Shooting 30p in 50 Hz PAL land

[Daniel L.]

Seems to be a lot of questions on the subject... First of all, I don't have any experience shooting in a PAL region. I do know of several people that use the 5D in Europe. They say that there is a problem sometimes, but it's rare and only under certain conditions.

We know that 30p under 50 Hz lighting is a bad idea. However, after some time analyzing the 5D Mark II firmware it appears to have code that is specifically designed to compensate for 50 Hz lighting. Looks like Canon went through a lot of trouble to make 30p work in EU.

Why not just add 25p? Who knows! I have heard some suggest it's a problem with licenses, others say taxes, or it may be as simple as a hardware limitation. Why is really not important, fact is that it's something we have to deal with.

Would be interesting to hear others experiences in PAL directly. I really have not heard people who actually own the camera complain... How well does it work?

 

[morgan_moore]

my experience is .. turn the lights off and let daylight flood in the windows

flouro lighting and the new (horrble coloured) eco lights seem OK, whereas trad tundgsten can flash as can computer monitors, I havnt tried TV sceens

as trad tundgsten dies out in many places I think its not too bad

I have hot arris and a photonbeard flouro not tested (becasue I have not neede to ad light!)

5/10,

My Ex1 stays in the car for the day I turn up at rolling office

S

 

[squig]

It's the only big question mark with the 5D. If I hire one for my weekend shoot I'll do some extensive testing....that's if I don't succumb and just buy one next week.

 

[Lee Wilson]

. . . However, after some time analyzing the 5D Mark II firmware it appears to have code that is specifically designed to compensate for 50 Hz lighting.

What did you find ? How does the code generally work ?

I really have not heard people who actually own the camera complain... How well does it work?

Works fine most of the time, but I occasionally have to throw away some shots that are ruined by pulsing/flickering lights, these can appears anywhere, indoors, outdoors (even during daytime).

 

[Pier]

And some problem even with HMI lights !

 

[ChrisDTV]

Shooting at a shutter rate of 1/100 of a second should help... if it can do that - thats the fix with conventional video cameras...

Chris

 

[yoclay]

On the 5D with the new firmware update you can shoot at 1/30, 1/50 and 1/100 in those lighting conditions and not get banding or flickering.

 

[Lee Wilson]

On the 5D with the new firmware update you can shoot at 1/30, 1/50 and 1/100 in those lighting conditions and not get banding or flickering.

Still happens at all these settings - for me.

Where did you test this ?

+ why would the shutter speed mitigate the fact that the frame rate is out of sync with the local power cycle ??

 

[squig]

Where are you Lee? A few users are saying it's working for them so I'm just wondering if there's some kind of non-standard frequency where you are 48.5hz? Some NTSC video shooters have said frame rate was never a problem for them if they chose the right shutter speed.