Bad video during panning movment , what I am missing?

claustro

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Hi guys,

I bought my first digital camera capable of video recording, a fuji X-S10.

The problem is that during pan movement the video seems quite bad, blurred to me.

This occurs with low ( 40ss ) or high (200ss) shutter speed. Can someone point me in what I am missing?

here an example

 
Hi guys,

I bought my first digital camera capable of video recording, a fuji X-S10.

The problem is that during pan movement the video seems quite bad, blurred to me.

This occurs with low ( 40ss ) or high (200ss) shutter speed. Can someone point me in what I am missing?

here an example

There are a few problems.

First, are you using a tripod with a fluid head? One that is made for video?

Are you using auto exposure?

Are you using autofocus?

Is there lens or camera stabilization turned on?

The florescent lights are flickering in your shot so you might have to adjust shutter speed.

But you also have to pan SLOWER. It is too fast of a pan for things that close.
 
There are a few problems.

First, are you using a tripod with a fluid head? One that is made for video?

Are you using auto exposure?

Are you using autofocus?

Is there lens or camera stabilization turned on?

The florescent lights are flickering in your shot so you might have to adjust shutter speed.

But you also have to pan SLOWER. It is too fast of a pan for things that close.
Thank you for taking time to answer me

I was not using a tripod, free movement.

The shot I posted was in manual I tried many shutter speed/aperture combo but all more or less show that problem.

The lens is a Fujinon 16/80 with auto stabilization ( no available switch in this lens) and the mechanical stabilization was on the body.

I am a total beginner, this is my first camera ( I used dv camcorder, phone, and action camera till now ) so any advice will be very useful .

If someone can point me in a good beginner tutorial for video recording would be great.

Thank you

Andrea
 
I'm going to assume that the problem you're referring to is the staccato appearance of the motion, i.e., it seems to move in tiny little steps rather than smoothly. The video also has very uneven panning speed because it was shot handheld, but I'm going to assume that this isn't the problem you're asking about.

This kind of staccato movement is caused by a low frame rate, typically 24 or 30fps. At these kinds of frame rates the eye can see the individual frames and so it can see that the picture "jumps" a bit between each frame rather than showing a continuous smooth movement.

This video is a bit of an extreme example of the kind of staccato movement I'm talking about, notice that you can't even read the lettering on the bus that goes by even though it's perfectly legible if you pause the video.

The best way to avoid this is to use a faster frame rate if your camera has it. For example, shooting at 60 frames per second (fps) will make this effect much less pronounced.

A warning, though - shooting at higher frame rates necessitates using faster shutter speeds, and this has two potentially negative consequences for the kind of indoor shots in your sample video. First, faster shutter speeds in indoor lighting may require you to boost the ISO sensitivity which can introduce noise. Second, faster shutter speeds may interact with lighting that flickers such as fluorescent or some LED lights to create bands of light and dark in your video, or cause the brightness of the recording to fluctuate.

If you can't use a faster frame rate, the conventional wisdom is to use a slow shutter speed. The normal recommendation is to use a shutter speed that's twice the frame rate, for example 1/60th of a second if you're shooting at 30fps. The slow shutter speed will blur the individual frames so that the jump between each one is less obvious. But of course it means that details will be lost in the blurring.

Using a slower shutter speed can create the opposite of the "too little light" problem mentioned above for high frame rates - too much light, especially if you're shooting outdoors on a bright day. You may need to use a neutral density filter to counteract that.

Another way to avoid the problem is to slow the speed of your pans so that there's less frame-to-frame movement.

I'd suggest you try experimenting with different shutter speeds, frame rates and panning speeds to see what does and doesn't work for your sensibilities.
 
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I was not using a tripod, free movement.
Another thing to try (if you are using the LCD screen and shooting at waist level):

Keep your arms in next to your body. Your elbows should be next to your ribs, and your hands should be open flat, in front of your waist. If you can, have them press in to your waist a bit. The camera should be held firmly in your hands.

Stand with your feet a little ways apart. Hold your breath, and turn your body. Try not to move you hands. Keep them pressing in to your waist, but move your whole body SLLLOOOWWWLLLYYY.
 
I was expecting something much different when I saw the video.

I saw a lot of wobble, and then some kind of warping within. Fuji stabilization?

The pan without those 2 items - was actually pretty smooth here.

I'm in the USA, 60hz or 30hz monitor.
 
Thank you all for the answers.

I studied some basics, maybe the problem I perceive is due to the low frame rate (24fps) .

Should I mix the frame rate based on what I am filming? My goal is to make videos during my travel, for pleasure and to remember. Maybe I could stick with 24fps for low light / slow movement and go for 60 for high light / fast movement. The edit all at 24.

I am going to do a "scientific" test changing ISO SS and aperture indoor and outdoor, I'll report here what I'll find. It is a new world for me used to take mainly pictures.

There are many things I have to learn!
 
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Thank you all for the answers.

I studied some basics, maybe the problem I perceive is due to the low frame rate (24fps) .

Should I mix the frame rate based on what I am filming? My goal is to make videos during my travel, for pleasure and to remember. Maybe I could stick with 24fps for low light / slow movement and go for 60 for high light / fast movement. The edit all at 24.

I am going to do a "scientific" test changing ISO SS and aperture indoor and outdoor, I'll report here what I'll find. It is a new world for me used to take mainly pictures.

There are many things I have to learn!
When I first attempted video I panned like you've been doing and no matter what I tried (as a rank beginner) the clips looked horrible. I concluded a gimbal was my only hope.

Now I'm shooting strictly on a tripod, no panning, just point at a scene and shoot 13 second clips and they look great. Haven't bought a gimbal yet.

Lately I've been checking out Y'Tub channels of camera reviews (like this guy:


and they (he) don't pan handheld when they shoot clips, they're all walking straight ahead commenting on how well the IBIS works. There's a lesson to be learned here...
 
Maybe I could stick with 24fps for low light / slow movement and go for 60 for high light / fast movement. The edit all at 24.
If it's the staccato appearance of panning that is annoying you then you'd want to edit and render your output at 60fps. Shooting at 60fps and then reducing the final production to 24fps defeats the purpose.

If after you shoot some test footage you decide that you prefer 60fps, one of your options is to shoot low light scenes at 24fps and then use a video editor that can place them into a 60fps timeline with frame interpolation. DaVinci Resolve can do this, and I'd expect that Adobe Premiere Pro could do it as well.
 
Hi guys,

I bought my first digital camera capable of video recording, a fuji X-S10.

The problem is that during pan movement the video seems quite bad, blurred to me.

This occurs with low ( 40ss ) or high (200ss) shutter speed. Can someone point me in what I am missing?

here an example

It's due to low framerate. You can make a tradeoff between staccato look at high shutter speed and somewhat more smooth look at slower shutter speed (e.g. according to 180° rule) but it can't be fixed without increasing framerate.

Going to 60 fps would improve the situation somewhat but it doesn't solve it completely. For that you would have to go to a much higher framerate.

Practical solution which is used in cinematography is to limit your panning speed. But even when you are following 7 second rule (i.e. panning should not be faster than 7 seconds per screen width), you get effectively 24*7 = 168 pixels of horizontal resolution during the panning with speed of 7 seconds per screen width.
 
I'm going to assume that the problem you're referring to is the staccato appearance of the motion, i.e., it seems to move in tiny little steps rather than smoothly. The video also has very uneven panning speed because it was shot handheld, but I'm going to assume that this isn't the problem you're asking about.

This kind of staccato movement is caused by a low frame rate, typically 24 or 30fps. At these kinds of frame rates the eye can see the individual frames and so it can see that the picture "jumps" a bit between each frame rather than showing a continuous smooth movement.

This video is a bit of an extreme example of the kind of staccato movement I'm talking about, notice that you can't even read the lettering on the bus that goes by even though it's perfectly legible if you pause the video.

The best way to avoid this is to use a faster frame rate if your camera has it. For example, shooting at 60 frames per second (fps) will make this effect much less pronounced.

A warning, though - shooting at higher frame rates necessitates using faster shutter speeds, and this has two potentially negative consequences for the kind of indoor shots in your sample video. First, faster shutter speeds in indoor lighting may require you to boost the ISO sensitivity which can introduce noise. Second, faster shutter speeds may interact with lighting that flickers such as fluorescent or some LED lights to create bands of light and dark in your video, or cause the brightness of the recording to fluctuate.

If you can't use a faster frame rate, the conventional wisdom is to use a slow shutter speed. The normal recommendation is to use a shutter speed that's twice the frame rate, for example 1/60th of a second if you're shooting at 30fps. The slow shutter speed will blur the individual frames so that the jump between each one is less obvious. But of course it means that details will be lost in the blurring.

Using a slower shutter speed can create the opposite of the "too little light" problem mentioned above for high frame rates - too much light, especially if you're shooting outdoors on a bright day. You may need to use a neutral density filter to counteract that.

Another way to avoid the problem is to slow the speed of your pans so that there's less frame-to-frame movement.

I'd suggest you try experimenting with different shutter speeds, frame rates and panning speeds to see what does and doesn't work for your sensibilities.
The issue is perceived as staccato at low framerates but transforms to pure blur at higher ones. Switching from 24 to 60 fps would decrease the blur/increase horizontal resolution by factor of 2.5 but it wouldn't resolve the issue completely.

Also, I would say that you can use 360° shutter at high framerates which partially compensates for the loss of light for a single frame.
 

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