50i vs 60i

[Guest Andrew Hall]

I have purchased a z1p in New Zealand - which incidentally is PAL land. I am wondering about 50i versus 60i. I started off at 50i (given the PAL system most widely used here and also because it was the default) but then I thought:

 

1. Unlike SD NTSC vs PAL there is no resolution trade-off.

 

2. From what I have read the 24p is not a viable option with the Sony hence shooting 50i is not particularly advantageous for that.

 

3. Cinemotion 30 is said to be quite good (as opposed to Cinemotion 24).

 

Can you see advantges / disadvantages of shooting one versus the other? I am an artist interested in mixed media output. My main delivery form will be using HD projectors direct off a computer or perhaps blue-ray of HD video player.

 

Andrew Hall

[David Mullen ASC]

50i could get you 25P with some processing (either in-camera as "25F") or in post and you wouldn't have any pulldown issues like with 24F.

 

While 60i/30F mode also doesn't involve pulldown, 30 does not convert well into PAL, while 25 converts better to NTSC, so you're better-off shooting 50i for more flexibility for conversion to other formats. Plus you already live in a 50i country anyway.

[John Sprung]

50i is what you want provided that you can get it to make both fields from the same temporal sample -- so things are in the same place for the odd and even lines. That'll let you make 25p, which can be shown with good results at either 24 or 25.

 

 

 

-- J.S.