And what is 'the magic' of that frame rate? Other than it is what people have got used to.
I used to hear the same when CD was released - some people in the early days claimed to be able to hear the 'gaps between the digital bits' when all it was was that people were used to the distortions in vinyl. Now people have rapidly got used to CD and other digital media people accept vinyl or what it was.
I suspect the same thing is happening with non-24p frame rates: it is no inherent superiority but is what people are used to.
And any tech-savvy youngster will realise the benefits of (as others have mentioned previously) shooting at higher rates and adjusting to 24p in post processing. To take the megapixel analogy, why not maximise data and process it from there.
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Since our parent company has numerous scientists as part of the workforce, at one point I actually got around to asking one of our Optical Physicists AND a Computational Neurobiologist about motion blur and low video frame rates, and it was explained to me that 24 fps (and SIMILAR low frame rates) that have long shutter-open times create MOTION BLUR on a directional axis which "Calms Down" down the human visual cortex so it does not have to assign much processing power for hard edge detection. It already KNOWS to ignore the blurred area and simply skips over to the sharper areas of a video frame for advanced edge detection and object recognition.
On a computational basis this makes sense BUT there is an ADDED EMOTIONAL EFFECT in that our thinking mind is "Not So Edgy" and "Irritated" at areas of an image that are considered an amorphous region, are motion blurred or have soft focus. This gives a "pleasing" feeling to one's mind. The HOW and the WHY of that workload reduction in the brain's edge detection circuitry within any given visual field, causing that pleasing effect on actual human emotional circuitry is as of yet unknown!
All we know is that object recognition workload reduction makes us calmer. We ALSO KNOW that there is a specific pleasing effect present when the blur on edges is NOT in the direction of the motion path of in-scene objects. This means that objects moving on any given direction SHOULD have a blurred edge on the OPPOSITE side of the direction of movement. Ergo, objects moving leftwards SHOULD have motion blur on the right side of their edges.
The amount of motion blur present at 24 fps when shutter open times are about between 20 to 41 milliseconds is enough to make the video look PLEASING to the human mind. At higher frames rate from about 50 fps into the 1000's of fps, motion blur-based emotional impact is such that all frames are nearly fully sharp and require the human visual cortex to do a LOT of hard edge detection and object recognition tasks which kinda makes our mind TIRED and less pleased at all the extra work. This means cinematographers MUST use other techniques such as colour desaturation, lowering of contrast ratios and edge softening to reduce visual cortex workloads which will affect subsequent emotional state in a more positive manner.
So again, even IF you shoot at higher frames rates from 50 or 60 fps up to 120 fps or even 1000 fps, you NEED to read what 1950's to 1990's era cinematographers did with REAL Film in terms of making their imagery look more Hollywood and less Soap Opera. By reading the SCIENCE behind the human visual cortex, you can apply the ART of FILMMAKING to ensure your high frame rate videos LOOK like a REAL Cinema production.
This also means that the WHY of any camera maker LEAVING the 24 fps cinema frame rate has more to do with letting the typical shutter-open time of that 24 fps frame rate CAUSE that pleasing-looking motion blur which so enhances video into that desired Hollywood Cinema Look!
Why SHOULD Canon leave that effortless, easy-out 24 fps frame rate on these new DSLR/Mirrorless camera when they can MAKE YOU PAY FOR THAT Easy-Way-Out by forcing you the buyer into a HIGHER END camera in order to get that easy-to-use method of making video look like cinema! So at LOWER frame rates, it is MOTION BLUR that is the deciding factor for a cinema look. At HIGHER frames rates of 50/60 fps, it's a lowered contrast ratio, mild colour desaturation and SMOOTH rolloff of shadows and highlights that make your video look like Hollywood!
AND since GOOD LIGHTING can let you highlight the area of interest but blur object edges on areas of the frame that are periphery (aka outside) of the area of interest, you can give the appearance of motion blur thus reducing human visual field workload, therefore making your video look PLEASING and more Hollywood CInema-like! This means get a decent budget for GOOD lighting and LEARN HOW and WHEN to use Colour Correction Gels, Diffusion, Spun, Key Lighting Positions to FORCE the human mind to focus on a specific subject area within any given video frame. Reduce the mind's visual workload! Use ANALOGUE FILMMAKING TECHNIQUES to enhance your all-digital productions for a more Hollywood Cinema Look !!!
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