Are you thinking about jumping on board the 4K bandwagon and recording video footage at that resolution? Before you make the leap there are a few things that you should know about recording 4K videos.
Requirements for 4K Video
It goes without saying that if you want to record 4K video footage, you’ll need a camera that is capable of doing just that. Nowadays 4K video cameras have become more commonplace, however, and some smartphones have 4K cameras built in.
Aside from the camera, there are a few other requirements that you should be aware of if you want to start working with 4K video footage, such as:
- Fast storage and lots of it: Because it is 4 times the resolution of 1080p video, 4K video files take up a lot more space – and can be anything from 2 to 5 times larger than the same video would be in 1080p. To work with videos of that size you’ll not only need lots of storage, but also storage that can transmit data quickly, such as 7200rpm hard drives or a Solid State Drive (SSD).
- Processing power: Editing 4K video is a challenge in itself as well, and requires much more processing power than 1080p videos. Typically a high-end CPU and graphics card will be required, as well as considerable RAM (i.e. 16GB or more).
- 4K display: While technically you can work with 4K video on a non-4K display, it isn’t ideal. The good news is that 4K displays are much more affordable nowadays than they were a few years ago and won’t cost you an arm and a leg.
- 4K-capable editor: Not all video editors support 4K video, so if you want to learn how to edit 4K video you first need one that does. The more advanced editors nowadays generally support 4K, or you could look at other options such as Movavi Video Editor.
“Why 4K?”
While there’s still a lot of debate as to whether it is really necessary to record videos in 4K, the fact is that there are lots of benefits to doing so:
- Better quality video that is more detailed due to the higher resolution. The video footage that is recorded can even be downscaled and still look better than video recorded at lower resolutions.
- More options to crop, pan, tilt or perform other actions. The larger frame size of 4K video will enable you to effectively extract close-ups or other shots at higher resolutions than you would be able to at 1080p or lower resolutions.
- Future proof and will continue to look good as 4K displays become more and more popular. So far the adoption rate of 4K displays is much faster than 1080p when the latter was released and should be commonplace in a few years.
- Improved image stabilisation due to the higher resolution. Sometimes image stabilization at lower resolutions can adversely affect the quality, but that isn’t the case in 4K.
Considering YouTube supports 4K already and other platforms are jumping on board gradually as well – it makes sense to start recording in that resolution. Now that you know what you need to about 4K you should be able to make preparations accordingly so that you’re able to cope with the challenges that you’ll face.
