Ok, we all now have high definition (HD) TV’s at home and our smart phones, tablets and monitors are all at least high definition. Therefore any camera that records in HD will produce good enough quality (in terms of resolution) for what we are viewing the footage on right? Well the answer to this is not a simple yes or no as cameras that shoot in 4K (which we own) have now been on the market for a couple of years and this can be a game changer.
A 4k piece of video footage is approximately four times the resolution of its HD counterpart. However, to the human eye the 4K footage will look no clearer than the HD version when viewed on smart phones, tablets and the average sized monitor. Even if you have a 4k monitor, unless it is over 50 inches (and who has a PC monitor that big!) you won’t see a difference to warrant the massive file sizes that 4 brings. The vast majority of business videos are also viewed on sites such as Youtube and Vimeo and only Youtube at time of writing lets you upload a 4K file and depending on the views internet speed can cause buffer issues which can be very frustrating for the user! This all sounds like filming in 4K, in terms of business video production can cause more problems than it solves, or does it?
Filming in 4K gives the editor of the video far more creative control in post production. For example, if the editor wishes to crop in close to a subject. If filming in 4K, the editor can crop in 4 times more and still retain HD resolution. However, if the same footage was to be cropped into that was filmed in HD, then some resolution will be lost. Most of the time we are able to plan exactly what shots we need on the production day as we have planned your video extensively, therefore cropping in post production is not necessary, thus filming in HD is perfectly acceptable.
However, some business video production can be impossible to plan each shot perfectly for, such as filming the wildlife at Woburn safari Park. By filming the animals in 4K it meant that we could do much more in post production as we simply had more “resolution room” to work with. Animals like to move at random and filming in 4K was a great way to keep up with them in post production without ever going any less than HD in resolution. Once we have finished your video we can even give you a 4K file AND a HD version that you can use to upload to video sharing sites. This way you get the best of both worlds!
There is no doubt that if your video is going to be viewed back on a 4K capable screen (over approximately 50 inches) that 4K will look more detailed than an HD version. As mentioned above, the vast majority of business videos are viewed over a web connection on screens that are HD or too small to see the higher resolution that 4K brings.
However, if you are going to play your video to customers or your team on a large screen then 4K could just wow them that bit more than HD. Thankfully we have the camera that can film in 4K and can provide you with a master file that can take advantage of 4K capable screens should you need to present a video to a large live audience.
What a great advantage! Due to the such high resolution we can pretty much turn any frame from your video into a still photo. These still photos are then at a good enough resolution to be used on websites or emails/leaflets to your customers. The point here is that by filming in 4K that you can end up with even more than just your video production. Some photographers are now even using 4K cameras on their shoots. This just goes to show just how versatile these cameras can be!