# do we need 8K?



## ronaldbyram (Feb 13, 2020)

Hey I see the news of 8K coming in the R5? But doe we need 8K? do we have displays to show these? I'm not a video person so I'm just asking? Hope its not like that 3D fad


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## navastronia (Feb 13, 2020)

Hey there,

Arguments in favor of having 8K in new Canon bodies:

1) It's more future-proof (we will eventually have 8K displays and TVs) 2) It allows filmmakers to punch-in (crop) their shots without losing quality when everything is finished in 4K 3) It allows crisper video when downscaled and finished in 4K (just like exporting a 4K video to 1080p creates a crisper image)

Arguments against having 8K in new Canon bodies:

1) All other factors the same, the perceived jump in quality between 4K and 8K is miniscule or imperceptible at most display sizes. Some would argue this makes 8K unnecessary 2) 8K video is extremely storage-intensive 3) very little current hardware can even display native 8K.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Feb 13, 2020)

While I don't do video, 8K definitely might change the way I shoot. If I wanted to capture a bird in flight for example, using 8K would potentially allow me to extract the best frames for a bird that was moving a lot and hard to capture with only a few frames per second. The resolution of the extracted frame will be plenty high to print. It basically turns a camera into a higher FPS unit. There may be issues doing this with a electronic shutter, as I understand it, the rolling sensor readout affects the images of rapidly moving subjects. I'd have to experiment and learn the limitations.


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## SteveC (Feb 13, 2020)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> While I don't do video, 8K definitely might change the way I shoot. If I wanted to capture a bird in flight for example, using 8K would potentially allow me to extract the best frames for a bird that was moving a lot and hard to capture with only a few frames per second. The resolution of the extracted frame will be plenty high to print. It basically turns a camera into a higher FPS unit. There may be issues doing this with a electronic shutter, as I understand it, the rolling sensor readout affects the images of rapidly moving subjects. I'd have to experiment and learn the limitations.



My experience has been you'll see a LOT of motion blur in a particular video frame.

Maybe 8K isn't like that?


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## navastronia (Feb 13, 2020)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> While I don't do video, 8K definitely might change the way I shoot. If I wanted to capture a bird in flight for example, using 8K would potentially allow me to extract the best frames for a bird that was moving a lot and hard to capture with only a few frames per second. The resolution of the extracted frame will be plenty high to print. It basically turns a camera into a higher FPS unit. There may be issues doing this with a electronic shutter, as I understand it, the rolling sensor readout affects the images of rapidly moving subjects. I'd have to experiment and learn the limitations.





SteveC said:


> My experience has been you'll see a LOT of motion blur in a particular video frame.
> 
> Maybe 8K isn't like that?



Part-time video shooter here. Two main things will affect the motion blur you get in a video frame. 1) the shutter speed at which you capture your video clip (just as in photography, your shutter speed must be fast enough to freeze your subject and/or account for camera movement), and 2) the electronic scan speed of the sensor. The a9, for instance, scans at 1/160, which means that if 1/160 is fast enough to freeze your subject, you can also shoot at that speed and not have to worry about rolling shutter artifacts, which happen when using the electronic shutter, which is of course in use when you shoot video.

Most cameras are not that fast, however. The a7 series scans the sensor between 1/14 and 1/30. Much of the time, this is not fast enough to capture video without rolling shutter artifacts, unless you have very little motion in the frame (quite the opposite of a bird in flight).

My thinking at this time is, don't count on being happy with the 8K stills you pull from your video. This may change in the future, especially as global shutter cameras become more viable.





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How fast is the Sony a9 electronic shutter? - the last word


This is the fifth in a series of posts on the Sony a9. The series starts here. The biggest news about the a9 is the electronic shutter. Sony says it's fast, but they don't say how fast? Is it only half-fast? (Sorry, couldn't resist.) The electronic shutters on previous Sony a7x cameras have scan...




blog.kasson.com


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## Kit Lens Jockey (Feb 14, 2020)

I want to see Tony Northrup's nose hairs and I'll be damned if someone tells me I don't need to.


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## Don Haines (Feb 14, 2020)

ronaldbyram said:


> Hey I see the news of 8K coming in the R5? But doe we need 8K? do we have displays to show these? I'm not a video person so I'm just asking? Hope its not like that 3D fad


Didn’t we go through this with 4K, and before that with 2K?


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Feb 15, 2020)

SteveC said:


> My experience has been you'll see a LOT of motion blur in a particular video frame.
> 
> Maybe 8K isn't like that?


I don't have your experience, so I think you are probably right, or I might have to page thru 200 frames to find one that is a keeper. For me, that might be ok, but not paging thru 1000 frames.


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## BillB (Feb 15, 2020)

Don Haines said:


> Didn’t we go through this with 4K, and before that with 2K?


Deja vu all over again.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Feb 15, 2020)

BillB said:


> Deja vu all over again.


2K and 4K(8mp) do not deliver enough pixels in a frame for my use so I did not consider it, 8K does (33mp), so it finally has potential for very high resolution frames. For me, the discussions of 2K and 4K don't apply to 8K.


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