Hi all,

I'm a newbie to the forum and a newbie to video. I have bought a Sony A7Sii; which I use for a new business venture videoing properties.

 

I mainly use sliders but occasionally pan. It's the panning I'm having problems with. Some pans can be almost 180 degrees. Almost all the pans I have done are slightly jerky when viewed back. I use a manfrotto fluid head on a sturdy tripod, so the equipment is not the issue.

 

I'm in the UK, so I'm using 25 fps and a shutter speed of 1/50th of a second. My lens is a Sony/Zeiss 16-35mm lens set to 16mm.

 

I've read on the web that a pan should take 23 seconds, to scan 90 degrees. That would mean a 40 second plus scan for anything approaching 180 degrees. Even for a 90 degree pan, a clip of 23 seconds is far too long to be usable in a property video. People would get bored or even lose the will to live. Through research I've found that the general rule of thumb with clips in property videos is they should not be any longer than 5 seconds.

 

How can I get round the issue of trying to squeeze a very slow pan that takes 20+ seconds into a clip of only 5 seconds? Or am I just going to have to accept that pans will be slightly juddery.

 

Could I increase the frame rate to say 60 and the shutter speed to 1/120th when panning very slowly and then speed the video up in post production? Or will that change in frame rate in itself introduce juddering. I render at 25fps mp4 (PAL).

 

I use Power Director 14 Ultimate Suite for video editing; which I know is not as good as Adobe Premier, but does have a function to adjust the speed of a clip.

 

Any advice would be most welcome. As I say, I'm new to video.

 

thanks in advance.

John

Maybe just shoot 30fps if possible. I could be wrong here but I think the judder will be there with any fast pans. If you watch the old movies shot in 24 you can still see the judder. They found a way around this by directing movement to distract your eye from the judder with those fast pans.

If you select the main directions you'd like to shoot (eg 4 in a square room to show each wall) you can speed up the pan (in post - eg x8) from one angle to the next. Not necessarily points for artistic merit but it avoids the judder whilst maintaining the sense of space the viewer needs to know what they are looking at. Also saves time so you can use the full 5s looking at each wall/view.

 

Not done it myself so it might be truly hideous... test it and see what you think!

 

You might also try a 360 degree shutter (1/25th if you shoot at 25fps). This will introduce blur but will reduce judder.

Thanks for the advice. Much appreciated.