It is bordering on magic that we now carry in our pockets devices more powerful than the computer that took us to the moon. Show your phone camera to a silent movie filmmaker, and they’d practically lose their mind at the quality. At that time, video cameras were limited to shooting at 26 frames per second (FPS) at the high end. These recordings were then projected at 24 FPS, which eventually became the cinematic standard.
Today, phones can shoot up to 60 and 120 FPS. Whether you choose to do this beyond, say, 30 FPS depends on your tastes, what you’re shooting, and your available storage space. Shoot video at 60 FPS and you’ll capture twice as many frames as if you opted for 30 FPS. More images are perfect for capturing sports, people in motion, vlogs, or anything with a lot of movement. The main reason to avoid recording at 60 FPS is the lack of motion blur.
Although it actually looks more realistic, 60 frames per second video can evoke an uncanny valley feeling, thanks to the soap opera effect. Over time, our brains have learned to find 30FPS, which is closer to the cinematic standard 24FPS, a little nicer and much more natural. Plus, aside from looking like a rerun of “General Hospital,” 60 FPS video content is twice as heavy on your storage.
How to change the framerate on your phone
Fortunately, it’s quite simple to make your videos more cinematic. The iPhone Camera app is very powerful and has a predefined cinematic mode. You can fine-tune it by going to Settings, then going to Camera and looking for the Record Cutscene option. There you can change the frame rate and resolution. It’s also worth visiting the Record Video menu. Here you can enable Auto FPS and the camera will automatically reduce the frame rate to 24 FPS in low light conditions, which will increase the video quality.
On Android, the process may vary depending on OS versions. You can usually find recording settings in your Camera app under Video Mode. There it is possible to switch to 24FPS or 60FPS, because in many cases 30FPS is the default. If that’s not enough, try apps like Blackmagic Camera to make your Android (or iPhone) behave more like a professional camera.
How much space does 60FPS take?
Let’s say you’re photographing your hyperactive cat (or dog) doing parkour around the house. For this video, 60 FPS is the perfect framerate because it captures movement better. However, you can also expect it to take up a large amount of storage space – and that will add up quickly. A 16-second video at 30 FPS at 1080p requires approximately 29 MB of space. Increase the framerate to 60 FPS, and it will consume almost 50 MB.
It’s even more extreme in 4K, where a 16-second video shot at 60 FPS requires around 130 MB, depending on the model. This may seem like a minor difference, but multiply these numbers by 10 recorded clips to see how quickly videos can drain your device’s storage space. A two-and-a-half minute clip at 60fps at a lower resolution will clock in at 500MB, which can be a problem if your phone only has 256GB of internal memory and no SD card slot.
Going to 30 FPS can cut that figure in half, so if you’re short on space, it’s probably the best option. It’s also a good idea to free up space on your Google Drive if you want to capture images at 60 frames per second. Delete the video after it’s backed up to Google Photos, and voilà, you’ve saved yourself a few GB. Managing your cloud storage is a whole other issue, but the free space it unlocks is useful when saving.
