What's the best way to deal with Canon pf24 files?

I recorded two clips. One in pf30 and one in pf24. Premiere sees them both as 29.97i.

So from what I'm reading, premiere should be able to automatically convert any footage droped onto the timeline. The problem here is that premiere is unable to read these canon pf24 and pf30 files, all it sees is the 60i container they're wrapped in and reports them as 29.97i. I'm thinking the best option may be to shoot in pf30, do a deinterlace in media encoder just so premiere sees the file correctly (there should be no quality loss since it's actually recorded 30 frames progressive), then when I drop the 30p files onto a 24p timeline premiere should be able to deal with them properly. Thoughts?

Thanks Ann, your link led me to another link in the same series that shows how to get premiere to see pf30 footage as progressive by using the modify/interpret footage dropdown, then under field order choosing no fields progressive.

http://provideocoalition.com/atepper/story/psf8217s_missing_workflow_part_7_adobe_premiere _pro_cs5.5.x/

That does away with the need to run the footage through media encoder. No mention if this works for pf24 however.

I've read that After Effects has an option to do 3:2 pulldown on it's interpret footage dropdown, but premiere does not seem to have this option.

OK, I did some more tests. The interpret footage trick from above works on pf30 footage dropped into a 30p timeline. But when dropped into a 24p timeline camera motion is blurred and choppy.

Also interpret footage doesn't work with pf24 footage at all, again blurred motion and choppyness, weather dropped into a 30p or 24p timeline.

From this it seems that premiere isn't doing any sort of 3:2 pulldown whatsoever. At least not on this ridiculous canon progressive footage wrapped in a interlaced container.

The thing is the pf24 footage looks smooth when played back from the camcorder.

So now I'm at a loss.

So it looks like no one out there has any experience editing canon pf24 footage? I was hoping to use my Canon HF M500 camcorder as a second camera, but it looks like it's going to be way more trouble than it's worth.

OK looks like I found the solution. You have to take the pf24 footage into After Effects and use the interpret footage dropdown there, then just click the guess 3:2 pulldown button. Right click on the file again and choose the make composition from selection. Then render the composition out to a full resolution avi file (1920 x 1080, 23.976fps) and put it in your timeline. The bummer is you have to do this for every file, and the files are large (about 8gb per minute) but since your output choices are limited in after effects, full resolution avi files are the best choice to retain quality.  Adobe really needs to add a guess 3:2 pulldown button to premiere's interpret footage dropdown. This was way more difficult than it needed to be.  Then again I guess canon created the whole problem in the first place. Thanks a lot canon.

Yes I have Jeff, and when I did I had choppy playback. Most noticable during pans or periods of fast motion.

I consider system issues, but I only really noticed the choppy playback on the canon pf24 footage. My system plays back pf30 (after interpreting), 30p, 30i and 24p footage just fine. I think the problem is that premiere is unaware that the pf24 footage is shot at 24fps, and there is no way to manually tell it to do a 3:2 pulldown, like there is in after effects.

The shooting is certainly part of it. I shot it purposly that way so any choppy playback would be more apparent. This is the bottom line as I see it. When played back through the camera the movement is smooth. Playing these same pf24 files in premiere, choppy playback results. Since there is no way to force premiere to do 3:2 pulldown, premiere is playing the duplicate frames (every 5th frame ) that it is supposed to disgaurd resulting in choppy playback. After interpreting in after effects ( with 3:2 pulldown applied ) playback is smooth, matching camera playback. Keep in mind that the choppiness is subtle and could easily be missed if you had little or no camera movent or no fast motion in your files. 

In the case of a normal 24p file (One that premiere recognizes as 24p), I agree with you Jim. But these canon pf24 files are a different animal.