What is the most effective way of slowing down footage?

Question

I want to experiment with slowed down footage and I see several ways in doing that with my current set-up.

I have the following hardware/software at my disposal:

After Effects CS5.5, Twixtor Pro, Canon 550D (capable of shooting 50fps 1280x720 footage)

I can think of several ways to slow-down my 50fps footage, I'm interested to hear what the most effective way to go is in terms of quality and what the best way is to slow my footage down as much as possible.
The methods I could think of are written down below.

1. Interpret the footage in CS5.5 as 25fps or lower. 18fps being the minimum, stutter is noticeable below that.
2. Interpret as 50fps and then do a time-remapping to slow down the footage. Add frame blending to compensate for any stutter.
3. Interpret as 50fps and use Twixtor Pro to slow down the footage.

Answer 1

Depending on how much you are looking to slow down. Interpret as 50fps, and then once in your timeline, say it is a 25fps timeline. Then you can stretch the footage using time remapping, then you can turn on frame blending to the solid line...this will be good in most instances up to about 25% speed of original...

Less than that the same, 25fps timeline, interpret footage at 50fps, then use twixter to get that super slomo feel. Not that twixter does not always work and is going to give varying results based on the footage.

Answer 2

Well the best method quality wise is using The Foundrys "Kronos" ( http://www.thefoundry.co.uk/products/kronos/ ). Its a similar tool like twixtor but delivers the better results (in my opinion).

If you dont want to use that/spend money then use twixtor OR the built-in time remapping functions, you get the best results by letting either one of them do its job on its own. Otherwise its like using sharpening on a layer, then render that out/precompose it and then use another third-party sharpening effect ontop of the old one. The result will be messy and anything but nice looking. All you get is a weird look and not a sharper image. There is no good reason to interprete the footage not natively before using Twixtor.