Q: D800 video/movie mode - higher shutter speeds

[billinvegas]

Hello,

I'm going to be shooting some video on my D800. It's fun stuff - "zombie" themed event.

No toplights/additional lights are to be used.

I would also like to shoot some images at the same time.

However, with a shutter speed of 1/30 or 1/60 (which is recommended for video), and
the way the camera is held for video, I'm pretty certain I won't be able to get a sharp
image at that shutter speed.

If I were to up the shutter speed to say 1/200 or so, (so the stills will have a better chance
of not showing camera shake) what affect(s) will it have on the video?

I'm ok with upping the ISO to accomodate, noise in a video featuring "zombies" is not
at all distracting to me.

I know I'm asking for a Nikon camera specifically, but since I think fundamentally the
process is similar for Canon, so any advice, tips, suggestions from any DSLR video shooters
would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[trevmar]

Why not throw an LX7 or an RX100 into your pocket? Both will give good stills without affecting the smoothness of your video.

 

[Sean Nelson]

If you're shooting at a relatively slow frame rate of 24fps or 30fps, then a higher shutter speed will give you sharper individual frames, but at the cost of making any fast motion look "jerky" and stroboscopic. For an example of what I mean, have a look at this video. Watch in high definition (1080p) at full screen for best effect.

If you're zombies aren't moving very fast and you don't do any fast zooms or pans, then a high shutter speed might look OK. But then if that's all true then the individual frames will still look pretty sharp at a slow shutter speed, too.

The only way to get smooth motion and sharp images at the same time is to use a higher frame rate such as 1080p60. But it's not enough to shoot at that frame rate, you also need equipment to be able to view at that frame rate as well. A lot of modern BluRay players and televisions can do that.

I strongly recommend you shoot some test footage at various shutter speeds that will incorporate the type of subject (and lighting conditions) as well as the type of camera moves you expect to use. Have a look at the results using the largest display you expect to use and decide for yourself. It sounds like this is a one time event so if I were in your shoes I'd want to know ahead of time what to expect so I'd feel confident that I capturing the material properly.

 

[Kim Letkeman]

billinvegas wrote:

Hello,

I'm going to be shooting some video on my D800. It's fun stuff - "zombie" themed event.

No toplights/additional lights are to be used.

I would also like to shoot some images at the same time.

However, with a shutter speed of 1/30 or 1/60 (which is recommended for video), and
the way the camera is held for video, I'm pretty certain I won't be able to get a sharp
image at that shutter speed.

If I were to up the shutter speed to say 1/200 or so, (so the stills will have a better chance
of not showing camera shake) what affect(s) will it have on the video?

I'm ok with upping the ISO to accomodate, noise in a video featuring "zombies" is not
at all distracting to me.

I know I'm asking for a Nikon camera specifically, but since I think fundamentally the
process is similar for Canon, so any advice, tips, suggestions from any DSLR video shooters
would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Read up on 180 degree shutter. This is only a standard because our eyes have been trained for 100 years or more to it ... film cameras used a physical rotating shutter that had half the disk perforated to allow light through, hence the 180 degree shutter.

We are also attuned to 24fps, which is why the TV / video 30fps standard looks somehow wrong with movies.

Anyway ... one thing that comes out of researching this a bit is that shutter speed can be changed for certain effects.

Use a longer shutter speed like 1/15 for 30fps or 1/12 on 24fps to get a flowing effect. This is useful for dream sequences etc ... I use it when I don;t want to take ISO past 6400 on the GH2 ...

Use a shorter shutter speed for staccato effects ... and the classic example is the modern zombie and horror movies where the creatures move in a truly jerky fashion. This is known to make people tense and that is a big part of these movies' frightening feeling ...

So you are in luck ... if you are shooting at 30fps, then just boost shutter from the standard 1/60s to 1/240s and you will have plenty of staccato in your zombie movie.

 

[Richard Frederick]

I don't shoot much video with my D800 but I have done some investigation and testing. I like to have as much control as possible over my shutter speeds and apertures and do not want to resort to ND filters.

I found that shooting at 60 fps allows high shutter speeds without introducing jerk motion. With the D800 this does require shooting at 720 vs 1080, which I find is a good trade-off.

 

[Kim Letkeman]

Richard Frederick wrote:

I don't shoot much video with my D800 but I have done some investigation and testing. I like to have as much control as possible over my shutter speeds and apertures and do not want to resort to ND filters.

I found that shooting at 60 fps allows high shutter speeds without introducing jerk motion. With the D800 this does require shooting at 720 vs 1080, which I find is a good trade-off.

A 180 degree shutter at 60fps is 1/120s ... faster, but might not be fast enough to shoot stills of moving objects ...

What this all shows, though, is that there is a reason why people shoot video on one cam and stills on another ...

 

[Richard Frederick]

The point is that with a frame rate in the vicinity of 30 fps, a high shutter speed of (say) 1/500 can produce jerky motion. If the fram rate is 60 fps (or higher), the effect is much less pronounced. In other words you dont have to follow the 180 degree rule (as much).

 

[Kim Letkeman]

The point is that with a frame rate in the vicinity of 30 fps, a high shutter speed of (say) 1/500 can produce jerky motion. If the fram rate is 60 fps (or higher), the effect is much less pronounced. In other words you dont have to follow the 180 degree rule (as much).

The effect would be half as much one supposes. But it is still jerky motion ...

 

[Carey Brown]

Use a longer shutter speed like 1/15 for 30fps or 1/12 on 24fps to get a flowing effect. This is useful for dream sequences etc ... I use it when I don;t want to take ISO past 6400 on the GH2 ...

I'm not quite sure how you shoot 30fps with a shutter speed of 1/15sec. In a perfect world exposing a single frame would take 1/30sec, in reality we have to give the camera to gather the pixel data and write it to the chip, hence the recommended 1/60sec. 1/15 is impossible as far as I can tell.

 

[lancespring]

I'm not quite sure how you shoot 30fps with a shutter speed of 1/15sec. In a perfect world exposing a single frame would take 1/30sec, in reality we have to give the camera to gather the pixel data and write it to the chip, hence the recommended 1/60sec. 1/15 is impossible as far as I can tell.

That depends on the camera being used. Consumer camcorders and DSLR cameras will generally not allow for a slower shutter speed. But professional camcorders usually do.

What these camcorders do is that they record one 1/15th second frame, but then duplicate it. So one still ends up with 30 frames per second. However, because of this duplication, one really is not getting a true 30 fps frame rate.

More advanced camcorders also generally have good buffers in them. So data is buffered, before being written to the memory card.

However, the drawbacks in using a slower shutter speed pretty much outweigh any advantage they give in low light situations, in my opinion. If one is doing a lot of low light shooting, then a person should get a camera/camcorder with a fast lens, and one that gives good image quality at high ISO/gain settings.

If a person is shooting in low light and really must maximize their light gathering ability, then I would generally recommend shooting at 24p with a shutter speed of around 1/36th sec as the lowest practical settings to go with. And I would only go that low if one is filming a relatively static subject that is not moving a lot.

I know that the Canon G series camcorders ( G10, G20, and G30 ) have this ability to set a slower shutter. But I believe that they may well be the only so-called "consumer grade" camcorder line that can do so. I've not noticed any Panasonic or Sony camcorders offering this feature.


Likewise, I would not expect this feature to be available on DSLR cameras either.
.

 

[Kim Letkeman]

Use a longer shutter speed like 1/15 for 30fps or 1/12 on 24fps to get a flowing effect. This is useful for dream sequences etc ... I use it when I don;t want to take ISO past 6400 on the GH2 ...

I'm not quite sure how you shoot 30fps with a shutter speed of 1/15sec. In a perfect world exposing a single frame would take 1/30sec, in reality we have to give the camera to gather the pixel data and write it to the chip, hence the recommended 1/60sec. 1/15 is impossible as far as I can tell.

Oops ... 360degree shutter is the slowest the GH2 will do ...