Does anyone know how final cut changes 25p to 23.98p? Does it just drop one of the frames or is there something more complicated going on?

I believe frame rate changes involve frame blending.

Drops a frame I believe.

Noah

I did some tests using the EX1 with individual frame advance and when footage is recorded at 1080p25, and dropped into a 1080p23.98 ProresHQ sequence, it drops frame 13 to achieve this. There is no frame blending.

If you choose conform 25p to 24p in the tools menu, it will change the media and turn frame 25 to frame 1 of the next second, making your footage that much longer. To do this, first you have to convert the footage to ProResHQ.

We have tested this and with the PDW700 also and so far we don't miss frame 13 and it looks amazing.

I change 23.98p to 25p on occasion and prefer to use Cinema Tools to change the frame rate. In Cinema Tools it simply speeds it up by about 4-5% (or slows it down if you're going the other way). I found it less satisfactory using the FCP sequence itself to change the frame rate. With Cinema Tools you keep all of your frames. With FCP, it probably adds or subtracts a frame, as James indicated.

I guess it depends on which method you prefer.

What about pitch? How does cinema tools deal with that?

Cinema Tools makes an automatic adjustment for pitch. But it's best to experiment with both methods and go with the one you find most aesthetically pleasing.