24/25/30 or 50/60 FPS?

[BikeFather]

Which one do you prefer and why? I'm based in UK, so we use PAL, therefore we have 25 and 50, and I'm kind of in-between, I like the cinematic look of the 25, but sometimes I also like the smoothness of the 50.

 

[Dewey316]

The magic of 24/25 fps is really in getting the shutter speed right. The longer frame separation and longer shutter speed when done right (you should be at about 1/50 shutter for that really cinematic look) give it that natural motion blur.

If you can't get the longer shutter 25fps can end up choppy looking instead of that smooth blur. I wanted do everything in 24, but I have one camera that doesn't support it, and it takes a lot of time and effort to use ND filters on every shot and camera to nail that 1/50th shutter.

For most things I prefer the lower frame rate, but on bike motovlogs the high framerates work well because there is a lot of quick motion. But the lower frame rate gives you the option to give a real sense of speed if you can get the shutter to slow down and show blur.

All that to say, find the look/feel you like and decide what feel you want your vids to have.

 

[Hippo-Drones]

I use 50 indoors to avoid the strobe/flicker from the lights
30 out on my dirtybike as it is normally lower light conditions and the riding speed is lower
60 fps on trackdays and road vlogs as it is smoother and IMO looks nicer

I know some people insist the human eye can't see more than 24fps, but I call BS on that, either that or I have a super brain eye receptors!

 

[BikeFather]

I use 50 indoors to avoid the strobe/flicker from the lights
30 out on my dirtybike as it is normally lower light conditions and the riding speed is lower
60 fps on trackdays and road vlogs as it is smoother and IMO looks nicer

I know some people insist the human eye can't see more than 24fps, but I call BS on that, either that or I have a super brain eye receptors!

Why not 50 for the road vlogs? You also get flickering from some of the outside lights.e.g. brake lights flickering, the text on buses, watch a few seoncds of this video to see what I mean:

not my video btw.

 

[Dewey316]

I use 50 indoors to avoid the strobe/flicker from the lights
30 out on my dirtybike as it is normally lower light conditions and the riding speed is lower
60 fps on trackdays and road vlogs as it is smoother and IMO looks nicer

I know some people insist the human eye can't see more than 24fps, but I call BS on that, either that or I have a super brain eye receptors!

We can def see more than that. Some say up to 1000fps is about the max a human eye functions at. The 24fps, is the lower limit where our brain will decide something is realistic movement vs noting it as individual frames. Also, remember hollywood picked 24fps to buy less feet of film, now we are used to that look and out brain figures that framerates and motion blur is cinematic, because we have been trained that way. There is no doubt with quick motion 60fps is smoother. I bet you could also tell 120fps from 60fps, if you have a camera and monitor to really show it.

 

[Drakhen99]

I used to use 60fps [US here] for everything, since my Hero 8 defaulted to it, and then I got a Hero 9, which did the same thing.

Then, I got a GoPro Max... which shoots at 30fps [60 if you pick the lower resolution, which is not really useable for me].

So, I switched to 30fps, and my computer thanks me since the editing is so much easier. Also, the colors seem more vibrant, and viewers haven't balked at it yet, so I'm gonna keep doing the 30fps thing.

-John

 

[Hippo-Drones]

Why not 50 for the road vlogs? You also get flickering from some of the outside lights.e.g. brake lights flickering, the text on buses, watch a few seoncds of this video to see what I mean:

not my video btw.

I tend to edit out me riding in traffic, so have not really had that as a problem, most of my videos are me on country roads and I try to keep my thoughts and commentary for when the corners and views are more interesting than the back of a pick-up truck or dual carriageway! It is also easier to match the 30fps my 360 cameras record at to 60 fps from my GoPros, although I could actually up the fps on my Insta360 cameras to 50fps if I dropped their resolution from 5.7k to 4k, which I would only think about doing in the middle of summer when we have better light.

 

[Theodor]

I personally have big issues with movies with low framerates. Especially if there is panning or lots of movement with action. I hate the blurry video, because I can not see anything. So I try to use higher framerate myself. My phone and Garmin both do 60fps.In my region it would also make more sense to film on 50fps or 100fps, but my phone does not support that, so I just chose something that matches between the cameras. And I have also mixed 60fps and 30fps footage, without noticing any issues.