Can anyone help with stutter when panning

[Dennis Robinson]

Hi, I have a problem with my XL1s. Since I bought it 6 months ago, it stutters when panning. It is only slight and when monitoring on a TV set it looks fine. Tilting is fine...its only on pans that I get a shudder. Any ideas?

[Ignacio Rodriguez]

Do you have a lens with OIS? If you are working on a tripod, try turning it of. Are you using frame mode? The 30fps look doesn't do well for fast panning. Slow panning should be ok.

[Dennis Robinson]

Thanks for your reply but I always turn off the image stabilizer when on a tripod and i have never used frame mode as yet. I am in Pal. I have been blaming my computer till tonight when i tested the camera in my mates computer and the strobing is still there while it isnt on his PD150.

[Ignacio Rodriguez]

I see. Well I don't see, but I understand. Is it possible that there is a problem with the numeric relationship between PAL field/frame rate and the computer monitor's refresh rate? I was thinking about this earlier today, because I have seen several PAL users mention things like this.

Check the Display preference pane. On the Mac I am using right now, it's set to 60 Hz so there is an almost exact numerical relationship to NTSC field rate (I am in an NTSC part of the world). In your case it should preferrably be set to 50 Hz or 100 Hz, and it might work at 75 Hz, but surely at 60 Hz the computer would have to drop fields, thus the stuttering, right? I'm just speculating, so take a look and try it for yourself.

[Rob Lohman]

That's very possible indeed (regarding refresh rates). Also
interlacing might introduce playback (visual) problems.

What are using to play the footage?

[Dennis Robinson]

Thanks Rob,
I am using my XL1s which is only about 6 months old. i believe it is the camera because I took it to a mates place last night and it does the same thing on his computer. The strobing/ stuttering appears on panning and any horizontal movement but is only slight on a tV monitor. Its always been like this and I hope they can repair the camera.

[Rob Lohman]

I doubt it is the camera, but ofcourse it is possible. At what shutter
speeds where you shooting (forgot to ask that)?

[Dennis Robinson]

Thanks Rob,
Generally 50 but I have 4 computers..a PC, ibook, emac and g5. What else could it be? Also, I went to the preferences Pane and cant see where to set the refresher rate. I have the 30 in display.

[Rob Lohman]

I think you are mixing things up now.

- refresh rate is for your computer (only if you have a CRT screen), usually it is 60 hz which is quite bad. Higher is better, especially multiples of your framerate, so that would be 60 - 90 - 120 for NTSC and 50 - 75 - 100 for PAL

- shutter speed is on your camera (what I asked as last) and controls how motion will look (strobing, blurry etc.)

[Dennis Robinson]

I usually shoot with the shutter speed at 1/50. I must confess that I have never tried using a faster speed. I usually use the manual mode and check to see what the camera selects in green mode to help me along. It is often a lot faster so I just leave it at that.