Why is 24FPS better then 60FPS when shooting Video

[KeiCar]

I was just wondering why a lower FPS is preferred to a higher one (First off, it IS PREFERRED... right)

Any, it kinda goes against what Ive learned and read in the computer and gaming industry (just building PC's and gaming and the like...ect), where a higher FPS provides smoother gameplay if your hardware can support it that is.

On my video camera, I think the top quality mode is a 1080p, 24FPS mode (they call it the film mode), I guess it gives the closest look of a theater quality product of all the shooting modes in the camera. Oh and the cam is just a "consumer end user" , Canon Vixia HFS100. Its no Pro Cam, its not a RED, just a slightly higher end consumer grade cam. I feel like Im knocking it too much just there and I should't because it really does take very high quality video as long as your lighting is good..

[A4J]

On my video camera, I think the top quality mode is a 1080p, 24FPS mode (they call it the film mode)

24fps is preferred because analog film is/was shot at 24fps so using that frame would closely mimic the theatrical style. 50 or 60 fps is good for slow motion. Any of the frame rates available on your camera isn't necessarily better. It just depends on what look you're going for.

[twerked]

i choose frame rate based on what i'm shooting and where it's going to end up. if i'm shooting something that will be going to tv, 30fps is standard (and interlaced if it's going to a non-hd channel/station). since all my videos are ending up on the internet, i export to the frame rate that i shot at. i shoot most everything at 1080p/24fps. unless it's any fast motion stuff, like skateboarding or surfing, then it's 720p/60fps. the faster frame rate helps capture the fast motion better and lets you do slow motion very easily. either interpret the footage as 30fps or slow it down by half in a 30fps timeline, (i can give you specific instructions if you happen to be using premier) and you'll have smooth slow-mo. the big thing with 24fps is that, as A4J said, it has that 'film' look.

what you were asking about faster frame rates = smoother gameplay is correct; but it's different with video/motion. the human eye can't keep up with fast moving objects, so we end up seeing motion blur. in video, not enough motion blur ends up looking strange and artificial, and too much is just blurry (duh). slower frame rates inherently have more motion blur, faster frame rates, less. but, it's more than just frame rate that effects motion blur; a lot is due to the shutter angle/speed. for natural looking motion blur, you want a 180* shutter angle. to figure that out, take your frame rate (24fps, for example), double it (48) and put it under '1/' (1/48) and that's the shutter speed for 180* shutter angle. since that's a pretty goofy shutter speed and most cameras don't have that, 1/50 is usually the closest, and is perfectly fine. when i shoot 60fps, i shoot at 1/120 shutter speed. any slower and there's too much motion blur, and faster, not enough. if you can manually control the shutter speed, shoot some video at different shutter speeds, and compare them to the 1/50 (if you're doing 24fps). i can't pinpoint exactly what it is, but very fast shutter speeds just look odd..plastic-y or something. it kind of reminds me of the 'uncanny valley'...

and if you haven't noticed, 24/30/60fps are really 23.976/29.97/59.94fps when you look at the actual video files. like film, part of each frame needs space for the audio, so a tiny bit is lost due to that.

[hipster.]

I was just wondering why a lower FPS is preferred to a higher one (First off, it IS PREFERRED... right)

Any, it kinda goes against what Ive learned and read in the computer and gaming industry (just building PC's and gaming and the like...ect), where a higher FPS provides smoother gameplay if your hardware can support it that is.

On my video camera, I think the top quality mode is a 1080p, 24FPS mode (they call it the film mode), I guess it gives the closest look of a theater quality product of all the shooting modes in the camera. Oh and the cam is just a "consumer end user" , Canon Vixia HFS100. Its no Pro Cam, its not a RED, just a slightly higher end consumer grade cam. I feel like Im knocking it too much just there and I should't because it really does take very high quality video as long as your lighting is good..

As already stated 24fps is standard for film cameras, and the "look" of 24fps became standard for video because of this.

Gaming FPS has nothing to do with actual video or film. Higher FPS in a game is for smoothing out the simulated pictures. Where as in video/film you're talking about the rate you're capturing an image and then displaying it.

When you talk about higher frame rates you have to consider a few things.

Firstly when you shoot at a faster frame rate you'll need more light or open your aperture more to let more light in. That's because the "shutter" will be moving faster and the amount of light reaching the film/sensor will be less.

Secondly once you capture video/film at a higher frame rate you have to chose how you will show it. A high frame rate showing will cause images to look "hyper real". That's because you are now showing people images at a frame rate that is closer to the way the eye sees the world. This is good and bad at the same time. For some reason the eye and brain process seeing this extra information as being strange because we have grown up all of our lives watching things at 24fps.

Now if you slow down a higher frame rate like 60fps to 24fps, essentially slowing it by 25% you will get a smooth slow motion image. Because you have more information to fill in the "gaps" when you slow down the image. Unlike when you slow down something you shot at 24fps and you have a choppy jerky look do to the lack of extra frames.

In video when you slow down a 60fps video to 24fps it's called "conforming".

Peter Jackson is shooting the Hobbit movies at 48fps, so double the standard, and this has caused a lot of people to raise an eyebrow. At 48fps you're essentially getting really close to how the human eye sees the world, and as I stated above this is good and bad at the same time.

In the end it all comes down to visual esthetics.

Will the "standard" frame rate change in the future? Probably. Just like HD. When HD first came out a lot of people complained that it looked "too" real. Though I sometimes agree that maybe HD isn't the best way to get that "cinema" look, it's here to stay.

To be quite honest when I edit my HD videos I add film grain to them to make them look more "cinematic". But that's my professional and personal choice.

[Bsaint]

A lot of people touched on it, but it's not better or worse.

There are reasons for it, and reasons for 60fps.

For example fast pace action shots, like drifting, skateboarding or sports, 60fps is going to be preferred to shoot in, because 24 frames per second just isn't fast enough to capture the movement.

Example

(obviously this is 30, but point still gets across)


The reason 24 frames is used so widely is because the "cinematic look" reminds us much of the movies, they film on 35mm which is typically 24 fps or "23.976"

Unless I'm filming a documentary or interview, I don't use 24fps. The thing is if you ever want to slow down footage for any reason you really can't do it in 24fps and make it look good. 9/10 I will film in 30fps and final render 24fps. But for events, meets, car stuff it's either 30 or 60 for me. However now I'm getting a lot more into higher speed frame rates for super smooth slow motions, and really cool effects.



Bottom line is it's always safer to shoot higher frame rate and scale down then it is to shoot lower and scale up. If you try and slow motion a 24fps clip you run into frame blending and frame remapping which hardly ever looks good.