The purpose of HFR on the BMPCC4K

Excuse me for the ignorant query. Anyone's kindful guideance is appreciated.

I am recording with the BMPCC4K, taking action videos of mountain bikers doing extreme sports, jumps, etc.. I prefer to capture in UHD or DCI 4K, and at the highest frame rate possible, so that in post I can decide if to slow down the action smoothly.

I generally edit/ deliver in D. Resolve at 29.97fps, and when I film with either my Drones, or Gopros or GHx cameras, or the BMPCC4K, I prefer to capture overcranked at 59.94fps so that I have ample frames to slow in post later, should I choose to do that.

My question: Whats the benefit of the HFR button, on the BMPCC4K?

I get it that I can toggle to 59.94 on the fly, but I hate fighting the results in post. When dropped into DR 29.97 timeline in post, the frames play by default at 1/2 speed. thats ok, but but the audio is playing back at native, full speed for half of the clip duration. Theres sort of a mis match here.

Its a real annoyance and very annoying to adjust the clips playback rate in the timeline to 200x to get life like speed, then the audio also gets applied 200x playback. That is not my preference.

I am finding that its simply much easier to simply set in the BMPCC4K camera settings a project framerate of 59.94 and shoot it at that. Then, when that video is dropped into DR, it behaves exactly the same as my Gopro or Drone video does (both get captured at 59.94). The video plays back at real speed natively in DR, and slowing down the clips speed to 50pct also slows down the audio as well. Which is my preference.I often reply on the in camera audio, being out in the field.

What would be the "advantage" or purpose of the HFR 29.97/49.94 option in the BMPCC4K camera? What am I missing?

I use hfr button all the time really. I always cut in a 23.98 or 29.98 timeline, so hfr let's me grab quick broll intended to be played back in slow motion, which resolve does automatically. I never use the audio from these shots so the audio does not matter for my projects.

I think your project framerate of 59.94fps is right for your purposes. The HFR mode is - sorry to state the obvious - for slow motion clips without audio. Although the audio can be stretched in post. After that, the HFR clips could be used for your projects, but this all involves more work.

My use of HFR is for bird and insect footage where I don't need audio. Mostly at 120fps in 2.6k crop mode.

Mike, Both your way and Dune way of recording is really a preference and HFR is just there for convenience. For me, if you're doing a number of slow mo B-roll shots to be cut in a 23.976/24 or 29.98/30 timeline, shooting those slo-mo b-roll in HFR is convenient when I don't have to fuzz with the audio (like just throwing a music track on it).

Thank you everyone for the input.

It seems the HFR option, is "handy" for the flexibility in the field, but appears that most when using such are not relying on the camera's captured audio. Replacing it with music, etc.. If when relying on the captured audio, the post steps are more finicky. As I have discovered, using DR.

This fits with my experience as well. Seems like it will be a case by case basis for me going forward, depending on how much I want to deal with the audio re timing or not.

Seems that your use is not "usual"

You should like you really want to shoot at the highest frame rate all the time ?

I think you could set a base frame rate of 60 FPS (maybe i'm mistaken i don't have the camera in front of me)

Then everything is at 60 FPS and there's no slow motion other than if you go faster than 60 (if you window the sensor)

The HFR button could then be a "normal" speed button maybe. Set it to 30 FPS. Problem is that the HFR button doesn't record sound in sync, even at "regular" frame rates.

JB

Thanks John, much appreciated.
Yes. that sound sync thing with the HFR button is annoying.

For me, I have switched to simply sports shooting my action videos overcranked at a project of 60fps, and that works better for me. Now , my BMPCC4K, drones, gopros, are all recording the same, and now all three files have similar behavior in post in DR.

Then if I need slow mo inpost, I've got the frames captured. Sure it uses more media, but I carry more media.

I just had the same problem . Did you ever find a workaround I have a ton of footage that has the audio half the length off the video