You may have heard of "4K cinema" or "Ultra HD", but what does it actually mean? Well, right now when we say HD (high definition) we are usually talking about video with dimensions of 1920 pixels wide by 1080 pixels high or 1280 pixels wide by 720 pixels high. 4K is the next step up at 4096 pixels wide by 2304 pixels high. Currently only expensive cameras can record this Ultra HD 4K at a normal frame rate like 30 or 24 frames per second. However, one camera we loan the GoPro Hero 3 can record 4K at 12 frames per second (will look sped up when played back). Until this year, the cameras have been way ahead of the projectors and displays, because a consumer could not buy anything that could actually play back 4K footage. A few Ultra HDTVs have been released, but the reviews have not been favorable so far. Canon announced on Wednesday that they are bringing a 4K reference monitor to market. The current price tag is $40,000!
I expect the price of 4K displays and projectors will fall quickly though. When HDTVs first became available 10 or so years ago, they were also very expensive and have since fallen in price dramatically. Even if you can't play back 4K cinema yet, it has other benefits. Since you have so many pixels to work with, you have many cropping options. Since you have twice as many pixels in both directions, it is like shooting 4 regular HD shots at once! Media Services on campus has one RED Epic camera, and they were telling me how they use this strategy when shooting on-campus productions. They don't have to worry about panning and re-focusing the camera as much, since they can always crop to a different part of the 4K shot when they edit the footage.
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