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Mixing GH4 24P with 23.976 GH3 Footage
  • I've just got my GH4 and have a shoot coming up this week and would love to use cinema 4K at true 24p. My B camera is a GH3 and I was just wondering if I could mix the GH4's true 24p with the GH3's 23.976fps footage without causing any sync issues etc?

    Will that half a frame or so cause problems, what's the best workflow here?

  • 5 Replies sorted by
  • Just use 23.976. I only mix frame rates if I want to slow down 29.97 for smoother panning or a smoother tracking shot.

    If there is dialog involved, forget it. It's a headache I don't want.

    That said, it can be fine for action sequences. A bride walking down the aisle. A battle between combatants, etc.

  • You will need to convert/conform one source to the other, depending which frame rate your delivery requires. It is not 1/2 a frame, more like 1/1000 , but nevertheless you might encounter sync issues over time maybe even visual artefacts if you just throw the two together, and not set up conform and timeline options to tackle this ordeal. This depends on the kind of footage, length of the shots, dynamics of the movements but where it really counts is audio and visual postproduction workflow.

    Now, without knowing the complexity of your workflow, post production pipeline etc, if you are going to DCI or somewhere where you need true 24p as a delivery, make a 24p timeline and force conform your 23.976 footage to 24p. It will slow it down for that small amount, but it is so slight that so it will work without even noticing. Or vice versa for 23.976 delivery. Then render out a edited file and do whatever with it and you'll be fine.

    Things get a bit more complicated if you move your footage and projects (edl, omf, xml...) to other places / applications for audio post production, color grading, compositing etc, where your conform options set up in your NLE might not translate and be a pain in the ass to deal with post festum. In that case you might be safer if you convert one of your sources before ingesting, I'd still do it by slowing down / speeding up, but create that one intermediate generation of files ready for editing.

  • Oh right. Having just got the GH4 I'd like to use the full cinema 4k, but if it's going to cause problems with using my GH3 then it doesn't make sense to use it. I'm shooting an interview and wanted to use the 4K so I could punch into the image.

  • There are 3 camera frequencies on the GH4. 24hz, 50hz, and 59.94.

    DCI Cinema 4k (4096 x 2160) is only found in 24hz. It is a tiny bit wider than UHD 3840 x 2160 (16:9)

    Our televisions are 16:9, so UHD 3840 x 2160 is a better match for the 16:9 GH3 image.

    You want the following settings:

    System Frequency: 59.94

    Camera resolution: UHD 3840 x 2160, 23.976 (23.98)

    Photo Style: Natural for both cameras

    You can still crop in for close-ups, but you won't have any issues with syncing.

  • McKinise, you're a lifesaver! IS there no way to match more closely to Cine-D or is it necessary to keep to Natural?