AC160 Regarding frame rates- what happens if?

R

Rod Pike

Well-known member
Hi all,
My new ac160A is now just two days away! I have been shooting some sport lately and would like to use slo mo occasionally. What happens if I set the camera to high frame rate permanently? Do I just halve the time capacity of the SDHC cards or are there other caveats? This obviously would give me the ability to slow down any unexpected or random dramatic event without having to reset the camera. (impossible of course if a random event!). I edit in Edius 5.51 and currently just alter the speed rate of existing footage, but the quality losses get severe of course as I am shooting at 25fps.
Cheers
Rod
 
I shoot in 50p and edit on a 25p timeline all the time. I use Premiere and don't know anything about Edius, but I'd be very surprised if it didn't do the same as Premiere and just drop every second frame when converting 50p to 25p. The only issue you might have is that 50p does take more computer resouces to play so if your edit computer is slow you may find it a bit painful to work with.

I suggest you do a quick test when you get the camera.
 
If you want to get decent slow-mo in Edius, this is what to do. Shoot in 50p. Make sure your Edius timeline properties is set to 25 fps. Right click the clip thumbnail in the bin that you want to slow down. In clip properties change the frame rate from 50 to 25. this will give you 50% slow-mo. In my experience the results look better than using the clip speed adjustment tool. I am in the USA and almost always shoot 720 60p and put it on a 29.97p timeline where everything plays at normal speed unless I alter the individual clip frame rate as previously mentioned. Also, most suggest increasing your shutter speed when shooting 50 or 60 frame rate. The recommendation is 50fps at 1/100th and 60fps at 1/120th. This is to avoid motion blur unless that is what you are trying to achieve.
 

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Thankyou Mike and Mark. I will try out both your suggestions when it turns up. (today hopefully!) This is also my first experience with progressive mode option - my current Sony is i only, so lots of new experiences await I guess!
 
Hi again, I wondered about caveats and I think I missed the obvious!
just reading through specs it seems if I set VFR at 50 rather than 25 it seems that I won't record sound- have I understood this correctly? If that is the case then leaving the camera in 50 fps as a standard setting would require external sound recording yes? I realise that slowed down sound would be useless , but to retain sound during 50fps for playing back at normal speed would have been ideal. I know Jan stated something to the effect that why would you want sound on a slowed down track- I wondered about this and it would be when you didn't actually want to slow it down. Oh well, so much to learn about this camera- (still waiting the courier!)
 
Hmm.... I basing my experience with the HPX170. I usually shoot 720p60 with no sound problems so I would think 720p50 should record sound ok. However, I thought I read something here that the 1080p50 on the AC160/130 would not record sound. I am not sure about it.
 
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Rod Pike said:
just reading through specs it seems if I set VFR at 50 rather than 25 it seems that I won't record sound- have I understood this correctly?
Click to expand...

That is correct. However, with the free firmware update you can shoot in true 50p/60p, including sound. If you're getting the 160A it probably already has the new firmware.
 
Shooting 1080/25p @ 50fps = no sound.

Shooting 720/50p or 1080/50p (with the new firmware) = sound recording.

If you want to always shoot 50fps and always have sound, and choose when to slow down in post, then don't shoot 25p @ 50fps, instead use the new PS mode of 1080/50p.
 
thankyou Barry, camera arrived yesterday and I am working through your excellent book- I am now no longer a son of Sony but a pal of Panasonic! let the learning anew begin!
 
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