Will US Scarlet model shoot PAL?

[Jim Coulter]

Hi Guys- I was booked on a shoot next week and they want to shoot in PAL format. I assume that since the Scarlet can shoot 25 fps or 50 fps then that would in fact be a PAL format?

Or is there more to it? They are asking me if I have a Canon 5D which is really no different is it?

If I set the frame rate to a PAL setting on my US (NTSC) Scarlet- Will that give them what they want or is there something I'm not aware of?

Thanks for your help!

 

[paulherrin]

yeah, you would make it 'pal' in your export.

 

[Jim Coulter]

Hi Paul- Is there any difference in the electronics of the US Scarlet and those being sold in Europe?

When you say 'make it PAL in the export' Can I shoot in 1080 HD and hand over the files to the client- from there 'they' make the conversion?

I would like to have the easiest path for delivery that will insure they can have PAL format media. My guess is they will not want nor know what to do with 4K files.

 

[dennys bisogno]

Paul,

I am assuming you are just providing footage them and not say DVD, BluR - BTW, I do not shoot PAL, but If I had shoot some footage for someone - 2 things would come to mind, framerate (25/50) and possibly frame size (H X L). Once footage is at the editing phase , I would the NLE functions to convert or rather comply to PAL while exporting?

 

[ericyoung]

There is no difference in the Scarlet, wherever it is sold to.

You need to pin the client down a bit more on what they expect to receive from you. I can't see why anyone actually wants real PAL standard definition interlaced 50Hz video as a deliverable as no national broadcaster (except possibly in some third world countries) will accept that as source material anymore. They will mostly be different frequencies of 1080HD.

By "PAL" do they actually mean 1080p25? If so, the camera can't record that directly. Either you have to transcode the Red R3D 4K files to 1080p25 for them (needs a very fast computer or a Red Rocket Card to transcode in anywhere near realtime) or use an external recorder like Sound Devices PIX240 http://www.sounddevices.com/products/video-recorders/ or other similar ones from Atomos or others connected to the HD-SDI output of the Scarlet set to Clean Output.

The camera should be set to 25fps Project Timebase, and 25fps Record Framerate for most PAL countries.

Canon 5D Mk2/3 will record 1080HD directly at 25fps (or 24fps or 30fps), so no need for transcode. You can just give them the files straight from the camera.

 

[jimhare]

Hi Jim,

The answers you are getting are perhaps more complicated than they need to be. The answer is YES. Set the project rate to 25FPS and you are shooting PAL. Be aware that you should probably still set your shutter rate to 1/60 to avoid flicker from lights.

Let me know if you have further questions. I shoot PAL on Epic/Scarlet exclusively and it's a piece of cake.

 

[paulherrin]

first, you may not want to shoot in 1080 because of crop factor (http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?65973-Crop-Factor-Demystified)

secondly, you need to find out what kind of deliverable your client wants/needs and can handle.

finally, if you're shooting, pick 25 or 50 (or put it in a 25/50 timeline if you're shooting highspeed) and export away.

 

[Peter Majtan]

Scarlet is neither PAL - nor NTSC. It is not a video camera. Video cameras work in a very different way.
Scarlet is a digital cinema camera - as such it shoot series (strip) of still frames just as a traditional film camera would, recording them to a digital file in a RAW format.
Each frame in that file is completely independent from the rest and can be extracted as such - one of the key differences from video cameras.
Your project settings (which is nothing more then a metadata) set the speed at which these frames will be played.
For PAL You need 25 FPS. So (as pointed by others) set the project frame rate as 25.
Then set your capture frame rata at 25 as well. This way your footage will be acquired and played back at 25 FPS - and be therefore compatible with PAL. But Your footage is still not PAL.
For that You need to convert the RAW data into PAL video - either by using your NLE, or converting directly in REDCINE-X...

Two key settings will affect (the most) the quality of your footage:

FORMAT:
- the larger the format the better image quality in the end - but at the cost of reduced frame rates. The max size is 4K if You want to capture for PAL (more about this bellow)
- the larger the format the wider FOV from your lenses
- the larger the format the larger your data size - and therefore also the time needed to process the footage

FRAME RATE:
- your project frame rate sets the speed of playback for your footage
- for PAL (in your case) recording at 25 FPS will result in normal motion
- recording at higher then 25 FPS will result in slow motion
- recording at lower then FPS will result in faster then normal motion (speed-up) - up to an extreme of a time-lapse footage

So chose wisely...

Peter

PS: There is no PAL nor NTSC Scarlet - they are all the same DSMC Scarlet - only one model (for now) is being manufactured)