4K or Hi Def?

[Forest Flyer]

I have been a professional still photographer for many years, and have only recently started shooting video. I am not clear about 4K versus hi def (1920 x 1080) or 1080P. I understand that 4K means more pixels across the screen and more detail. But I also know that unless one is displaying on a big screen and has the ability to input the information that 4K only slows things down. I am under the impression that a lot of videographers are shooting in 4K, but then rendering their 4K files to a 1080P file. From what I gather 4K is hard to deal with in the editing process, and much of the time is not the appropriate output format. However it is best to shoot 4K to begin with. Am I correct about this?

 

[Erised]

It would depend on what you wish do do with the video. I allways shoot in 4K and recode to 1080p if a lower res is needed to play on some devices. 4K gives me the best results, 2.7 is close for a recode. In the beginning I shot some in 1080 to save edit time and file size but the quality is lacking. Another advantage of 4K is if you want a frame shot from video the image from 4K is pretty good. As mutch as the files are large in 4K I will not go back to a lower res. because I now have some previous 1080 video that whould have been mutch nicer in 4K and there is no going back to that location. Recoding a 4K to 1080 is better then shooting 1080, I have tried many variations of recoding and native 4K gives the best color and clarity. For me with my P4 custom settings are set to white balance to 5500, saturation -1, contrast -1, bright -1. colour none or D cinelike. When all is dull like spring time up here I will set to vivid -2 -1 -1.

 

[BigL]

DaVinci Resolve allows you to edit files in a lower resolution and then render out at 4K when you are finished editing. I assume this would be true with other video editing software.

 

[Ripper7620]

My strategy is to shoot everything in 4K, and then save all my raw footage to either external or internal storage, so I can always go back and re-do certain things as I become more experienced, or just change my mind.

 

[bsartist]

Another advantage of shooting in 4K: you can crop and straighten your video if necessary in post by “zooming in” (within reason) and then when you output 1080p you won’t lose quality. If you try to do that with a 1080p video you will get pixelated video.

In other words, when you zoom a 4K video in post you are throwing away pixels. But if what you have left are still enough to give you 1920x1080 then you can output a perfectly fine 1080p video.