By Adrian Pennington 6 August 2020The industry isn't stopping at 8K. All bets are off in a million megapixel-plus future where massive digital screens, VR and lightfields take centre stage.
Ultra High Definition is far from the last word in TV resolution. Though not yet widespread, the industry is going beyond 8K UHD and entering the era of Super Resolution where there are no limits to what can be achieved.
Common broadcast systems may not reach let alone exceed 8K any time soon but Super Resolution technologies capable of new creative options and visual experiences will eventually consign even 4K imaging to a blur.
The moment when the resolution ceases to matter and we can cover 12K or 16K resolution per eye for VR (virtual reality) - which requires 36K or 48K respectively - we are getting somewhere, says Jan Weigner, Cinegy co-Founder & CTO. Then there is volumetric video. 12K just gets us warmed up.
Why 8K is the new norm
Currently 8K only accounts for a minor share of sales in both the B2B and consumer display markets. Figures from analyst Futuresource Consulting reveal 8K represented less than 0.1% of global B2B flat panel display volumes and about 0.1% of global TV volumes in 2019.
The high-resolution specs of the recently announced Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro 12K and 8K internal raw on the Canon EOS R5 mirrorless camera are certainly headline grabbers, but for most users these acquisition formats will only have situational use and will not be the go-to recording format.
The high frame rate 4K modes on both cameras are arguably a bigger draw for a greater number of end-users, says Futuresource analyst Chris Evans.
Productions shooting in 8K are outliers but they are increasing in number. Among them is David Fincher's latest feature Mank which is being lensed in black and white for a 4K Netflix release. Fincher and cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt are making a habit of shooting 8K, having done so for season 2 of Mindhunter.
I would prefer the optics to be the bottleneck in relation to the image and not the sharpness of the sensor or its resolution, Messerschmidt says. The highest resolution sensor is best for me because I can make a more measured choice in terms of what I am trying to give the audience visually. It has always led to a better image, in my opinion, when I've shot on a higher resolution sensor.
For productions centred around wildlife, where capturing behaviour on film could be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, super resolution offers a great benefit being able to either re-frame or build digital pans and zooms. - Sam Measure
He adds: I look forward to the 12K capture workflow.
Even broadcast facility Envy says it has started to deliver in 8K. The amount of data involved in a project can approach 1PB, and it doesn't make sense to start pushing an amount of data like this to third party cloud providers in order to provide short term services, says technical operations director, Jai Cave. To that end, we envisage finishing post remaining an on-prem service, with offline being remote where it offers an advantage to clients.
Oversampling for VFX
Oversampling higher resolutions for post pan and scan or VFX happened with 4K over HD and acquiring 6K for lower spec deliverables. Blackmagic Design's stated reasons for a 12K camera release is consistent with this trend.
Once you cross the threshold into using oversampling and/or downsampling for a production, by adding further resolution you are only amplifying your received benefits, Evans says. Compared against a 6K image sensor, a 12K sensor is only giving you a higher ratio of oversampling and/or down sampling to 4K at the cost of a heavier data footprint and a more resource intensive workflow for your image pipeline.
The overhead of extra resolution is always a careful consideration when it comes to VFX. Larger files with more data, sometimes means less iterations because of rendering time which could affect the creative depending on the type of project, says Gavin Wellsman, creative director & VFX supervisor, The Mill NYC. Having the choice is always a bonus as long as the pipeline from production through to post can support it.
When we went from SD to HD then to Ultra HD the jumps in standards always seemed excessive but once you have a way to enjoy these larger formats it quickly becomes the norm and you wonder how you could ever view a picture with less detail.
Wellsman adds, If 8K becomes the standard over the next few years, having the ability to reformat and zoom in to enjoy extra detail from a 12K image might not be as excessive as it sounds.
The K' race
The arrival of a number of 6K camera options such as the Sony Venice, Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K and upcoming RED Komodo underline that 6K currently occupies a sweet spot for downsampling to 4K since it has a lighter file size relative to 8K.
For this reason, camcorders with resolutions greater than 4K but less than 8K are forecast by Futuresource to grow at a quicker rate than pure 8K products and account for nearly a third of the global pro camcorder market by 2024. 8K products, by contrast, will only claim 5% volume share in that time.
With the push to larger sensor formats, whether full frame or 65mm in future, the increase in sensor size given the same photosite size will lead to higher resolution sensors, says Sam Measure, Technical Consultant at CVP. With 12K on the horizon, we're also seeing a backend that's able to handle the increase in data throughput, from more efficient compression technologies to faster and cheaper storage and compute.
There will always be a group of users interested in acquiring at the highest fidelity available at the point of capture. However, there are only a finite number of photosites that can fit within the
