what is the difference between 1080i50 and pf25 in my canon hf200?

Those are recording settings to choose from; Both are 1920x1080 raster, but without getting into the technical mumbo jumbo, 1080i50 is interlaced and pf25 is progressive. Sorry but it's very late here, but I suggest you Google interlace vs. progressive scan. Your shooting style and subject will determine which setting to use.

Gymnut said:

Those are recording settings to choose from; Both are 1920x1080 raster, but without getting into the technical mumbo jumbo, 1080i50 is interlaced and pf25 is progressive. Sorry but it's very late here, but I suggest you Google interlace vs. progressive scan. Your shooting style and subject will determine which setting to use.

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1080i has the advantage that it consumes less bandwidth than progressive, hence it's used mostly for HD TV broadcasting. On the downside, you can see evidence of interlacing on computer monitors, especially when the picture is scaled since the drawing of the interlaced image isn't in time with the redrawing of the progressive scan monitor.

1080p at 25fps (30 for NTSC) is great for pretty much anything and definitely the one to go for if you intend to use the footage on computer, although 1080p at 50fps (60 for NTSC) is favoured for fast action like sport, particuarly where slow motion replay is desirable.

canon hf200 camcorder

I just bought the hf200 and am no an experienced photographer.
I bought the camera to video my sons high school football games
What settings would be best for sports at night under the lights?

neonkru said:

so, one thing i'm not really worried about: storage space. so for my personal videos, stuff like important moments like familiy i want the max quality possible. i want to shoot the footage, edit either in imovie or final cut express (i guess i will go with final cut express for important movies) edit the movie and then storage in the closest quality possible to the original. So you're saying for this kind of need i should go with the PF25 setting because it's better for using in computer right?

for other footage like, fun clips to post in youtube and some random videos the 1080i50 will do it as well.

on the last thing: as i'm not really worried about space. so what's the best export format to use? right now i tried using export as quicktime movie and the quality seems very good. is that good for long term storage?

i think i had a bug, i exported the movie and sometimes when i play it it seems like its flashing (but flashing a black light) however it's random, sometimes happens sometimes doesn't happen. i guess i shouldn't worry much about it.

thank you for your reply it's being a great help since i'm completely new in video editing

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You've asked a very simple question that has only very complicated answers. There's been a big and ongoing debate over in the iMovie forum at Apple about this exact topic, and I suggest you look over there. Just don't expect a hard answer - I know I haven't found one. Part of the problem is that there is personal preference involved; some folks just prefer the way one or the other looks.

Like your's, my Canon camera can shoot 1080i60 (the default) or 1080p30. Now, I would normally assume Canon's choice of a default was made for a reason and therefore I should just use that unless I have a good reason to override that setting. And I can certainly say that the result looks fantastic when played directly to my big plasma TV. The TV itself displays progressive frames, and this means it's doing a good job of taking interlaced images from the camera and turning them into progressive frames for viewing.

But, and this is where it gets sticky, the process of deinterlacing can also take place in your Canon camera, or in the software you use for editing digital video. In fact, iMovie 09 (actually, any version after iMovie HD 06) FORCIBLY deinterlaces whenever certain transitions or effects are applied. These effects can only be applied to progressive frames, and iMovie is believed to just drop every half-frame (every other field) in order to do so. Information and image quality can suffer from this intentional loss of data. It is thus not possible to maintain a pure 1080i workflow, which I think this is probably what we would do if we could - just use the defaults and forget about it. But we can't.

This is what has REALLY set off the debate about the proper Canon camera settings. Should we deinterlace first thing, in the camera, or can we get a better result shooting 1080i and using various workarounds in iMovie. For instance, tools like JES Deinterlacer can de-interlace captured camera footage - making it progressive - so that no data is subsequently lost in iMovie. See http://sites.google.com/site/theimovieoutputproject/ And there are other tricks as well for maintaining a loss-free flow.

The answer I'm still searching for is what workflow is best. At this point I'm resigned to doing the testing myself since I can't seem to get a straight answer. If you find something, I'd love to hear about it.

Progressive

I just like to stick with the progressive on my canon as it cuts out the chances of me "forgetting" to de-interlace.
I have always had that "personal" idea that interlaced was a cheap way of dealing with bandwidth issues and it's hopefully just going to die.

Tryed Jes deinterlacer - slow motion problems

This is what has REALLY set off the debate about the proper Canon camera settings. Should we deinterlace first thing, in the camera, or can we get a better result shooting 1080i and using various workarounds in iMovie. For instance, tools like JES Deinterlacer can de-interlace captured camera footage - making it progressive - so that no data is subsequently lost in iMovie. See http://sites.google.com/site/theimovieoutputproject/ And there are other tricks as well for maintaining a loss-free flow.


Tryed JES worked but when use slow motion in imovie it makes the clip move back nad forth in a jerky motion which does not look natural?
am I doing something wrong?

Tryed Jes deinterlacer - slow motion problems

This is what has REALLY set off the debate about the proper Canon camera settings. Should we deinterlace first thing, in the camera, or can we get a better result shooting 1080i and using various workarounds in iMovie. For instance, tools like JES Deinterlacer can de-interlace captured camera footage - making it progressive - so that no data is subsequently lost in iMovie. See http://sites.google.com/site/theimovieoutputproject/ And there are other tricks as well for maintaining a loss-free flow.


Tryed JES worked but when use slow motion in imovie it makes the clip move back and forth in a jerky motion which does not look natural?
am I doing something wrong?