How to choose frame rate

How frame rate affects your videos

Your creative goal and how you want the footage to look will affect which frame rate you choose for your project.

Faster frame rates capture more images per second and therefore more detail. If you want buttery smooth slow motion, you’d choose a much higher frame rate than the standard, because you’d need to capture many more frames than normal to ensure the footage still looked smooth when you slowed it down.

If you wanted motion blur, on the other hand, you could try a slower frame rate that doesn’t track every movement as closely.

Shutter speed and frame rate

Many people think that shutter speed and frame rate are the same. They aren’t, but they do affect one another.

Your camera’s shutter speed is a measurement of time, in seconds or fractions of a second, that your shutter stays open and allows light to hit your sensor. Frame rate is how many images are captured in a given video recording.

Many mirrorless cameras today use an electronic shutter, which allows for higher or lower shutter speeds than a physical shutter since they don’t have moving parts. The Z8, for example, can take still images at 120fps.

Your shutter speed will affect your frame rate when filming, so it’s important to know how to set it. A simple rule of thumb is that your shutter speed should be twice your intended frame rate to film at a speed that looks normal to the human eye. So if you wanted to film at 60fps, you would set your shutter speed to 1/120.

Read more: What is shutter speed in photography?

Common frame rates and how to choose yours

Before you begin your project, you should at least have an idea of the frame rate you’d like to use and why. Thinking about what creative effects, if any, and level of realism you want to achieve with your footage will help you choose. Although 24fps is a ‘classic’ movie frame rate globally, there are differences in the US and Europe for broadcast, due to the different systems used (PAL/SECAM in Europe and NSTC in America). In the US 30/60 and 120fps are standard frame rates whereas the in Europe they are 25/50 and 100fps.

Some commonly used frame rates are:

• 24fps: Used in most films and some streaming content to achieve a realistic look that’s similar to what the human eye sees.
• 25/30fps: Used in situations such as live TV broadcasts and shows, especially sports, for increased quality and detail.
• 50/60fps: Used for high detail and smooth action in conjunction with modern high-resolution standards such as 4K video.
• 100/120fps: Used to capture slow-motion footage and other fast-paced action such as high-res gaming.

It’s completely fine to stick with 24fps for every project you make until you feel like trying more settings. At first, focus on getting the hang of each frame rate and experiment to see which ones look the best to you.

Other factors to consider

When adjusting your frame rate, it’s not just the smoothness and detail of your footage that changes. It’s also the exposure.

That’s because the higher the fps, the more images your camera takes and the more times the shutter has to open and close. All that opening and closing cuts back on how much light can get to the sensor – the same as taking still photos with a very high shutter speed.

To compensate for that, be aware that you’ll need to adjust your ISO and aperture settings at a higher fps. You’ll also need to make sure your lighting is correct because, much like with still photography, low light can result in digital noise and degraded quality.

For more common filmmaking terms demystified, check out this article.

That’s all you need to know to get started! Check your camera specs to see what its capabilities are and start filming.