4K camera - P3 Pro - warning

[tcope]

The trouble with 4K (P3P) is that the masses aren't ready for it yet- how many of us have a 4K tv or a 4K compatible computer?? By the time the 4K is mainstream the P3P will be obsolete!

However, it's the video that we are talking about and 4k video won't be obsolete.... 1080 video will be. I'm not saying 1080 video is not good... I'm pointing out why some people are filming on 4k at this time.

 

[WetDog]

Nobody has said this yet: If you shoot in 4K and reduce it to 1080, the 1080 video is sharper than if you shoot it in 1080.
Why? Because when the video is downscaled, the noise is reduced...among other things. You Want 4K...all the editing programs edit in 4K by making a low-res copy of the incoming video and using that for editing... then it "renders" it to anything you want (using the original files). You could use Sony Vegas on your machine... edit in 4K with proxy (automatically done) and render it out at 4K...then put that file into a standalone media player that does 4K (cheap)..and pump it into a real 4K TV. Bam!

It's actually not inherently sharper - that is, edge acuity isn't any better. It can be less noisy which is good since the Phantom camera is not a high ISO queen. But in general, there is little downside to shooting 4K - SD cards are cheap, cheap, cheap. And modern computers can handle it, especially with a decent editor that knows how to make proxy files.

 

[stealthbomber]

However, it's the video that we are talking about and 4k video won't be obsolete.... 1080 video will be. I'm not saying 1080 video is not good... I'm pointing out why some people are filming on 4k at this time.

What I'm saying if you read it is that by the time I, you, neighbour joe and sister Suzy all have 4K TV's the phantom 3 professional's technology will be obsolete and another drone will be in its place with a better camera/technology! The 4K video is here but not forever, are you aware that 8K is already in development?

 

[Mario_SB]

Bottomline...Having to convert 4K to 1080p every single time is such a pain in the butt. I do hear that the quality of 4K conversions to 1080p is much better than native 1080p.

 

[Jeff48920]

Bottomline...Having to convert 4K to 1080p every single time is such a pain in the butt. I do hear that the quality of 4K conversions to 1080p is much better than native 1080p.

It is only a pain if you aren't already editing your native footage. If you are editing anyway the 4K to 1080 is no more time intensive. If you just want to view what you shot without jerkiness then a 4K video is tough without the proper video display.

 

[tcope]

What I'm saying if you read it is that by the time I, you, neighbour joe and sister Suzy all have 4K TV's the phantom 3 professional's technology will be obsolete and another drone will be in its place with a better camera/technology! The 4K video is here but not forever, are you aware that 8K is already in development?

It's not about what is possible down the road. An example... I fly to another country and get some video. 5 or 7 years from now do I want that to be viewed as 1080 or 4k? It's not like I can just take my Phantom 10 right back out and do the video all over again.

 

[480sparky]

Bottomline...Having to convert 4K to 1080p every single time is such a pain in the butt.........

Can you not batch convert? Load all the clips in, convert them with one mouse click, and bam! Done. It may take the computer time, but YOU don't have to sit there and watch it. Minimize the window, then go back to surfing the forum.

 

[Sinisalo]

Got my P3 Pro during the Black Friday sale. Good deal i thought but the only thing i completely forgot was the 4K limitation on my computer.

Although i have a better than average PC (i7, nvidia card) it still cant play 4K video let alone edit it in 4K.

Had to convert the the 4K video to 1080 or less in order to view or edit it. Now instead of shooting at 4K vid I'm just taking 1080 so i dont have to go through the pain of converting the video.

Unless you have a new PC with 4K vid capabilities i would stay away from the pro unless of course you get a great deal on it.

I have an old computer (4gb ddr2 ram and an AMD Phenom 2 CPU) My motherboard had an onboard graphics card that was failing so I recently purchased an NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 730 graphics card and bought 4gb of used ddr2 ram on ebay. Now it plays and edits my 4k video just fine. I thought I would have to have a 4k monitor to play it also but I guess not, it just isnt displayed in 4k obviously.

 

[Mario_SB]

Can you not batch convert? Load all the clips in, convert them with one mouse click, and bam! Done. It may take the computer time, but YOU don't have to sit there and watch it. Minimize the window, then go back to surfing the forum.

I usually setup the batch conversion and let them run overnight. I have an old iMac 27-inch (Mid-2010) with an i3 processor and it's slow as molasses. Usually 10 minutes of 4K video will take about an hour or so. It's only a pain in the butt when you got your creative juices flowing and you want to start editing right away and then you remember, oh wait, I have to convert to 1080p and that's what bogs you down. It's really a double-edge sword because when I record in native 1080p, I then wish I would have recorded in 4K because the imagery was so amazing! lol

 

[rmfa]

What's wrong with shooting at 4k for the sole reason you will have the original 4k files for future editing? Convert the files to a resolution you can edit, but retain the original 4k?

Huge file sizes and very difficult to edit the video. You must also need an decently powerful computer to edit the video properly.

 

[480sparky]

If we're wanting to condemn 4k to h-e-11 simply because you don't have the hardware on your computer to handle it, then try (why didn't I think of this?)............. shooting in 2.7k?

 

[Tony Perry]

It is possible to edit 4k on underpowered hardware in some software by setting up proxy files. You basically do your edits with a low res version, then use the full res source files when you go to render.

 

[Geblo]

To play 4k videos try VLC Media Player. For the video editor use Blender and when working with 4k files setup a proxy. The proxy file can be as small as 25% of the original.

 

[RedHotPoker]

If we're wanting to condemn 4k to h-e-11 simply because you don't have the hardware on your computer to handle it, then try (why didn't I think of this?)............. shooting in 2.7k?

Speaking of 2.7K on a Phantom 3 Pro'. I wonder how much longer until the iOS firmware is released to us, Apple pie lovers. ;-)

RedHotPoker

 

[Othan1]

Your machine should handle it.

Mine is an i5 3.5GHz
8GB RAM
Nvidia GTX 650
120GB SSD (Maybe this is the reason why mine works)

The only hiccups are when I'm playing the video with subtitles on VLC. Turn subtitles off and it plays fine. I have edited in both Adobe Premiere and PowerDirector 14.

 

[GadgetGuy]

OK if you up load them to you tub are they converted to 1080 or are they still at 4 k .

The original 4K files upload in 4K. However, beware that any YouTube editing of them, whether adding just a sound track, or just combining them into one complete flight video will change them forever to 1080p on YouTube. Here are a couple of workarounds. Upload all the 4K files individually. Create a sequential playlist of them and add the 4K originals to it in order. Then, make copies of each uploaded YouTube 4K video for editing purposes on YouTube, and use the copies for editing on YouTube, to add music, edit, speed up, slow down, or otherwise enhance the compilation, knowing that the result will only be a 1080p YouTube video. This way you have the best of both worlds: 4K original versions in a playlist, and edited 1080p compilations, all on YouTube, without using any other video editor. It takes several hours to upload 4K originals to YouTube, so be patient. Otherwise, get Adobe Premiere Pro, and learn to use it, and do your editing in 4K, and upload your 4K export to YouTube when finished. Have fun!

 

[GadgetGuy]

If you use YouTube for editing then your vids will automatically be downgraded to 1080p.

Indeed. See my suggested workaround above to have both.

 

[WeeMrP]

Got my P3 Pro during the Black Friday sale. Good deal i thought but the only thing i completely forgot was the 4K limitation on my computer.

Although i have a better than average PC (i7, nvidia card) it still cant play 4K video let alone edit it in 4K.

Had to convert the the 4K video to 1080 or less in order to view or edit it. Now instead of shooting at 4K vid I'm just taking 1080 so i dont have to go through the pain of converting the video.

Unless you have a new PC with 4K vid capabilities i would stay away from the pro unless of course you get a great deal on it.

Make sure you have upgraded your nvidia graphics drivers to the latest. It may be all that is required.

 

[mirrorimage]

My mac laptop is 3 years old edits 4K just fine. Get a computer with a discreet video card and you'll be just fine.

 

[Mario_SB]

My mac laptop is 3 years old edits 4K just fine. Get a computer with a discreet video card and you'll be just fine.

What specs do you have on your Mac?