@Donnie88 - Just create a 25fps timeline and drop your 50 fps footage on it. FCPX automatically plays it back at 25 fps.

Actually, why not shooting 720/25p, as it's now possible with PTool 3.61d? Unless you need to slomo, my understanding is that you get less compression vs. shooting 50p. Anyone can confirm?
And also, another method would be to shoot at 1080/24p, conform to 25, edit and then slow it down to 96% using Twixtor, as stated in one of their tutorials. I have done a short test (rendering takes forever on my 4 and a half year old Macbook Pro) but I didn't notice any artifact. Any thoughts?

By the way, thank you very much Vitally, wonderful work! Very much appreciated!

@rogerpilly That would be even better if you get less compression with the PTool 720/25p. Why would you not get slow-mo with this?

@PixCanFly If the PTool 720/25p is good, then there may not be a need to do the 720/50>720/25p>1080/25p method.

sad, sad, sad.
I think I will pass on the gh2 (happy with my gh1, it just works).
perhaps gh3 will bring 1080 50p and global shutter.

@andres

honestly- get a GH2 - by the time the GH3 is hacked into shape (taking into account that Panny will not be sending VK a SDK) you will probably we wanting to get the GH4... Vicious cycle... Nip it in the bud...

720p50 is great for news etc, and when it gets higher bit rate it will scream - remember the GH2 is doing pixel binning not frame skipping- so as far as I am aware - all the lovely data is being used!

(someone correct me if I am wrong)

Hi guys, been reading this with great interest. I did a test just then with my GH2 in 24p mode and one of my other cams shooting 25p,
put them both on the kitchen bench, and shot for 30min,
every few min i got in shot and clapped hands and stuff,
lighting was halogen (PAL land).
I then dropped them into Premiere Pro in a 25p sequence,
synced the first few seconds, then went to end expecting to have to drag the 24p into sync with the rate stretch tool.
Didnt have to, the whole thing was perfectly in sync from start to finish, I could see any dramas with the lighting, strobing and such ( which I did get in the US recently when shooting at night with my GH1 at 25p 25 shutter).
There was no frame blending that I could see.
So, if you dont need the audio from the 24p cam, are there any issues that would arise in a multi cam shoot where one cam is 24p and the others 25p?
any thoughts greatly appreciated.

@madact Sure, I didn't mean to imply that 25p isn't needed.

From my perspective, I'm still shooting 25p on an old DVX100B, but I'm seriously considering getting a GH2. Since my work isn't for broadcast (more of an expensive hobby), I just figured I'd shoot 24p on the GH2 if 25p isn't available or as nice looking.

I was trying to get a handle of how much of a problem the light flickering effect would be. It seems with the right choice of shutter speed it's not really an issue (since people have always been dealing with this on 24p regardless of region).

@Sam
Light flicker isnt a problem with 24p as long as you shoot with correct shutter speed.
30fps can be a issue but not 24p ;-)

probably roughly double the framerate
ie
24/25p 50 shutter
30p 60 shutter
50/60 120 shutter (but I still use 50 shutter)
Theres the usual shutter rules...but rules are made to be broken lol

What about modifying 1080p24 time base so it reads faster?

There is a variable somewhere that tells camera how fast to read the chip etc. Is it possible to "hunt it down" and change it? I guess it's a rate at which some crystal clock is divided or such.

@ogelecek
you should do all these things in a 25p timeline, and you will get a lot smoother video

I've had a couple of questions about the 50P->25P option that I mentioned in my earlier post, so to clarify:

1) The unhacked PAL GH2 has a 720p50 AVCHD option, and the unhacked NTSC GH2 has a 720p60 AVCHD option.

2) The PTool361d hack enables a PAL<->NTSC menu item that lets you switch back and forwards between these two framerates (be sure to reformat your SD card after each switch).

3) PTool361d also has another two additional checkboxes that allow you to replace 720p50 with 720p25, and replace 720p60 with 720p30. You can select either one, or both, of these options when you apply the hack. So, for example, I have my GH2 presently set to 720P60 when in NTSC mode, and 720p25 when in PAL mode.

Hope that explains things a little better.