Frame mode is for when you're trying to be ambivalent, whereas normal is for when you are trying to appear more deliberate in your intentions.

Jk. Seriously, the look is different and can be likened to a faux-30P compared to normal 60i. Something useful would be to switch your camera to Frame mode, shoot a bunch of footage, and see how it looks on TV. It IS different, but my opinion is that 30P or Frame mode (not the same but similar) are somewhat more flexible in their application than 24P or 60i. That statement assumes that the 24P look echoes cinema and narrative filmmaking, whereas the 60i look=real. This is an over-simplification, I know.

But it is a sort of a hybrid look, as others have noted, and has been adopted by some reality TV shows (appropriately I guess) as well as for some narrativistic segments for news shows. For whatever reason.

interesting. thanks guys. I'll go play around with it today.

I think you'll find Canon's frame mode loses resolution on the GL series, so a quick A / B test on a newspaper pinned to a wall is a good idea before you shoot your next feature.

tom.

Download the manual from Canon's site
 

And if any PAL XM2 user wants to get the PAL version:

http://www.canon.com.au/products/dig...2_support.aspx

Frame mode or shutter speed problem?
 

Ok, so I filmed some guys riding motorcycles in Frame mode with a shutter around 1/1500 with an iris 1.8. Some of the riders appear to have the "ghosting" effect to them...SORTA like a blur, but others, in the same exact shot do not. Like one guy can go by and it looks bad, and then another guy goes by and it looks perfect. (They were riding at high speeds and jumping, just to have an idea on the conditions) So I can't determine if it is shutter speed, frame mode or if its something I am doing? I know this sounds kind of trivial, but I don't know. I am new to this. Any help would be appreciated.

Ryan,

I would shoot in progressive (frame) and I would assurely slow the shutter speed down. The only real reason for shooting fast shutters in my book is if you are wanting to pull stills out of it. Try shooting some test footage at lesser shutter speeds. I shoot almost everything at 60 to 1/100.

Faster shutters casues what I call flicker, is that what you mean??

Frame rate Vs. other camera
 

If I shoot in frame mode in the Gl2, but then shoot some footage on, say, a Panasonic PV-GS35 Mini DV Camcorder, then want to use both for a video and maintain the frame mode, would I first convert the Panasonic footage to frame first then use it? Would Media Studio Pro 8 do this/ Help appreciated (as always)

In general, for smoothest motion effects use slower shutter speed, and use movie (normal interlaced) mode.

Frame mode can give a bit of jerkiness or strobe effect to fast motion or pans in the frame, much as it does in the movies, because image motion is updated every 1/30th rather than every 1/60th. Also, it can become more apparent if you are panning to try track a moving object.

Hi Tim,

You actually can leave the PV GS35 stuff (which will be 'normal 60i') and edit everything together. The 'frame mode' (30p with resolution loss) of the GL2 is 'embedded' into a 60i stream, therefore you don't need to change your setting while editing (meaning you will be editing in 60i either way, or in '29,97i' for that matter...).

Phil

Do you mean render everything normal- not in frame mode? I thought if you shot in Frame mode (I know it's not really true frame) you had to render in frame. If you could clarify? Thanks

Is your goal to wind up with all progressive footage when you are finished editing?

Yes- I usually shoot in the Gl2 frame mode. What does the "i" stand for in the last post?

If you want the finished product to be progressive footage, you'll need to deinterlace any interlaced source material.

("i" stands for interlaced)

Hi,

Unless i m missing something,...the frame mode footage is interlaced it's just having the 'look' of 30p with a resolution loss. And so, you don't need to deinterlace this stream. If you want everything in 'true 30p' you should shoot in normal (60i) mode on both cams and then deinterlace everything (with a good program like dvfilmmaker).

But,....you can still shoot frame mode with the GL2 (hence having the 30p motion look) and deinterlace only the 60i stuff from the Panasonic. You can either way edit that in a 29.97 i timeline like i said before. Don't worry, you will keep the 30p look of frame mode.

Phil