Can I shoot slow motion on HVX-200 keeping 1080i/24P without FCP Conversion

haven't figured if you can actually shoot true 1080i/24P on my HVX-200 with menu frame rate set to 60fps/shutter 60fps

You can't. 720p is the only format that is 60fps. 1080i is 30fps.

From everything I've seen it shows it has to be in 720/24P with menu frame rate at 60fps/shutter 60fps which will let it playback on the P2 in slow motion.

Correct. You can only shoot in-camera slow motion at 720p60, using the 24p setting. And this is also the way to shoot so you can slow it down later with Cinema Tools or in FCP. It must be 720p60. Again, 1080i is 30fps only. Even 1080p...30fps with DVCPRO HD.

Any suggestions? We want to shoot everything in 1080i/24P but see instant playback in slow motion without conversion mostly for music videos.

Sorry, if you want to shoot smooth slow motion, you need to shoot 720p. If you must shoot 1080p, then you need to invest in good post slow-motion options, like Twixtor.

Shane

A follow-up question. I shot with the little Sanyo HD1000 set at 720P 60FPS. It records AVCHD (H.264) clips, so I took one of those clips into the Quicktime Player and exported as ProRes,

The ProRes clip seems to actually be 60 FPS, because I found a section that's one second long, and I could count 60 frames.

I imported the ProRes clip into FCP, and in the Browser it says it has a frame rate of 59.94 FPS. When I play the ProRes clip in the Viewer, it has 60 frames in each second. I can count 60 frames in each second.

But when it drag that same clip into the Timeline, in a 23.97 sequence, that same clip now has only 24 frames per second. It doesn't play in slow motion.

I tried conforming in Cinema Tools, but that actually changed the ProRes file so it plays at 23.97. I lost more than half the frames.

I admit I'm confused about shooting at 60 FPS and getting a slow-motion effect in FCP. Anybody know a tutorial or something that goes through the process step-by-step?

when it drag that same clip into the Timeline, in a 23.97 sequence, that same clip now has only 24 frames per second. It doesn't play in slow motion.

Things don't work that way. A second is a second. If something is 60fps, and you drop it into a 24fps sequences, it drops out a lot of frames to continue to play properly as a second. You need to do a frame for frame conversion of the footage. Cinema Tools does this.

I tried conforming in Cinema Tools, but that actually changed the ProRes file so it plays at 23.97. I lost more than half the frames.

Really? Cinema Tools conform changes the playback rate of the clip, frame for frame. So 60fps to 24fps would slow down the footage 2.5x. What do you mean you lost half the frames?

Shane