Question about shooting slow mo with T2i.

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harmonica44

In order to shoot slow mo I got to change it from 1080 by 1920 at 24fps to 1280 by 720 at 60fps. However will changing it to 1280 by 720 lessen the picture quality? When I play it back through the computer it looks just as good, but will it look amateur if you shoot something in that for slow mo, then send into film festivals? It seems the best option would be to shoot at 1080 by 1920 at 60fps, but the T2i does not have that option. It looks good on my computer, I just don't want to use it, and have it look bad to others on different and possibly bigger screens.
 
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Its 1920 x 1080. Not the other way around. I'd always strive for the highest resolution, if storage isn't a problem. But I don't see why the resolution would make it look amateur. For slow motion on the T2i, just shoot 60p at 720p and convert to 24p in post.
 
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Okay thanks. I watched a video on how to do that. But since you can't convert 720/1280 to 1920/1080, would it still look good though, and not home video-ish to most people? But 1280 is still better than regular DVD, so I guess it will still be pretty good actually. Some movies like The Terminator look as if they were shot at 60fps the whole movie though, but that's just a guess. Even though 24 is the standard 60 actually looks better. Should I shoot a whole movie at 720/1280 at 60fps or will that scream bad home video-ish look? The T2i also has the jello effect sometimes with fast moving objects and at 60 there seems to be less jello.
 
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harmonica44 said:
Okay thanks. I watched a video on how to do that. But since you can't convert 720/1280 to 1920/1080, would it still look good though, and not home video-ish to most people? But 1280 is still better than regular DVD, so I guess it will still be pretty good actually. Some movies like The Terminator look as if they were shot at 60fps the whole movie though, but that's just a guess. Even though 24 is the standard 60 actually looks better. Should I shoot a whole movie at 720/1280 at 60fps or will that scream bad home video-ish look? The T2i also has the jello effect sometimes with fast moving objects and at 60 there seems to be less jello.
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I would strongly recommend against shooting the whole thing in 60p. The reason most filmmakers (independent and studio backed) use 24p is because this is what audiences are accustomed to. We are used to certain amount of motion blur that is naturally achieved at 24p. 60p makes motion much sharper. While on the surface this sound like a good quality to have, in practice it takes away from the film like atmosphere we all know.

The jello you are referring to is called rolling shutter and is a pronounced issue in DSLRs (the Red Epic has rolling shutter as well, but it is reduced greatly in comparison). This can be alleviated to a degree in post production, but it is best to learn to handle the camera without any quick movements that would lead to rolling shutter.
 
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You shoot 24p most of the time, then 60p for just the slo-mo shots.

You then convert the 60p footage to 24p. Do that by interpeting the footage inside your program as 24p.

It's not a quality difference but a resolution difference. If you shoot in 720p just release it in 720p. You can shoot the other shots in 1080 24p if you like and it'll give you room to reposition the camera in post.
 
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Well I would like to release it in 1920, accept for the slow mo shots which will be in 720. Is it okay to release it in 1920, if it's just those few shots that will be lower?

And as far as not moving the camera quick to avoid jello, I like to do a lot of quick pans during action suspense scenes, if that's okay.
 
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harmonica44 said:
Well I would like to release it in 1920, accept for the slow mo shots which will be in 720. Is it okay to release it in 1920, if it's just those few shots that will be lower?

And as far as not moving the camera quick to avoid jello, I like to do a lot of quick pans during action suspense scenes, if that's okay.
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If you want to release the film in 1080p, you'll need to scale up the 720p shots to fit. There will obviously be a drop in image resolution, which may or may not be a problem - the only way to be certain is to test it out yourself.

Fast pans exacerbate the jello effect but, again, it is a matter of personal taste and style with regards to how much you can get away with.
 
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Do your math.
720p is 2/3 of 1080p so when you blow 720p up to 1080p you will loose (some?) sharpness.
The only way to find out whether it's useless is to shoot some 720p slowmo and mix it with 1080p normal speed footage (of the same subject) to see whether you can tell the difference on a HD-screen.
Is it crap? Is it acceptible? Or is there no difference?

Or in case your software has not arrived, but you happen to have photoshop (?):
Take a picture with your camera. Export one version as 1920x1080 and one version as 1280x720.
Now blow up the 720p version to 1080p and compare both 1080p versions.
This is more or less the loss of sharpness you can expect.

Converting to 24fps is not needed: you'll need to interpret it as 24fps. This way your footage gets 2,5 times longer.
Someone suggested Twixtor: that will convert 60 to 24 without changing the length, so you'll have no slowmotion at all. Just normal speed.
 
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If you absolutely HAVE to release it in 1080, I'd recommend shooting it in 24 with the plan of usig two toe or After effect's frame blending. You need to shoot it and frame shots to get the best quality though.

Actually I take that back, I'd rent a camera that can do 1080p at a high frame rate, 100fps plus.

Or release it in 720. No harm in that. If it's a short it's not like it's going to be watched on anything that can really make a difference and if it's shot on a t2i it won't be avatar/inception BluRay quality anyway.
 
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Well my camera did not come with an HD TV output cord for my HDTV. It just has an RCA cord, which cannot broadcast in 1080p. So if I play both 1920 and 720 through the RCA cord, I can't tell a difference. I'm currently figure out a way to broadcast it from the laptop, to the TV with a 1920 signal, but not sure if I can yet.
 
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harmonica44 said:
Well my camera did not come with an HD TV output cord for my HDTV. It just has an RCA cord, which cannot broadcast in 1080p. So if I play both 1920 and 720 through the RCA cord, I can't tell a difference. I'm currently figure out a way to broadcast it from the laptop, to the TV with a 1920 signal, but not sure if I can yet.
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Given that you say you have several tens of thousands of dollars which you intend to use to make films, a $5 HDMI cable isn't really a very big investment.
 
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Oh no, not at all. I will look for one with a plug in that goes into my T2i. I don't know it came with an RCA cord instead, those are so 1990s and early 2000s lol.
 
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Okay thanks, I'll get on that. What's better though when it comes to quick camera movement shots. Shooting at 60 on those shots to avoid jello, or shooting at 24 still, and trying to get rid of all the jello in post? Others have said to avoid shooting at 60 but it seems in some shots with a T2i you might have to.
 
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If you're going to shoot 60fps, read up on what to do with your shutter speed. I just shot something this morning at 60fps. I checked on the web and some sites recommended 1/120 shutter speed. The closest setting I could find on the T2i was 1/125 and that's what I set it to.

Now it's up to the lord and my computer to tell me how it's going to all look
best,
aveek
 
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