[Martin68]

Why is it that most cameras and camcorders i read the spec about (especially stills camera that can record movies) seem to mostly use 60i or
30p frame rates, geard up for the usa and other NTSC countries.

I live in the UK and it seems that 50i or 25p frame rate cameras are not as readily available for certain models, this mostly applies to still cameras that can record HD video.

I am looking for a Bridge camera that can record full HD video and the Fuji
HS10 looks very appealing but i'm put off with it not using European 25p or
50i frame rate.

Many would argue, saying it dosen't matter with HD video as UK tv's can display 30p/60i but i'm more concerned when it comes down to editing my existing videos which are 50i with the 60i frame rate, i'm sure i would get error messages, and what about down converting to DVD to play on a UK PAL tv? would this work with a 60i or 30p camera?

I would have posted this in the Stills camera forum, but i feel it's more understood here, even though it's a stills camera with HD video that i wan't to buy.

I hope to get some usefull replies!

[loz]

Often the specs you read will be on US-centric sites, and perhaps you are not just navigating to the UK page.
Or reviews may be done in the US, and hence only reflect US specs.

Any camera you buy in the UK/EU, from an 'official' retailer of the brand, will be 50/25p

The problem is that often the model numbers don't quite match up. Hence if you keep googling for the specs or reviews of a camera only using its US model name, you will only ever find the US spec, and not its UK/EU equivalent.

[Boostrail]

Originally Posted by loz

Often the specs you read will be on US-centric sites, and perhaps you are not just navigating to the UK page.
Or reviews may be done in the US, and hence only reflect US specs.

Any camera you buy in the UK/EU, from an 'official' retailer of the brand, will be 50/25p

The problem is that often the model numbers don't quite match up. Hence if you keep googling for the specs or reviews of a camera only using its US model name, you will only ever find the US spec, and not its UK/EU equivalent.

There are a lot of 30fps only HD camcorders on sale in the UK. These tend to be the cheaper types. I picked this one out from the list of popular product prices at the the top of this forum.

Sanyo VPC-CG10EBK Dual High Definition Video Camcorder: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

These or similar 30fps only products are sold by Comet, Currys, Dixons on Line, Argos etc.

[Martin68]

i've even been looking on ebay for a small HD "spy" cam, and even though i'm using the UK ebay site, all i ever get is NTSC 60hz versions.

in the SD world our PAL system was always said to be better than NTSC, so why are most items sold as NTSC?

[Boostrail]

Originally Posted by Martin68

i've even been looking on ebay for a small HD "spy" cam, and even though i'm using the UK ebay site, all i ever get is NTSC 60hz versions.

in the SD world our PAL system was always said to be better than NTSC, so why are most items sold as NTSC?

PAL and NTSC are relevant to analogue systems only. We are talking about digital broadcasts and recording. NTSC (as is PAL) an analogue method of display and colour encoding. It is pure historical coincidence related to mains frequency that PAL is 50Hz and NTSC is 60Hz. In Brazil however they use a PAL standard analogue protocol but at 60Hz.

Unfortunately the world has not come together on digital standards either.

In the US the broadcast digital TV is either 480i60 or HD at 1080i60 whereas in the UK, Europe and the majority of the rest of the world it is 576i50 or for HD 1080i50. (This is notwithstanding that the US also uses ATSC coding rather than the DVB variants used elsewhere}

I must confess I am also trying to get my head round what the consequences are of the use of a 1080i/60 -1080p/30 standard camcorder. Replay direct on a modern TV should not be an issue. However I am unclear as to what would happen if one tried to produce a DVD from the .mp4 files that these camcorders produce.

[Martin68]

[QUOTE= I must confess I am also trying to get my head round what the consequences are of the use of a 1080i/60 -1080p/30 standard camcorder. Replay direct on a modern TV should not be an issue. However I am unclear as to what would happen if one tried to produce a DVD from the .mp4 files that these camcorders produce.[/QUOTE]

This is exactly the thing that's holding me back from buying a 60hz camera
and even if it did produce dvd's that play, what about dropped frames when converting to 50i or 25p, I have lots of 50i footage and i plan to use it some day along with future HD footage to edit together, that is why i would rather stick with the 50hz system

[Boostrail]

OK came across this

VIDEO COPILOT | After Effects Tutorials, Plug-ins and Stock Footage for Post Production Professionals

But cannot find out how to install this as a custom preset in Premiere Elements (PE). "Help" just tells you how to remove a custom preset!! aargh!

I now have one of these 1080p30 pocket camcorders and paid peanuts for it. Its a good still camera also and will live in the glove compartment of my car along with the mini binoculars, 75w lighter socket to 13A plug inverter etc.

Playback from the camcorder via component is fine but looks a little jerky which is due to holding a camcorder of this size steady particularly at 5x optical Zoom. Wife has made the suggestion that as there is no optical viewfinder then as the cowboys steadied their gun "shoot from the hip"with your arm steadied against your hip.

Playback of MP4 files is a bit problematic however. Surprisingly Quicktime does better than VLC but both are not smooth. So tried PE and files download to timeline OK and could be edited etc. So I decided to export as an .avi at 25fps - this took over 2hrs to process 10 mins of footage!

The resultant .avi played in VLC but every minute or so there was a 10 second freeze frame! In Quicktime it also played with a freeze frame at the same points but of less duration but the definition was awful. Best replay results for the .avi were by using an early version of ULead Video Studio, no hesitation good definition. Will now progress to DVD folder and then DVD