Very broadly, the world was divided into two analog TV standards: NTSC (North America and other regions) and PAL (Europe and some other regions). There were many technical differences between them that made these different signal types incompatible or at least difficult to convert for different regions.
One of these was the frame rate. NTSC used a frame rate of 30fps, while PAL used a frame rate of 25fps.
Now even though analog TV is long gone and digital transmission and delivery is the new normal, there may still be some technical arguments for choosing a frame rate to match your region if you intend producing DVDs, for example, or maintaining compatibility with legacy devices. There’s also some suggestion that A/C mains frequency can cause flicker in artificial lighting that’s better suppressed with region-matching frame rates.
Surely, though, for any kind of modern digital delivery, it hardly matters, especially online. YouTube doesn’t care what your frame rate is.
And yet even now, some camera makers insist on you choosing PAL or NTSC video options, and that’s why my Canon EOS R8 is being such a pain in the a**. It's one of the best cameras for filmmaking at an amateur price point, in my opinion, but it doesn't make things easy for novices.
Basically, in the setup I choose my location – which is the UK – and then my Canon decides all my frame rates need to be multiples of the standard PAL frame rate, which is 25p. So I get 4K video at 25p or 50p, not the 30p and 60p the camera is capable of.
If I do want those 30p and 60p frame rates, I have to plod through the camera setup screens to the Video System setting and swap it from PAL to NTSC.
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OK, problem solved, but why this insistence on separating PAL and NTSC frame rates when these are obsolete formats, and where the frame rates are now the only practical difference? It means I can choose PAL or NTSC frame rates but never at the same time.
It’s annoying, because it adds another layer of complexity and uncertainty to video settings which are brain-numbing enough already.
I’m not singling out Canon specifically. I’m also looking at a Sony A7C II as I write this, and this camera also insists on you choosing between NTSC and PAL, even if you can find that menu option, even if you know it exists. Neither camera explains what these mean and why they should matter, or why you are forced into a different set of frame rates for each.
Why can’t Canon and Sony do what Fujifilm does with the Fujifilm X-T5 and offer ALL the frame rates, both PAL and NTSC, in a single menu? I’m not saying there’s no longer a need to have a choice of PAL or NTSC frame rates, but why split the camera’s whole recording system into these two choices?
PAL and NTSC are legacy names for legacy systems. To carry on using them as if they are in some way significant (outside of frame rates) is just confusing a whole new generation of digital creators.
