POLL: What do you shoot, 1080, 2.7, or 4K?

Not counting commercial shoots, who shoots in 4K?


  • Total voters
    98
Joined
Jun 26, 2015
Messages
6,239
Reaction score
2,883
Location
Yorba Linda, CA
To shoot 4K and render 4K, you need a pretty good computer to handle this. You can use proxy files for this, but it still takes a lot of render time without a good computer. I'm curious what most people are doing when they shoot video for personal use, not counting commercial. I always shoot 1080 for personal use because my TV is 1080, so is my computer screen.

I realize there's the option to crop 4K video, or even 2.7K for things like removing prop views, then render in 1080, that's a clear advantage for those that shoot 4K or 2.7 as SOP. Someday I'll move up, likely when commercial demand warrants it. Thanks for casting your poll count.
 
To shoot 4K and render 4K, you need a pretty good computer to handle this. You can use proxy files for this, but it still takes a lot of render time without a good computer. I'm curious what most people are doing when they shoot video for personal use, not counting commercial. I always shoot 1080 for personal use because my TV is 1080, so is my computer screen.

I realize there's the option to crop 4K video, or even 2.7K for things like removing prop views, then render in 1080, that's a clear advantage for those that shoot 4K or 2.7 as SOP. Someday I'll move up, likely when commercial demand warrants it. Thanks for casting your poll count.
HI 4k 24 f/PS NOT SURE WHY plays back 1080
 
I typically shoot in 4K and then I split on rendering some to 4K and some at 1080. I shoot in 4K because it gives me more options in editing/rendering.
 
We shoot in 1080 unless someone specifically asks for more. It's ironic I've had several clients ask, "Can you shoot in 4K?"

I've always answered, "Yes we can. Is that your preference?"

They ALWAYS answer something like this, "No 1080 is all we can process but just wondering about 4K."

Ironically we shot some video for The Travel Channel and they explicitly said, "Please do NOT shoot in anything over 1080. We don't need/want anything higher than that and it's a waste of resources and a hassle if we don't need it."

So our SOP is 1080p unless you specifically ask for higher and it's worked great like this for a few years now. I suspect as more and more viewing devices become 4K this will change but for now it's 1080 for us.
 
I don't shoot video in 1080 for the same reason I don't take pictures in 1080. :)
 
1080 as well. For things like Instagram there is no point in anything more. I also don't have the hardware for it. I have a nice 4k tv but I'm not even sure how I would watch a video on it. lol
 
1080 25 fps
P3a
I see no difference when I shot in 2.7k, just take more memory.
I have a question, is it any visible difference if I change fps?
 
1080 as well. For things like Instagram there is no point in anything more. I also don't have the hardware for it. I have a nice 4k tv but I'm not even sure how I would watch a video on it. lol
Jesse, most 4K smart sets have the ability to connect a USB flash or hard drive and play video (including 4K video) directly from them on your set; check your owners manual, you may find you have this feature.
 
Jesse, most 4K smart sets have the ability to connect a USB flash or hard drive and play video (including 4K video) directly from them on your set; check your owners manual, you may find you have this feature.
I'll have to give that a try.
 
1080 25 fps
P3a
I see no difference when I shot in 2.7k, just take more memory.
I have a question, is it any visible difference if I change fps?
You likely won't see a whole lot of difference in playback, unless you want to edit the video and include some slow motion scenes. There is some advantage when panning, it can look a little smoother if you're using a shutter speed of around 120, about twice the FPS. Optionally if you try to use a 60 shutter speed with 30 FPS, the pans may not look as good, and you certainly wouldn't want to slow down the scenes during post edit. 60FPS can help improve the look a little, but helps the most when doing slo-mo edits. As for shooting in 2.7K, that will give you the ability to crop the video in post edit, such as removing prop views at the top of the image, then render the whole video in 1080. 2.7K would let you crop off about 1/4 of the top of the screen to remove prop views when rendering in 1080, and still rendering with clean clear 1080 resolution. Cropping 2.7 also lets you zoom in a little by cropping your subject 75%, and rendering in 1080 for a lossless zoom effect.

upload_2017-5-9_16-16-55.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: Simzy666
We shoot in 1080 unless someone specifically asks for more. It's ironic I've had several clients ask, "Can you shoot in 4K?"

I've always answered, "Yes we can. Is that your preference?"

They ALWAYS answer something like this, "No 1080 is all we can process but just wondering about 4K."

Ironically we shot some video for The Travel Channel and they explicitly said, "Please do NOT shoot in anything over 1080. We don't need/want anything higher than that and it's a waste of resources and a hassle if we don't need it."

So our SOP is 1080p unless you specifically ask for higher and it's worked great like this for a few years now. I suspect as more and more viewing devices become 4K this will change but for now it's 1080 for us.

I shoot in 2K but render and edited in 1080p so the video get better quality than shooting at 1080p only.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: ProBowie
You don't need a super fast computer to work with 4k footage. If you use Premiere you can adjust the playback resolution to 1/2th, 1/4th, and 1/8th to view your edits if the video starts to not play smoothly.

I work with 4K and 6K footage all the time and my computer is 4 years old.
 
You likely won't see a whole lot of difference in playback, unless you want to edit the video and include some slow motion scenes. There is some advantage when panning, it can look a little smoother if you're using a shutter speed of around 120, about twice the FPS. Optionally if you try to use a 60 shutter speed with 30 FPS, the pans may not look as good, and you certainly wouldn't want to slow down the scenes during post edit. 60FPS can help improve the look a little, but helps the most when doing slo-mo edits. As for shooting in 2.7K, that will give you the ability to crop the video in post edit, such as removing prop views at the top of the image, then render the whole video in 1080. 2.7K would let you crop off about 1/4 of the top of the screen to remove prop views when rendering in 1080, and still rendering with clean clear 1080 resolution. Cropping 2.7 also lets you zoom in a little by cropping your subject 75%, and rendering in 1080 for a lossless zoom effect.

View attachment 81992
Thanks for a good answer :)
An other question. If I shot in 30fps and set my ss to around 60 I will get so much light I can't see what I shot. Do we need filter to get the ss down ?
 
Thanks for a good answer :)
An other question. If I shot in 30fps and set my ss to around 60 I will get so much light I can't see what I shot. Do we need filter to get the ss down ?
Oh yes, ND filters are the only way to do that on P3 or P4. The new P4A and P4P has aperture control, so it becomes easier to manage. I think you'd need about ND32 to force a 60 shutter speed on a bright day.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Simzy666
I shoot 2,7K (P3A), the final outcome 1080.
I use the higher resolution because of possibility of nondestructive cropping, or scaling for effects (fake dollyzoom/vertigo, or fake sedond cam).
I got to leave my Retina MBP 15" on my previous job, so, at moment I'm editing on old-good 2008 MBP 15" with upgraded disk (putted in 525 GB SSD and swapped the original HDD with Superdrive (trew out the DVD).
Due the lack of computing power I edit in proxies (or take some popkorn for looong rendering pauses).
By the way, I find it amazing, that a near 10 years old machine can be used for 2,7K footage. (I use Final Cut Pro X - tried Premiere too, but find out, that on slooow hardware it performs by far slower). And, I'm more acustomed to FCPX , too.
And yes, I use ND or variable ND and shoot 2x the framerate (50fps at 100 ISO).
 
  • Like
Reactions: Simzy666
Shoot and render in 4k on my 27" 5k iMac. I really need to buy some more RAM since I only got the 8GB version, but right now using proxy media works just fine.
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
143,066
Messages
1,467,354
Members
104,933
Latest member
mactechnic