I am not too familiar with this and wonder if some one could help me with this.

I know that PAL 625 lines was for Europe and NTSC 525 lines was for America, but why do the manual
for camera settings I have for the Mavic 2 Pro talk about this today. PAL and NTSC as far I know
was for analogue video and today we use digital video.

So my question is: Is the video content shot in 24/25fps identical to the information in the video
shot at 30fps more that just that it is in 30fps? I noticed when I put a video clip shot it 30fps
in to the Media info program it shows to be 29,970fps, not 30fps.

If no difference more that just the frame rates, then should I be able to use 30fps which comes up
as NTSC in my Pinnacle 25U video editing program and I the export this in NTSC. Will it then also
work on an ordinary TV here i EU? There is no 30fps setting in pinnacle for PAL for the time line.
It always comes up as NTSC and PAL always has 24/25fps settings.

I would prefer 30fps recording as I feel the video comes up much smoother than the 24/25fps which
comes sup a bit jerky or stutter if you move the drone faster when you pan or fly faster forward
when there are uneven structures on the ground.

These terms are a bit confusing (and originated in a time long before digital video).
30fps is 29.970 fps. So that is correct.
There is a reason behind this, but I have forgotten why (you can find it easily online).
From what I remember is that Pinnacle does show 30, but it is 29.970.

Main thing to remember is that you (at least in Sweden) are in PAL area, which means it is 'best' to shoot in 25 or 50 fps.
That is most important when you have artificial lighting in your footage. It can start to flicker if you shoot at 30fps. (or 60fps) due to the frequency of the grid.
The other reason that could be valid is if you want to combine other footage that was shot with a 'PAL' camera (25 or 50 fps) and you want to combine it.
You could slow the 30fps footage down to 25fps to avoid frame skipping, but that could not give the desired effect.

If you shoot during daylight (no artificial lighting), you can also shoot at 30fps of course, but that footage might be harder to combine with 25fps footage.

One final consideration, you could also opt for 50fps. That (sometimes) is less prone to 'stuttering' because the difference between frames is less big when moving.

Make 100% sure you edit in the same framerate (so 25 - 50 OR 30 - 60) as you shot your footage. Otherwise it will also introduce frame skipping every x frames. That results in ugly jumps in your footage which makes it less smooth.

Montfrooij Posted at 12-3 00:12
These terms are a bit confusing (and originated in a time long before digital video).
30fps is 29.970 fps. So that is correct.
There is a reason behind this, but I have forgotten why (you can find it easily online).

Hi Montfrooij,

Excellent explained and thank you very much. Now I understand how it all works.

As I do not have 50fps I will definitely use 25fps,, as that is what the drone can do as well as my ordinary camera, which I will combine footage with when editing. Did a test with 30fps on some LED lamps I have and one was flickering quite a bit, so that makes me staying away for 30fps. It will also be much easier to edit with the same frame rate from both cameras.

Thanks again for your explanation and hope that it also will help some other people.

kyalami Posted at 12-3 06:16
Hi Montfrooij,

Excellent explained and thank you very much. Now I understand how it all works.

You're welcome man!
Happy creating!