Digital camera- NTSC vs PAL

I know PAL is the UK standard for dvds, but what difference does it make on a camera?

Its Panasonic (this one)

I’ve just bought one and its NTSC- should I return it, and get the PAL version for £50 more?

Depends if you are taking pics in the uk or usa.

Both! Bought for a trip to Canada, but will be used in the UK too.

Is this a genuine question or a test?

Never Twice the Same Colour

Is this a question from the 80s?

Pictures taken in canada will be NTSC, so even if they look fine there, they will be out of sync here. One thing to do might be to print them out when you are there, then photograph the printouts when you get back, so you have a PAL version too.

Doesn’t make a difference to the videos you take. PAL and NTSC are TV formats, the camera will take digital in neither format.

If it has a TV output this will be in one or other of the formats, but you can probably change it anyway. And your TV probably supports both.

CharlieMungus – Member
Pictures taken in canada will be NTSC, so even if they look fine there, they will be out of sync here. One thing tomdo might be to print them out whrn you are there, then photograph the printouts when you get back, so you have a PAL verion too.

Brilliant!

😆

Brilliant!

yeah, seems like a good idea but I got RSI from flicking A4 sheets over at 50 per second 🙁

Hah! No wonder, you should be interlacing them at 25Hz

He tried, but it Hertz

Doesn’t make a difference to the videos you take.

I think it does, they have different frame rates and screen size so will flicker and look soft when scaled up. Spend even more and go HD – 720 or 1080 if you can stretch to it.

As above the only difference will be if it takes video. NTSC is a different frame rate and frame size to PAL. PAL is better of course 😉

He tried, but it Hertz

Chapeau. Seems we’re on the same wavelength.

bump for more puns, don’t want this thread to sync.

I think it does, they have different frame rates and screen size so will flicker and look soft when scaled up.

Hmm.. I think the videos the camera takes will be simply frames of a certain size, which could be say 640×480 in low quality, at whatever frame rate. Only when you convert that to a TV output format do you need to choose PAL or NTSC and think about 50Hz vs 60Hz and so on. Those are TV formats only. If you record video to the memory card and play them on a computer, TV has nothing to do with it.

Well, we can have more puns if you guys can bother your ass to post them

According to the link in the OP, it’s “Full HD Movie recording in AVCHD and HDMI Compatibility”.
So if you use that, the issue is moot anyway.

Even if you do use a lower res PAL/NTSC, as molgrips said, any modern TV will accept both quite happily. If your TV is HD, then it will be upscaling either anyway, so the difference will be negligible.

This thread’s quite progressive for STW 😉

Well, some of us are experts in this field.

Well, some of us are experts in this field.

Hmm.. well then I’d love to be educated – how can an mp4 video taken at 640×480 be in PAL or NTSC?

It was a geeky pun 🙂 You sound awfully phased by this whole situation.

It’ll be fine if you use this setting 1280x 720 pixels, 30fps. I’d beef up the memory card though.

Oh.. see I’m not enough of an expert to recognise that pun.. this whole thread’s going down the tube.

It’s interlaced with bad puns, I predict a resolution.

The only time NTSC/PAL comes into the equation is if you use the composite video out direct to a TV set.

If you take the files off the SD card, then it’s moot and if you use HD over HDMI it’s moot.

There’s a chance it can do Standard Definition over HDMI, in which case NTSC/PAL might come up again. But I can’t think of an HDMI-equipped device that can’t happily accept either standard.