mostly when shooting 720 60p. I hope that's correct.
So, should 1080 30p be 1/60 shutter or ?
 
don't worry about closeups. they don't demand it. I have been doing recitals for 20 years. 12x is fine unless you're stuck in the very back.
 
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