Maybe it was shutter speed. They said 300 or 1500 which are both shutter speeds. I'm pretty sure they said frames because they said when slowing it back down to 24 fps, it had the proper speed but with the energetic look. Would shutter speed do that? Do you 'slow it to the normal 24 fps rate'? When I set it to 300 shutter speed, the viewfinder gets really dark, almost to the point where nothing is seen at all. Why is that? Do you know how to open the iris on the XL1s? Thanks for your help. I know I asked a lot more questions in this reply but it'd be great if you can answer them all, as they're all important.

I'm not an expert with video cameras, but I don't think you will find it possible to change the frame rate. Obviously with a proper movie camera it is simplicity itself because it is easy to just crank the motor faster, and even many super8 cameras will over crank to 54fps and one or two up to 70 or 80 fps. 54 will give a beautiful slow motion effect. Ref Saving Private Ryan - the presentation rate for this film is 24fps. To achieve a shutter speed of 1/500 the variable shutter on the camera would have to have been closed right down, but the frame rate would have stayed the same save for slow motion sequences. Also, don't forget that 28 days had an enourmous budget for improving the image quality as much as possible in post coupled with expert lighting in production - so I hope you are not expecting to achieve the same image quality because you may be disappointed (although it still looked poor though, especially during theatrical presentation) Matt

Hi there, Sorry if you you don't like the way I'm putting things. All I was saying about Saving Private Ryan is that someone else had asserted that it was shot with a 1/500 sec. shutter speed. On a motion picture camera the shutter speed is directly related to the frame rate - the shutter consists of a rotating disk with a slice cut out of it, rather like a cake. It rotates and whenever the "slice" passes the film gate a frame is exposed and then the claw hooks the film forward to the next frame ready for the "slice" to pass again and expose the next frame. if you increase the frame rate obviously the shutter rotates more quickly with the consequence that each frame is exposed for less time. The other consequence of this, however, is that the motion will appear slowed down when presented. Generally speaking the shutter is 180 degree - ie: the disk is only a half. However some motion picture cameras have variable shutters which means the size of the "slice" can be altered either wider, say to 220 degree (and thus mean the frame of film is exposed LONGER) or made smaller, thus the exposure is a lot shorter. In other words it is possible to make the shutter speed shorter without changing the frame rate. With regard to slow motion, obviously if you crank the camera faster the footage will be slowed down during presentation, which is always at, say, 24fps in the cinema. Thus th point I was making with regard to Saving Private Ryan is that if it was shot with a 500 sec shutter they with shot it all in slow motion or had a variable shutter. However all this would mean is that more light would be needed, rather than producing any other effect. Sorry I'm rambling on here and run out of time. Wil return and try to express myself better Matt

Right on man my pet peave are the uppety tecky Film/video peope who can't talk normal.
JR