View Full Version : Canon XL 2 Frame Rate


Marcus Williams
April 18th, 2010, 11:18 AM
I sent my XL2 into Cannon to get it worked on, and when I got it back they had it set to 60i I did a 3 camera shoot and the other cameras we set to 30p, but all the footage cut together just fine,,,I did not see any difference, I edit in Vegas and Vegas took it all in with no problem...

so whats the deal,,the camera has 3 settings on it..60i 30p and 24p I assume that I should be shooting at 30p I could use some more info on this..

Josh Bass
April 18th, 2010, 03:44 PM
60i and 30p are both 30 frames per second, but 30p is deinterlaced while 60i is interlaced. Without getting to technical, 60i will look smoother, like the news or an old school home video, while 30p will have a more stuttery effect to the motion, generally thought to be more "cinematic".

24p is 24 frames per second progressive (i.e. deinterlaced). This is the framerate film is typically shot and projected theatrically at, and is used for shooting to make 24p DVDs, shooting for when you are planning on transferring to film for a theatrical projection, or simply to get again, a more "cinematic" looking motion to your project.

Some folks can't tell these framerates apart by looking at them.

Some folks don't like 24p for the "cinema" effect, preferring 30p instead, thinking 24p is too stuttery (although I have worked on many professional sets and they absolutely shoot 24p and are not planning a film out).

If you shot 60i and are trying to match the look of the 30p cameras, you can deinterlace that footage (to make it effectively 30p as well) with Vegas or another application, no problem. That may halve your resolution, though. . .this is where my knowledge gets a little sticky.

Marcus Williams
April 18th, 2010, 04:08 PM
Thanks for your answer,,,you are right, I did not see any difference and did my 3 camera project with no problems...it all cut together just fine.

Thanks for answering, its always good to get another answer to a video question

Josh Bass
April 18th, 2010, 04:18 PM
Just a word of caution. . .I said SOME people cannot tell the frame rates apart. I can, and other people can. You might want to deinterlace your 60i footage to make it match.

There's a lot of weird psychology to cinematography/videography, and the theory is that people, even people completely unknowledgeable about what we do, can tell when something's "off", even if they're not conscious of what they're seeing, and this will make them respond somewhat negatively to your video.

Marcus Williams
April 18th, 2010, 07:55 PM
would you mind taking a look at our videos and let me know if you see anything that looks bad...the close-ups are shot at 30 fps, and the wide shot is shot at 60

YouTube - americanspeedway2010's Channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/americanspeedway2010)

Thanks

Josh Bass
April 18th, 2010, 08:15 PM
Sure. That's another thing I forgot to mention. . .as far as I know, computer monitors are progressive scan (i.e. deinterlaced), and interlaced material can look weird on them, showing interlace artifacts during camera movement (you can see it sometimes when you pan). . .so if you're making material for the web/computer viewing, you might want to deinterlace anyway, as a matter of course.

Eugene J. Kulak
April 20th, 2010, 08:18 AM
Just curious: why isn't this on the XL2 forum instead of the XLH1 forum?

Chris Hurd
April 20th, 2010, 10:18 AM
Probably because nobody reported it as needing to be moved.

In the future, please use the Report Post function (it's the little
"!" icon to the left of any post) instead of replying to the thread.

Thanks in advance,