4K, 3K and 2K for a 1920x1080 finish - short?

[Adam Howden]

Hi All,

I'm shooting a short on the Red in a week or so. I'm wanting to shoot some slow motion stuff maybe only up to 60 fps (3K) but possibly up to around 100 fps (2K). Just wondering if anyone has had an experience doing this and the quality difference etc

I'm aware that technically it's pretty easy to do, but am wondering more about the aesthetic appearance of the image, noise general sharpness etc

We plan to finish in 1920x1080 with a proper grade etc

Thanks for your thoughts?

Adam Howden
Director of Photography

Melbourne, Australia
E + info@adamhowden.com
W - http://www.adamhowden.com/

 

[Brian Reisdorf]

Properly shot and graded you'll be hard pressed to pick out 4k from 2k in most cases. You'll get a slightly cleaner image from the downconverted 4K and 3K vs. the 2K, but the difference is pretty minimal if you're not aware which way it was shot in the first place.

Let me emphasize properly shot and graded though...a noisy 2K image will be a harder to fix than a noisy 4K one.

 

[Pawel Achtel]

All depends on the purpose. If it is for broadcast, DVD or blue Ray, you can do whatever you like and whatever is the quickest. No one will be able to see any difference whatsoever after your master is converted to MPEG-2 10Mbps stream.

If it is a major feature, I would consider 4k as it handles antialiasing and contrast through better than 2k for 2k or 1080p delivery.

Best advice: test it, eye-ball it, pick your choice

Hope it helps. And, welcome to the forum, mate!

 

[alex trettenero]

when shooting 2k, 16 mm lenses are sharper.
i would not pick very wideangle lenses while shooting 2k because a very accurate backfocus is needed to avoid soft images.
otherwise, 2k is great.

 

[Yean Loon]

On a Half Debayer in Red Alert to Prores SQ, the difference is pretty obvious between 4k and 2k.

 

[Kenn Michael]

Yes, you can get away with a nice result using a Half Debayer with 4K footage, but you HAVE to do Full Debayers with 3K and 2K footage. It's mandatory otherwise, you won't be getting all the resolution that was captured.

 

[Adam Howden]

Sorry, I don't personally have access to Red Alert as I'm on powermacs not Intels.

What is a Half Debayer, is it a filter setting in Red Alert or export?

Thanks, Adam H.