GH2 slow mo and AVCHD

[fredjeang]

Hi,

lots of questions.

Is it true that AVCHD will be (or is) able to record 1080p at 50-60 ? Why the GH2 does not allow it? Is there a firmware that you know has been released by Pana? (the hacked is capable of that?)

I don't get the benefit of the current recording 1080i at 60fps. If someone could enlight me on that I'd be very thankfull. 1080i is worsed than 720p in my view.
But I don't get technicaly why if record an AVCHD 1080i at 50fps it becomes in fact a 25fps progressive. Is it because of the AVCHD codec limitations?

Have you ever mixed 720p at 60fps in a 1080 project? (assuming you upsample the 720). Is the lost that much significative? I'm planning to do that next week and as I've never done it before I'm chasing infos.
I'll be filming surfists or surfers, don't know how you say it (for a personal training, no assignement involved) and want to work on slowmo too but I'll be filming mainly in 1080p.

Talking about upsampling 720 to 1080, better in editor or converting?

Also, is there a way to convert a 720p footage at 60 to a faster 120fps and then insert that into a 24 fps project? The idea is to get slower motion as a master even if that could be acheived within the editor.

So today the only real way to do slowmo with the GH2 is 720p reso?

Thanks.

[Morgan_Moore]

Recording 1080 50 or 60 means capturing and processing a lot of data

Thats why most cameras cant do it - alsthough it seems to be becoming more of a standard feature

Here is the workflow ive used with my 7d - I dont know your workflow

1) use Mpegstreamclip to trandscode the file into pro-res and upscale now

2) conform the FPS metadata using Cinema Tools

3) Edit

In FCP you can fiddle with speed of a clip, (to get it down to '120' FPS) generally frame blending Off better

Twixtor is a software that 'creates' slo motion by interpolating extra frames

You may want to experiment with choosing a higher shutter speed than 1/120

If you are using Twixtor it certainly works best with sharp frames it would seem

As for the quality of 720p in a 1080 timeline .. its soft, good enough? only you or your client can decide

S

[bcooter]

Fred,

60fps really isn't that detailed in slow motion.  A little better than 29.97 but not a wow that's slow motion look.

Really there are only a few ways to get real slow motion; Film, The Epic, or for super slow mo rent a Phantom.

Now if you can make do with a really tiny file, look at that little plastic Casio.  We have one and it's pretty amazing though I think the file at super slow motion is something like 600 px.

http://di.casio.com/digital_cameras/High-Speed

IMO

BC

[fredjeang]

Thanks a lot guys.

The Phantom is out of question for me (at least for this personal project because I'll be on the atlantic french coast with some surfers during some days and there is no proper civilization around 100 miles so it would mean renting the beast from Madrid to France during all those days) and the Epic...yeah that would be fantastic, I'm saving money.

(in fact I'm not saving any money, I bloody can not manage to do it now. It's a disaster here in Spain. Greece will sink, I'm not sure it will be rescueable and it contaminates all the EC and probably USA too but USA has one monetary politics and will be much better than us. California sunk but immediatly reabsorbed by the system. Europe still has a path to walk)

While having the right budget, this casio seems a cool idea "on the cheap". I'll have a look at specs.

The problem with surfers is that I'll need a super zoom otherwise it's gona be crap. Putting myself into water will depend on the sea because it can be really rough there as they do a WW championship on this coast.

Seems like an easy chalenge (surf) but I realise it's not at all.

ps: watched the casio specs and yes...no mistery on the cheap, reso at higher speed is really low unfortunatly. 224 x 64 píxeles, 1000 fps and 432 x 320 píxeles, 240 fps


Oh well, I'll be dealing with a non ideal slowmo but the chalenge of doing something decent with surfers is already good.

[pschefz]

have you checked out the firmware hacks for the gh2? i wonder if there is one that enables 1080p 60?
they seem to be working wonders for 1080p 24...

[fredjeang]

I checked the hacks but I wasn't very sure, english not being my native lenguage, that I understood well the all picture for instalation so in the doubt I prefered not messing with it.

But rumors are saying that Pana will release soon a firmware based on that hack, so I was in a wait-and-see attitude.

If someone can give infos on that it would be great.

[Tim Jones]

 Sorry, at the risk of derailing fred's thread, but do any of you guys with have any thoughts on the Red One at 120fps?
It looks like the price on these are coming down soon, and i'm thinking hard on getting one.
Thanks,
Tim