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Participant
January 8, 2014
Question

Ntsc (60 fps) vs PAL (50 fps)?

  • January 8, 2014
  • 3 replies
  • 49697 views

Hi all,

I have to choose between NTSC with 60 FPS or PAL with 50 fps on my new GoPro camera (black edition hero3+). What should I do? I live in the Netherlands, so intuitively would go for PAL. But that lowers the framerate possibilities. Higher framerate will enhance my plans to edit certain parts in slowmotion. So, is it possible to shoot with NTSC at 60 fps, edit this movie (in a 60 fps project), burn it to blu ray with loss of quality? Or should I choose for PAL 50 fps?

Thanks in advance for all for the help!

Hugo

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3 replies

Steven L. Gotz
Inspiring
January 8, 2014

Your thought processes are almost correct. Shoot 60fps and edit 25fps.

The frames per second for your sequence have little to do with the frames per second of your footage when you are shooting with the intention of playing it back in slow motion.

Now that we are not using interlaced footage, and we are not trying to solve the problems of frame size differences between PAL and NTSC, there is little difference between me shooting at 60fps to put it on a 24fps timeline, and you putting it on a 25fps timeline. At least not for the slow motion footage.

The slow motion footage will show every frame when you interpret the footage to 25fps. No problem. It will look great.

The question is, what will the 60fps footage look like when put on a 25fps sequence at normal speed? Keep in mind the shutter speed is different when shooting 25 or 60.

And I say "little" difference. The math of 60 to 24 might be easier for the program than 60 to 25. I doubt it. After all, it is just a matter of dropping frames.

So that leaves the footage content itself. If it can survive the dropped frames, then great! If it is a little choppy, then it really wasn't suitable.

You have to decide that for yourself. My suggestion is to shoot some sample footage for practice before you do it for anything important. Get to know your camera and how 60fps looks on a 25fps timeline on a BD.

artofzootography.com
Averdahl
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 8, 2014

Your thought processes are almost correct. Shoot 60fps and edit 25fps.

No, i disagree. BD-disc's handle 720p60 in PAL contry and converting the material will only lead to loss of time and quality with no gain at all.

For slow motion use either Interpret Footage or Clip Speed / Duration.

To JacquesBak:

Try both methods and see what looks best.

Community Expert
January 8, 2014

If you shoot non 25/50 in a 50hz mains country you may have problems with light flicker, fillament lamps are ok but the newer energy saving types may cause problems.

I shoot 25i and Alchemist convert it to 29.97i for BD and dvd, thesse discs work in almost every player worldwide (unlike 25i discs)

Averdahl
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 8, 2014

So, is it possible to shoot with NTSC at 60 fps, edit this movie (in a 60 fps project), burn it to blu ray with loss of quality? Or should I choose for PAL 50 fps?

Yes, you can shoot 60 fps, edit 60 fps and burn a 60 fps BD-disk without and view it in PAL contry without any issues. You can mix frame size and frame rates on BD without any issues, that's one of the wonderful things with BD compared to DVD.

/Roger

Participant
January 8, 2014

Hi Roger, this sounds hopeful. Frankly, your saying that the NTSC format won't give any problems. Correct? thx!

Participant
January 8, 2014

CC_merchant tells me to do the exact opposite :-)

cc_merchant
Inspiring
January 8, 2014

Use PAL 50 FPS.

BDR only allows 25 FPS in PAL country.