Shawn Lam at Streaming Media Producer has released 2 out of parts of an awesome article on gearing up for 4K Production. This is a must read for anyone thinking about shooting 4K now or in the near future. Well worth reading. I am looking forward to part 3.
You can read Part 1 Here and Part 2 Here.
This is really exciting news. Everything has been moving to digital delivery of late, with higher compression, less quality and less features, but it is good to know that there will be a 4K disc based format which will deliver the best quality.
The only bad news is that it does not seem to include a 3D spec, which is likely a bandwidth issue, though it will be able to do 60P (hello Avatar in 60P). The spec has not been finalized but will use H.265, and will have a 66GB dual layer and 100GB 3 layer formats, and can even do 10 bit color and a wider color gamut as well as high dynamic range! It also will have a digital copy process to make local copies to a hard drive, likely in a specifically designed player.
Now I won’t be moving to this anytime soon, as I just got a 65″ 1080 display, and didn’t even consider 4K for lack of content and not knowing how 1080 will look blown up to 4K (I am assuming not good).
RedShark has a great article on the exciting new Panasonic Lumix FX1000 Camera.
Sure it is a fixed lens DSLR (though it is a Leica), but one that can record in 4K for $899! And clean output over HDMI, even better! Wow. Now the audio is supposed to be very subpar, but the picture awesome if only 30FPS at 4K (and even cooler is the 100FPS at 1080) Not the flagship GH4, but still a very impressive camera!
Honestly I want one just for shooting video. I mean 4K at that price. Wow.
This is a revolution and will push 4K better than much else would.
RedShark News has a great review of the new Panasonic GH4 4K camera. Great article on the camera, though it is for PAL users instead of NTSC, but that is the only fault.
Also talks about an interesting program from Thomas Worth that is a Mac Command line app to convert the 4K 4:2:0 footage to 1080 4:4:4 footage using the extra picture resolution. Which sounds great, though I don’t know how it could have more color data.
This camera sounds amazing. I wish Canon would take these lessons to heart and make their lower end cameras have amazing features like this camera.
David Shapton at RedShark has a great article commenting on the Paradox of 4k right now.
It kind of feels like the initial switch to HD, but more so to me. And I think his conclusions are right. For stuff that will have a shelf life, moving to 4K makes sense as it is much more future proof (2.4 Megapixels to 8 Megapixels) but for current one time view events like news or sports it really isn’t too important. Especially since not only are most people OK with HD, but there really isn’t any 4K content as of yet, and won’t be until bandwidth issues are fixed (1 GB fiber to whole cities would solve that).
And you have to wonder how HD material looks on a 4K set. If it doesn’t look as good as an inexpensive HD set, then why move to 4K except for bragging rights?
BlackMagic Designs has announced a new like of 4K upgradeable cameras called URSA. It starts at $5995 for an EF mount or $6495 for a PL Mount version. There will also be a broadcast version and one without a sensor and just an HDMI in for recording.
This is an impressive looking camera, especially with the 10″ fold out viewfinder and dual touch screens for control. With this Black Magic is going all out with it’s cameras and making a really impressive high end camera to take on RED, and yet be cheaper.
Philip Bloom has an excellent article on the pros and cons of 4K and raw workflows.
Yes they are gorgeous and great, but are usually overkill and add a lot to the post process! Of course us post people already know that, but they are so often used when they are complete overkill!
John Brawley has an excellent hands on with the new Blackmagic Pocket Camera. And info on the 4K. Sounds like an impressive little camera, though with a little rolling shutter issues, that the 4K should fix.
Amazing that Blackmagic has become such an impressive camera company in such a short period of time! And $1000 plus lenses is a steal for a 1080 camera!