My camcorder plays a 'fluid' 50 stills per sec, FCP not as smooth at 25fps?

Question

Hi,.. I'm obviously still new to Final Cut Studio 2 and understand some basics, however I still haven't got my head around a simple issue with FCP that's bugging me a little and no doubt it's something ridiculously simple and is going to make me look stupid.
I'm using a Sony TG3E/TG1 camcorder, ok it's a consumer camcorder but its both 'tiny' in size and the 1080i video and 5.1 audio is shockingly good, no actually its amazing! However having a tiny camcorder fitted my requirement.
My original AVCHD video footage form the Sony TG3E/TG1 camcorder is incredibly smooth and lifelike in it's motion. I was able to verify this by being able to pause the picture and was able to display '50' separate still pictures/frames one by one within a one second time period or time line, by naturally advancing the 'frame/still advance button' forward one at a time until the next 'minute' was reached in the timeline on the camera display and each still looked very good and clear.
However once logged and transfered into FCP, the browser window showed 25fps and does not appear to have that 'real lifelike fluidity motion' when played back in either FCP clip browser viewer or the timeline sequence, as that played back from original AVCHD from the camcorder to external LCD panel.
I had previously set the 'sequence preset' within the 'Audio and Video Settings' for FCP's timeline to 1920x1080i 50 and I'm assuming that the '50' denotes fifty separate fields/stills (frames?) per second, or does it really mean each of the 25fps have two separate interlaced fields and thus producing 50 separate fields and giving the effect of 50 frames per second, as it did in practice from camcorder to external monitor. However I don't see this on playback, nor when advancing still picture by still picture when on pause. Whatever the process, the result is that I'm only getting 25fps in the FCP timeline and I can't seem to work out how to get the 50 separate stills per second on playback viewing, as I'm only able to advance 25 stills per second in the timeline and playback just hasn't got that fluid motion smoothness magic as experienced from camcorder.
Any advice is welcome and appreciated, thanks.

Answer 1

cool, thanks..
It's safe to assume then, that once the final edit has been completed and outputted/exported to disk, the played back version on HD TV from a blu-ray player (or other) will be displayed at the super smooth 50 fields/stills per second?
I have to admit that when I was 'pausing' the picture previously on either the camcorder or on the blu-ray player (both giving the mentioned 50 stills per seconds), the actual quality appeared deceptively good and I wouldn't have guest I was viewing only half the vertical resolution at a mere 540 pixels. Impressive! Unless of course the LCD TV is doing its own upscaling routine to improve each field's quality when receiving an interlaced source..
Just for reference sake (and worth noting), 'blu-ray' player playback of original AVCHD footage is possible by transferring the AVCHD footage including its correct file structure (as normally stored within the camcorder's storage media) straight onto a regular single layer DVD, then it can be actually decoded and played back on a blu-ray player in it's HD detail.. a neat little trick and nice to know. The Sony VRD-MC5 Multi-Function DVD Recorder makes transferring the AVCHD footage direct from camcorder to DVD possible and a breeze (no I DON'T work for Sony)..