Why no PAL smartphone cameras, only NTSC?

Martin68

Hi guys, being in a 50Hz PAL country, where all camcorders and video cameras sold are PAL meaning they can shoot video at 25fps or 50fps, to keep things compatible with our tv system and lighting, so why on earth are we being sold smartphones that are intended for the NTSC markets that shoot video at 30fps (or 60fps) ?

Smartphone cameras are now so good that they have over taken the camcorder and favored by many due to the size and always to hand.

I had my eye on the Galaxy S10 or the Sony Xperia 1, as they have superb video, but the biggest let down is the lack of stock camera PAL shooting option.

I hate the 50Hz lighting flicker you see on street and shop lighting when using a smartphone in a 50Hz country.

If smartphone manufacturers really want to take their cameras seriously, then surely we should also get a shooting option that is compatible with the country we're shooting in!

I'm aware that 3rd party apps offer 25/50 fps but they also come with other problems or incompatibility issues.

I just can't understand why smartphone cameras dont offer compatible video shooting for PAL countries, being that they are made sold in that market often with differences compared to the US market which uses NTSC, but the differences are usually the processor, but not a PAL option!

Martin68

If you answered NO in the poll, please give your reasons why.

rogs

I don't think anything has changed much since you asked this same question in May 2014 -- April 2015 -- and again in July 2017.
A problem only really arises  when you want to mix clips with different frame rates (you made a very good point about mixing sources at weddings in one of your earlier threads, IIRC).
The only effective solution - IMHO - remains changing frame rates by using optical flow software. Not perfect, but better results than anything else for this task I would suggest?
I really can't see any of the phone makers changing direction on this after all this time.....

Martin68

Its good that you noticed that I have been asking this same question since 2014, but I really want to know why smartphones are only compatible for 60Hz countries, its like if we in the UK were suddenly forced to drive left hand drive cars just because they are made by Tesla and are electric!
So all of us UK (and 50hz countries) camcorder users who only ever shot video at 25 or 50fps are now forced to change to 30fps just because the new camcorder is built into a phone, this just does not make sense to me and I wish the manufacturers would explain why.

noiseboy72

PAL / NTSC is not the correct term. It refers to the analogue (Or is that analog??) video encoding and not the frame rate.

I understand your issue with 60Hz / 50Hz flicker and indeed, I set my GoPros to 50Hz for this reason.

Iphones will shoot in 24/25/50 FPS and Cinema FV50 will override the standard 30/60FPS limitations on many Android phones.

Martin68

The term PAL and NTSC are still used in modern digital cameras, (not sure why) I have a Sony RX10 and a Panasonic FZ2000, both shoot 4k yet I can select PAL to get 25fps and NTSC to get 29.97fps, even though its 4k digital video.

3rd party apps set to 25fps dont seem to work very well on my Galaxy S8, and are not quick launchable while the phone is locked, while the stock camera is quick launchable,