Can someone explain FPS for me? (Video Cameras)?

Question

I'm interested in buying a camcorder and I'd like to know what it means because it was mentioned a lot when I was reading up about them. I know FPS means frames per second but thats about it. Thanks ;)

Answer 1

all video is is lots of still pictures taken very quickly  a bit like a flip book and like a flip book the more pages or pictures there are in a second the smoother the video will be. Any thing over 40 fps is usualy good.  

Answer 2

Just to clarify: HIGHER FPS DOESN'T MEAN BETTER QUALITY

Digital video cameras shoot 30fps natively. Hence the 30i or 30p. If you think about a motion picture, all it is is millions of still photographs played back quick enough to simulate motion. So in a standard digital camera, you record 30 consecutive photographs in 1 second of film. In the past, digital camcorders only shot in 30fps. But with recent advancements of technology, that has changed. With the advancement of 24p, digital camcorders were able to simulate 24fps like that of a film camera on digital. Mind you, it was still 30fps, but it "simulates" 24fps. Some HD camera have what we call variable frame rate, where we can actually change the number of frames per second; this is also called overcranking and undercranking.

So take the HVX200 for example, if I shot in 720 24pN mode, I can switch the frame rate to as little as 12, to as much as 60. Now to clarify: A higher frame rate records fast motion better with less blur, but it is only used for crystal clear slow motion. 12fps records records footage that is sped up. Why is this? Well if you think about it, the frame per second doesn' chage in the camera, we are merely capturing more frames, so if you shoot 60fps, it will still playback in 24fps and it'll be slow motion.  

So going back to my point, a higher frame rate is better for recording still frames and slow motion, but other than that, resolution and picture quality is NOT improved. Why else would we make SOOOO much an effort to actually lower the frame rate from 30 to 24? Sure it does blur a tiny bit more, but it makes our footage look like we shot it in fillm....which is a good thing.....frame rate and quality is a common misconception; hope that gets rid of some confusion.

Anyways, I apologize for being lenghty....hope that helps!  

:)

Answer 3

how many pictures you can fit into a second the higher the FPS the better quality in your video