HPX250: HPX250 Slow-motion workflow clarification...

T

The Irish TRex

Well-known member
Hi,

I've got some great help on the AC160 forum with my questions about that camera, but I thought I'd come over here since my questions now involve more of the HPX250 workflow. I own HMC150's so I'm used to the AVCHD workflow. I shoot Weddings entirely at 720p60, transcode to ProRes and then conform it in Cinema Tools to 23.98 and edit on a 23.98 timeline for beautiful, natural slow-motion. I just speed things up 250% in FCP when I need it to be at normal speed with the audio, etc. My questions are regarding wrapping my head around the way of shooting slow-mo at 60fps on a P2 cam like HPX250 which I'll be using for the first time this weekend. Barry had mentioned in my other thread that I can just keep it at 720/24pN and shoot at 60fps (film cam) and I can just drop it on a 23.98 timeline with no Cinema Tools necessary. My remaining questions are:

1) Why is it "24pN" but yet still you still it to 60fps? Mixing in the number 24 into the settings by shooting 720/24pN always confuses me when I'm trying to shoot 60 fps for smooth slow-mo playback on a 24p timeline in post. How is it 24pN and also still able to set to 60fps? Why can't you just use 720p60 like you do on the AVCCAM like the HMC150s to get smooth slow-mo? Or can you? Please explain.

2) When I shoot at 720p60 on the HMC150, if I just dropped that clip on the timeline without conforming the footage first it wouldn't be instantly smooth slow-motion in my experience. And if I just slowed the speed down to 40% it wouldn't be smooth like it is when I conform it. So why is the P2 way different than the AVCHD way?

3) We obviously need audio for ALL of these slow-mo shots because some we speed up and and include the audio (ie. The full ceremony, etc.) so do all these methods of capturing at 60p or whatever for slow motion include the audio?

4) My final and much less important question is...I normally leave my shutter at 1/60th (off) when shooting at 60p on my HMC...I've never tried using 1/120th but given I had enough light to do so, would that make the slow-mo even less blurry? Granted, I don't really have any issue with blurriness at 1/60 as I think it looks awesome. Just curious how that would affect it.

Sorry for my confusion...thanks for your help!
 
It might very well depend on your subject matter. I mostly shoot 60p at 1/60th for nature videos of landscapes as it gives a little motion blur in scenes with fast moving streams and rivers. If I am going to do slow motion I will shoot 60p at 1/120th then conform it to a 30p timeline which gives nice 50% slow mo. Then in other instances I will add a motion blur filter in post to achieve a time lapse look. I don't have sound sync issues as I record my audio separately.

Why not conduct a few test shots and see what looks best.
 
The Irish TRex said:
Hi,

I've got some great help on the AC160 forum with my questions about that camera, but I thought I'd come over here since my questions now involve more of the HPX250 workflow. I own HMC150's so I'm used to the AVCHD workflow. I shoot Weddings entirely at 720p60, transcode to ProRes and then conform it in Cinema Tools to 23.98 and edit on a 23.98 timeline for beautiful, natural slow-motion. I just speed things up 250% in FCP when I need it to be at normal speed with the audio, etc. My questions are regarding wrapping my head around the way of shooting slow-mo at 60fps on a P2 cam like HPX250 which I'll be using for the first time this weekend. Barry had mentioned in my other thread that I can just keep it at 720/24pN and shoot at 60fps (film cam) and I can just drop it on a 23.98 timeline with no Cinema Tools necessary. My remaining questions are:

1) Why is it "24pN" but yet still you still it to 60fps? Mixing in the number 24 into the settings by shooting 720/24pN always confuses me when I'm trying to shoot 60 fps for smooth slow-mo playback on a 24p timeline in post. How is it 24pN and also still able to set to 60fps? Why can't you just use 720p60 like you do on the AVCCAM like the HMC150s to get smooth slow-mo? Or can you? Please explain.

2) When I shoot at 720p60 on the HMC150, if I just dropped that clip on the timeline without conforming the footage first it wouldn't be instantly smooth slow-motion in my experience. And if I just slowed the speed down to 40% it wouldn't be smooth like it is when I conform it. So why is the P2 way different than the AVCHD way?

3) We obviously need audio for ALL of these slow-mo shots because some we speed up and and include the audio (ie. The full ceremony, etc.) so do all these methods of capturing at 60p or whatever for slow motion include the audio?

4) My final and much less important question is...I normally leave my shutter at 1/60th (off) when shooting at 60p on my HMC...I've never tried using 1/120th but given I had enough light to do so, would that make the slow-mo even less blurry? Granted, I don't really have any issue with blurriness at 1/60 as I think it looks awesome. Just curious how that would affect it.

Sorry for my confusion...thanks for your help!
Click to expand...

If you need sound make sure you're not in vfr mode.
You want to be recording to 720/60p, and vfr should be off. If you record to 720/24p, and you have vfr on at 60, you'll get 60p that automatically plays back in slow-mo at 24fps, but there will be no audio.
 
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