Canon 25f - Should I use it
 

Hi

I have a XH A1 and have yet to use the 25f setting. Is it possible for someone to tell me the pros and cons of the 25f format?

One of the big cons is that in 25f you must use the camera to play the tapes. It's hard to believe but no deck will play them, so if you supply to a broadcaster etc., unless they have a camera they won't be able to use it!
You also lose a stop of light as you'll need to use a 180 degree shutter (ie 1/50th at 25f).
Also if you want slomo, de-interlacing is possibly the most common way to do it from hdv (ie splitting two 50i fields and duplicating/interpolating them into frames), which is not so good from 25f.
It does look nicer, more "high quality" though.

Steve

I don't know if it looks nicer in all situations, but there are situations where it can look quite good. I had my XH A1 for over a year before I tried using it and now I am quite taken with it under certain circumstances. I don't think it alone makes footage more "filmic" but it does have the cadence of film which looks very different than 60i.

There are certain situations where you probably wouldn't want to use 24f, such as action sports, but you may like the look.

Aside from the technical considerations, understanding 24f is probably best done by shooting with it. I think if you grab your camera and shoot nothing in particular with it for about an hour and then play with it in your NLE you'll get a better understanding of it.

One key thing to note is that camera moves need more attention paid to them. Fast and slow moves both work. Medium speed ones don't unless you're tracking a moving object. You'll understand what I mean just by watching the LCD screen while you're doing it.

thanks for both replies
just wondering, if I was after a filmic look, could it be easier to just make adjustments using filters during editing of my 50i footage?

Not easier, no 'cos you'd have to do it, whereas shooting 25f in the first place means it's already done. Is it preferable? Depends I'd say on whether it'd be useful for you to have some/a lot of the material in interlaced mode, if that's the case shoot i and just de-interlace those shots you want in progressive - you can't easily go the other way progressive to interlaced!
Everything Tripp said about camera moves etc., is correct and it is worth bearing in mind, I just feel you get a much more high-brow look in progressive. And most broadcasters are shooting it now, even for lower-end stuff, Varicam is only progressive, Sony 730 never took off 'cos it was only interlaced, and 750/790/900 tend to be used for progressive most of the time (dramas, docs etc.)
Steve

Our Panasonic Vericam can shoot 60i.

I was referring to the original Varicam, you've obviously got one of the P2 ones that do an up-res to 1080

Steve