Is 5D3 video not 'true' 24fps? FCPX shows it as 23.95....??

[cayenne]

Hello all,

Can someone help my confusion. I have my Canon 5D3 set to 24 fps.

I have imported it directly into FCPX...and happened to notice when trying a bit of light color grading...in the effects area, it had been checked convert from 23.95 to 24 fps.

When I imported..I was paused and puzzled a bit, in the import which asked if I wanted to import based on the first frame....it wasn't 24fps...I had to manually set that, but I didn't think much about it.

Anyway, have verified in my camera, video has been set to 24fps...and hasn't ever been changed from that since I bought the camera and made the setting.

I thought I'd read that this was a problem on the old 5D2's, before firmware upgrade...but I'd not have thought it would be anything to worry about on the 5D3...

Can someone help me know what I'm doing wrong or seeing/Setting wrong?

Thanks in advance,

cayenne

 

[paul13walnut5]

Its an NTSC issue caused by drop frame timecode. If you switch to PAL mode it will be true 24p. Even 30fps NTSC is actually 29.97 fps.

Its not that big a deal in practise except where audio has been mixed to the different standard.

In olde fcp you could reconform frame rates to true 24fps via cinema tools, fcpx may do this natively.

If you are ultimately viewing on ntsc equipment leave it be.

 

[bvukich]

That is correct. 24 frames per second is actually 24000/1001(23.976) and 30 is actually 30000/1001 (29.97), that's standard. You probably don't want to change it unless you have a reason.

 

[tatsu]

That's totally normal. An unfortunate historical artifact stemming from NTSC needing to slow down in order to let audio and video not interfere with each other when color was introduced.

If you're unsure whether your eventual target is 24p (23.976), NTSC (29.97) or PAL (25), you should leave that setting as it is since you can get to any of those targets safely from 23.976. With PAL there is a slight audio pitch change that you can correct for if needed, but it's generally unnecessary as it is nearly imperceptible to most consumers.

If you really *really* know that you want your final output to be 29.97 (for creative reasons/smoother motion) then capture directly at that frame rate instead of 24p so that you don't have pulldown/interlacing artifacts when watched on a computer or other digital display.

 

[Videoshooter]

Pretty much all 24p from video cameras is 23.976 fps - and the same goes for HD broadcasts & Blurays. The Problem with the mkII before the firmware update was actually the opposite - it only shot exactly 30p, rather than the correct rate of 29.97 fps & 23.976 fps.

The only time you would ever want exactly perfect 24p is when you are exporting to 24p, but even then it is a simple case of conforming the footage.

The reason you don't hear more people complaining about this 'problem' is that it isn't actually a problem. It is normal, though easily fixed if it does not fit your workflow.

 

[Axilrod]

What they said, 23.976 is standard, you aren't doing anything wrong.