What's the point of 30fps (not 29.97)?

[Yousuf Abbasi]

The RED One can record in the following frame rates:

23.98: Easier to apply pulldown for conversion to NTSC 29.97
24.00: Frame rate of motion pictures
25.00: Standard PAL frame rate
29.97: Standard NTSC frame rate
30.00: ???


What's the point of being able to record in true 30 frames per second? I know it's an extra option, which is never a bad thing, but what useful purpose does it serve?

[Stepan Kment]

imho:

29.97 framebase is really crazy, you have to deal with dropframes in TC.. all that inherited from NTSC old standard. Really, Im happy living in PAL region, exact 25fps is definitely easier to live with :)
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if you reinterpret 29.97 to 30 or vice versa (I mean say record 29.97 and play the same 30 instead): you record 1000 frames or 1001 frames in the same interval of time. That means, that for continuous ~30 sec long take, You get 1 extra frame in 30 compared to 29.97fps. In real world, I guess You'd hardly notice any difference playing the same footage in 29.97 or 30, even if you didn't change audio pitch at all for tenths of sec long take.

The difference escalates with time, after 5 minutes of continued recording, of course, the slowdown or speedup would be visible if audio was played in original speed, desync would appear. Just I wanted to say that it is not a big prob. In Europe, movies shot 23.98 or 24 are simply played back faster in 25fps and audio is processed to maintain sync and pitch. Resulting the movie is 2+min faster on each hour of playback. Whole Europe lives with that and none ever shouted - and 24/25 is MUCH bigger difference than 29.97/30.

[Jarred Land]

30fps went away with Color Broadcast... before that TV was true 30.. Nowadays, there is no really good reason to shot 30fps for normal recording unless you are shooting purposefully offspeed... for time modification etc.

The Web is a whole other story though..