1080p at 30fps vs 1080p at 60fps?

[Darrell KSR]

Sort of for future reference, but in the Yi Action Cam I mentioned in another thread, they have a bunch of different settings for video. I think the two most likely ones for me, dumbing it down, are 1080p, 30 fps, or 1080p, 60 fps.

Here's what I was told.

a) 1080p/30 fps would not use the battery as much. The battery I have would go about 1 hr, 45 minutes filming that, whereas if it is bumped to 1080p/60 fps, the battery would last just under an hour.

That's a consideration. I have a 2nd battery (I misplaced it, so I ordered another), but it's still a hassle to swap batteries out if I'm recording something longer than an hour.

b) 1080p/60 fps is great for action--wearing it on a helmet, mountain biking, riding a zip line, etc.

c) 1080p/30 fps is more natural for things like movies. I was told that 24fps is pretty standard for a movie theater film.

d) HOWEVER, somebody said that you should shoot in 1080p/60 fps if you can, and then do post-processing and you'll get a better result, even for movie theater kind of stuff.

e) If you are going to do something "special," like to a fancy slow-motion kind of thing--even someone blowing out birthday candles--better to use 1080p/60 fps, and edit it.

f) If you're going to upload to YouTube, better to do 1080p/30 fps. Easier/smaller/quicker, and no difference in quality because they dumb it down anyway.

g) I like easy. So if I'm not going to do any post-processing, and I'm not going to be filming super-fast action, but instead slow moving actors on a stage...would it be a better product, more natural at 1080p/30 fps? I'm really hoping that's the answer.

[KentuckyWildcat]

Personally, I disagree with D, and for E, 60 frames is really not that slow.

60 is basically, 30 but interlaced together in two different frames. I shoot in 30 because it is a smaller file size, less battery, and less camcorder looking. Most movies are 24 frames per second.

[Darrell KSR]

Thanks, appreciate your advice!