Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
4k Video Looks Awful in Sample Videos
- Thread starter MICHAELSD
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I'm going to judge it by the videos I take and look at on my UHD tv. I don't have the skills to shoot like a pro so I want to judge it by my video taking skills.
I'll just tell people the 1080p video i took is 4k. They'll be amazed.
so this is the final verdict?
there's no phone on the market that uses the H265 yet?
Exactly, for now it seems like that 6s would record 4K with 2 Mbps higher (average) bitrate than S6.
While those Samsung videos look great, they were also filmed in optimal lighting conditions, used dollies for slow panning, etc.
I got to be honest. Can we really trust these early reviews? To me they have been cherry picked by Apple for one reason or another. I was genuinely disappointed in those pictures and videos I saw yesterday. Will any of these "exclusive" reviewers say outright that the S6/G4 takes better pictures? If you had permission to do a early review to generate traffic would you?
I wouldn't trust any footage from the first Youtuber (Jack & Indy). For starters, some of the footage he posted was posted on his page way before and he just simply erased it and reposted it to iPhone 6S footage. Secondly, he doesn't seem to be a reviewer or anything of the sort. His history of videos doesn't have any professional footage, and all of a sudden he's fantastic at editing videos. Lots of the footage that is shown can't be possible with just handheld as he claims. It just seems like an uploader that is out to cash in views with the new iPhone.
thats not what reviewers comparing the two say. They claim the S6 to be inferior.
Thanks for the info. I dabble but am totally not a videophile. Your information here was really helpful.
What I understood was wrong then, I just remember them talking this up with the S5. Likely it was software decoding only perhaps.
Well the iPhone has in fact used H265 since the iPhone 6 for recording and decoding. But in 720p..... and only through Facetime.
Comparing video like this is quite useless - there are way too many variables.
To start, the first iPhone footage you posted is just terrible in general because they are using auto exposure, if they had just locked to the proper exposure the noise would not be an issue (It is most noticeable when the image is underexposed.)
Secondly, we don't know the process by which the files got to youtube. If they just hit upload from the phone photos app it was likely compressed by iOS as to save upload time. The other problem is that even when selecting 4k youtube is still going to give you a compressed image and depending on the scene it could look better or worse than others.
And finally in terms of color the iPhone's colors are way more accurate to real life which is what you want out of a good camera (It allows you more flexibility to change the color in post-production). If you want oversaturated blown out color then you can stick that filter on in iMovie (Or just buy an S6)
Anyways, the point is that to truly compare them we need the same photographer shooting with both phones at the same time.
To start, the first iPhone footage you posted is just terrible in general because they are using auto exposure, if they had just locked to the proper exposure the noise would not be an issue (It is most noticeable when the image is underexposed.)
Secondly, we don't know the process by which the files got to youtube. If they just hit upload from the phone photos app it was likely compressed by iOS as to save upload time. The other problem is that even when selecting 4k youtube is still going to give you a compressed image and depending on the scene it could look better or worse than others.
And finally in terms of color the iPhone's colors are way more accurate to real life which is what you want out of a good camera (It allows you more flexibility to change the color in post-production). If you want oversaturated blown out color then you can stick that filter on in iMovie (Or just buy an S6)
Anyways, the point is that to truly compare them we need the same photographer shooting with both phones at the same time.
Just keep in mind we are comparing videos from a phone that released nearly 6 months ago vs a phone that isn't out yet. The s6 has had 6 months for users to take videos and we have countless more videos from people who could have spent months planning and editing the videos. The most someone has has an iPhone at this point is less than 2 weeks, and it's only a select few. Compare videos found online from the two devices in 6 months to see which is better.
Watching a few of the 4K iPhone 6S videos on my 4K TV. The quality is pretty awesome IMO. I'm just still amazed at how far cell phone cameras have come. Blows me away
I think it is too early to tell, you don't know what the settings and compression were for those videos on you tube, to be really fair I would like to see video shot from the S6 in 4k and the 6s in 4k of the same scene and uploaded right to my computer side by side right out of the phones, which I may do when I get my 6s cause my girlfriend has an S6.
The iPhone 6S' advancements in its camera are pretty underwhelming spec wise. The smarthphone industry is far and away leading in terms of 4K adoption and megapixel count.
I used to own a Note 3 (that was 2 years ago?) and I was blown away by how clear the 4K video was. I became hooked on recording 4K video, and was very annoyed when the 6 didn't have it, so I decided to get a Panasonic LX100 early this year (at the time, it was the only consumer-level 4K video camera).
YouTube doesn't really do justice to 4K though. For example, here is a fairly clear video I took with my LX100:
In contrast, when I uploaded another video on Youtube, I think the compression algorithm couldn't handle the moving water so it ends up being very blocky.
Ultimately I think it's a bad idea to judge video quality via YouTube videos, so take them all with a grain of salt.
Also, I'd like to add that an important thing I learned from recording so much 4K video is that stabilization is a very big deal. All of the stuff I posted I had to use Final Cut Pro to stabilize the camera shake. To that end, I'd strongly recommend using the iPhone 6S+ instead of the 6S for 4k, because it apparently has video stabilization, and trust me, that's going to be a big deal in the 4k video you record. (either that or buy an expensive gimbal)
I used to own a Note 3 (that was 2 years ago?) and I was blown away by how clear the 4K video was. I became hooked on recording 4K video, and was very annoyed when the 6 didn't have it, so I decided to get a Panasonic LX100 early this year (at the time, it was the only consumer-level 4K video camera).
YouTube doesn't really do justice to 4K though. For example, here is a fairly clear video I took with my LX100:
In contrast, when I uploaded another video on Youtube, I think the compression algorithm couldn't handle the moving water so it ends up being very blocky.
Ultimately I think it's a bad idea to judge video quality via YouTube videos, so take them all with a grain of salt.
Also, I'd like to add that an important thing I learned from recording so much 4K video is that stabilization is a very big deal. All of the stuff I posted I had to use Final Cut Pro to stabilize the camera shake. To that end, I'd strongly recommend using the iPhone 6S+ instead of the 6S for 4k, because it apparently has video stabilization, and trust me, that's going to be a big deal in the 4k video you record. (either that or buy an expensive gimbal)
Please go see my replys on page 3 of this thread and look for skyhawk21 fz1000 in YouTube search. Watch my 4K firework clips which were raw clips from camera sdcard straight to YouTube no processing or editing. Also I uploaded last night a shaky 4K video untouched in anyway raw clip from my Note 3. I agree my amateurish 4K video from my note 3 at UHD looks better than the 6s 4K video I have seen so far and I was using default camera app settings on Note 3 using Touch Wiz Android Camera app. It was Android 4.3 or 4.4.2.
Of course my Panasonic sensor in the FZ1000 is 10 times better. Also if you want beautiful 4K anything you need complete manual controls and a handheld gimbal or device that keeps the camera "floating" during any type of shooting which I do not have. Slow panning and of course lighting, contrast and shadows play such an important roll when wanting to catch sharpness, details and textures... OIS still does not cut it to good filming unfortunately...
Come on everyone the 12mp sensor Apple is using is nothing special because it's been in phones now for last 3 years.
If Apple wanted to out do everyone they would of used a 4:3 sensor size with Native 16:9 1:1 pixel mapping, no scaling that could record 4K raw at high bit rates and take 21mp photos. But it's Apple and if they say 4K, it must be the best thing since we landed on the moon... (Sarcasm)
Of course my Panasonic sensor in the FZ1000 is 10 times better. Also if you want beautiful 4K anything you need complete manual controls and a handheld gimbal or device that keeps the camera "floating" during any type of shooting which I do not have. Slow panning and of course lighting, contrast and shadows play such an important roll when wanting to catch sharpness, details and textures... OIS still does not cut it to good filming unfortunately...
Come on everyone the 12mp sensor Apple is using is nothing special because it's been in phones now for last 3 years.
If Apple wanted to out do everyone they would of used a 4:3 sensor size with Native 16:9 1:1 pixel mapping, no scaling that could record 4K raw at high bit rates and take 21mp photos. But it's Apple and if they say 4K, it must be the best thing since we landed on the moon... (Sarcasm)
What about the large pixels they use and the technology that helps to limit artifacts and all the other stuff they mentioned during the 6s reveal?
I think people seriously underestimate the processing power required to software encode/decode 4K video, especially with these newer codecs like H.265 and VP9. The higher bitrate 4k@60fps YouTube videos will hammer my Xeon E3-1231 v3 at 70-80% CPU utilization when software decoding. Yes, these phones are shooting at 30fps but it l's still non trivial.
I also think people are confused in thinking H.265 brings better quality. The purpose of H.265 is to provide the same quality as H.264 but at a lower bitrate/file size. In doing so quite a bit more processing power is required.
I think it makes total sense Apple stuck with H.264, it's easier on the processor (which means lower power consumption when shooting) and it's universally supported at this point. The only sacrifice is file size, which I don't find to be a huge issue.
The only reason FaceTime uses H.265 is because of massive bandwidth constraints, and being only 720p it's a small load on the processor.