Stupid Question: For video - what is the effect of increasing shutter speed?

C

cam123

Active member
I tried google and everything refers to photography.
I'm interested on the video side of things for shutter. :)

I just kept on blindly following the rule if it's 24p you double it and make it 1/48.
Now if it's 720p 60fps you make it 1/60 or 1/120(slowmo).

I usually look at the indicator on the GH1(---Ex---) if it's underexpose or overexpose.
I noticed that in dark situations. As you decrease the shutter, the image gets brighter and brighter but it gets blurry.
So I get the right exposure but I don't know what effect it does.
In very dark environment just keep on increasing the shutter while keeping the aperture @ f2.0 let's say?

For aperture it pretty makes sense as you open it will direct more light to the sensor
and vice versa. So in dark you leave it open and in bright you close it gradually until
you get the right exposure. I'm also aware of the DOF like for shallow f2.0 and deep f22.
Of course it's relative to focal length and distance to the subject.
 
Last edited:
No stupid question, cam123. It is better than just doing it because others say so.

---Ex--- is not the shutter indicator. It indicates exposure level, which is different than aperture and shutter speed. Maybe that could be another question later on. Increasing the shutter actually darkens the image BTW.

Okay, here is my brief answer and hopefully other experts will chime in and give you a better answer. The main reason many of us prefer a certain shutter speed is basically to get a smooth video footage.

Let's say you are shooting 24fps at 1/48th shutter speed. It may look soft in each frame grabs, but in video, the motion looks smooth. What happens at 1/500 shutter speed? It will look sharper in each frame grabs, but in video, the motion looks choppy.

Hope this helps.
 
Faster shutter = Less motion blur (needs more light)
Slower shutter = More motion blur (needs less light)
 
Genrally, Shutter speeds control "Ambient light". In video, many users are using the following for best results for smoother video;

1/50th - Outdoors in sunlight (many use ND filters to stop down)
1/50th - Interior under lighting (Incandescent, fluorescent, etc) in PAL (50htz)
1/60th - Interior under lighting (Incandescent, fluorescent, etc) in NTSC (60htz)
1/120th- Mostly used in 720@60p for slow motion.

Cheers
 
Thanks guys.
My bad. Yeah, when you decrease the shutter value it gets brighter. Good for lowlight but
the image is unreusable for video because everything is blury.

So outside when the sun is up high we can increase the shutter to more than 120 to get the right exposure? So what is the effect of this to our videos?
 
The video would have a slightly 'choppier' feel to it if shooting 24p. If shooting 60p you won't notice too much of a difference. As you go up in shutter speed, the effect on playback tends to make things look like they were filmed with a strobe light almost.... think of the very choppy
beach scenes from "Saving Private Ryan" That was filmed with the shutter very high.
 
Thanks Blackout and others.
I get used to hv20 where everything is in auto but I appreciate all the helpful comments.

Let say for 720p60fps, If I dont have an ND Filter then I'm outside in a bright sunlight then
the only option to get the correct exposure is to increase the aperture( set to f22) or to leave the aperture
at less than f4(for shallow DOF) then increase the value of the shutter speed to more than 120
until you get the correct exposure.

So it does not matter even if I hit 2000 shutter speed as long as I have the
correct exposure, right? I'll keep that in mind.

Now for 24p(60i container)[FHD], I have to be strict to set it to 1/50 so I wont get choppiness in the video output.
 
mrmoe said:
Genrally, Shutter speeds control "Ambient light". In video, many users are using the following for best results for smoother video;

1/50th - Outdoors in sunlight (many use ND filters to stop down)
1/50th - Interior under lighting (Incandescent, fluorescent, etc) in PAL (50htz)
1/60th - Interior under lighting (Incandescent, fluorescent, etc) in NTSC (60htz)
1/120th- Mostly used in 720@60p for slow motion.

Cheers
Click to expand...

Is this same for 24p?
 
24p you want to stay at 50 shutter for outdoors and 1/60 for indoor lighting.... you wouldn't want to go 120 I don't think. You could..... I don't like it.
 
1/100 for 720p60 for use with possible slo-mo is ok right? I'm planning on recording 24p (I'll drop it down from 60p->24p using Cineform) with NTSC mode in 50Hz lighting. Don't want the strobing so I'm thinking I should set 1/50 or 1/100... does this sound right?
 
cam123 said:
Thanks Blackout and others.
I get used to hv20 where everything is in auto but I appreciate all the helpful comments.

Let say for 720p60fps, If I dont have an ND Filter then I'm outside in a bright sunlight then
the only option to get the correct exposure is to increase the aperture( set to f22) or to leave the aperture
at less than f4(for shallow DOF) then increase the value of the shutter speed to more than 120
until you get the correct exposure.

So it does not matter even if I hit 2000 shutter speed as long as I have the
correct exposure, right? I'll keep that in mind.

Now for 24p(60i container)[FHD], I have to be strict to set it to 1/50 so I wont get choppiness in the video output.
Click to expand...

It does matter, it will create a very choppy looking video with no motion blur at all. Time will seem "sharper" but this isn't necessarily a good thing. Just play around and do some tests you'll get a feel for it...and buy some ND filters, they're cheap.
 
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