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iPhone 6 - 4K recording?

roxics

roxics

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 4, 2013
315
154
With the Note 3, Galaxy S5 and Sony Xperia Z2 all offering 4K video recording, what do you think the likihood Apple will offer 4K recording on the iPhone 6.

We hear rumors of a bigger scren and a possible lens mount for the camera. If both are true it seems the iPhone 6 could really focus on video and photography and 4K recording would make a lot os sense.

I've heard that the 4K recording on the Note 3 is excellent, despite the late of image stabilization. Haven't heard anything yet about the other two.

Personally I'm most interested in 4K recording because of how well it downsamples to 1080p. So you can start with a 4K 4:2:0 sampling and end up with 1080p 4:4:4. Which is awesome and IMO the biggest reason to upgrade to 4K cameras asap.

I realize I'm not like most consumers as I do commercial video production for a living. So most consumers are saying "why do we need 4K if we don't have 4K televisions?" The simple answer is, better 1080p or the ability to crop or digitally zoom into a 1080p section.

I would also love to see the iPhone 6 match the GS5 IP67 rating for water resistance. I think it's high time all phones have this standard since we use them everywhere. But I get the feeling Apple cares more about looks than protection from the environment and I don't think they would add a flap over the lightning connector and instead just tell us to get a case.
 
I think you got your answer in your own post when you said: "I'm not like most consumers".

In addition the iPhone is a sleek package while the Samsung is not. No thanks. You can buy a waterproof case if you desire.
 
Apple has been very conservative about things that chew up large hunks of Flash storage (reflected in it's decision for larger pixels in iPhone 5s, rather than more pixels). People inadvertently filling their iPhones with a relative handful of movies leads to a lot of unhappy people. It'd also mean moving up to a 12-13mp sensor from the current 8mp - not only would the movie files be larger, but so would all the stills. "Evil, evil Apple, making us buy the models with larger memory!"

If lots of folks already had 4K-capable TVs and displays it'd be one thing - many would be able to see the difference; great-looking down-conversion is a subtle improvement, even to the trained eye. A feature like OIS, on the other hand, quietly delivers very noticeable improvements, to all. Not everyone knows why more of their photos are sharp, but they do know to credit the camera.

So, while it's always dangerous to predict, I think Apple will stay its current course, rather than follow the crowd in the pixel arms race. We'll have new gee-whiz effects to play with and noticeably improved performance for all users.
 
I'm with ya Roxics. I own both the 5s and Note3 (business use specifically, iPhone as my personal). We run a mobile audio and video production company but 70% of our income is audio specific. With the 4k cams and their ability to 'crop' an excellent and 'shake free' shot (using stabilization in any NLE simply crops within the image enough to create the illusion of a stable shot, albeit costing resolution in the process) still providing plenty of room for your 1080p canvas is something even novice video shooters would benefit from. Even an 'easy' mode that does the cropping for the user to 1080p from 4k for an answer to optical image stabilization, and final output...residing on your camera roll would be 1080p, not 2160p essentially using only a quarter the 'space' on your storage.

That's the drawback to shooting 4k, and on my N3 with a high bitrate...it's Awesome in post but it literally EATS your storage for breakfast. Fortunately the N3 allows your still and motion shots to reside on your internal microSD card, gotta get a quick one though!

IMO, absolutely NO reason 4k shouldn't be included. The horsepower is there as are the optics with a third generation backlit 8MP sensor, to me, it's almost an 'absolute' as well 1080p @60/120fps...possibly increasing the 720p to 240fps for phenomenal slow mo shots! It's an area the iPhone has continued to compete in the upper eschelon of handsets since the early days of the iPhone 3GS--->4. (Camera performance amongst the best if not THE Best for 'phones') And with the enhancements to the 8MP sensor, again...IMHO the sweet spot for these size sensors and the 'perfect' size sensor to shoot 4k which is equal to 8,000,000 pixels, give or take 100,000 :)

We've used footage for the 4s, 5 & 5s/Note 3 for a LOT of 'B Stock' as well as SOME 'Primary, A stock footage!' Shoot with the iPhone steadily with good lighting @ 1080p, plug it in to your TV or stream to your Apple TV and pay attention to how GOOD the footage actually is! It really 'can be' very good as well, the cottage industry with lenses...wide, macro and zooms can open a whole new world for an extra C Note. I leave our P&S cams at home these days. Family trips and fun 'for me' events are easily shot and shot well with the iPhone and I'm really excited to see Apple continue to innovate and push the bar forward optically with their cameras...and 4k ...again, IMHO is a MUCH better future than 3D. I'm glad to see the industry going this direction. As far as 'no one has 4k TVs'...I'm seeing them at Best Buy these days for about the same price I payed for my first LCD and Plasma TVs or my RPTV from Mits over a decade ago! I'm just not ready to throw my 8 year old Sony XBRs out yet...but as those 4k prices come down, it'll be DAMN tempting! We're also pretty lucky in Anchorage Alaska...as our local broadband provider is installing Gigabit internet this year. I'm currently at 250 down...started in January at 100Mb/down...and they'll steadily turn the faucet up til we hit a Gb/second down by December 31st. Pretty cool. No need for Google, but I'll happily take 4k;)
J
 
Last edited:
roxics said:
With the Note 3, Galaxy S5 and Sony Xperia Z2 all offering 4K video recording, what do you think the likihood Apple will offer 4K recording on the iPhone 6.

We hear rumors of a bigger scren and a possible lens mount for the camera. If both are true it seems the iPhone 6 could really focus on video and photography and 4K recording would make a lot os sense.

I've heard that the 4K recording on the Note 3 is excellent, despite the late of image stabilization. Haven't heard anything yet about the other two.

Personally I'm most interested in 4K recording because of how well it downsamples to 1080p. So you can start with a 4K 4:2:0 sampling and end up with 1080p 4:4:4. Which is awesome and IMO the biggest reason to upgrade to 4K cameras asap.

I realize I'm not like most consumers as I do commercial video production for a living. So most consumers are saying "why do we need 4K if we don't have 4K televisions?" The simple answer is, better 1080p or the ability to crop or digitally zoom into a 1080p section.

I would also love to see the iPhone 6 match the GS5 IP67 rating for water resistance. I think it's high time all phones have this standard since we use them everywhere. But I get the feeling Apple cares more about looks than protection from the environment and I don't think they would add a flap over the lightning connector and instead just tell us to get a case.
Click to expand...

4k is great, yet at the moment I see no great need to have it on my phone. I have a 4k camera and have only ever been able to play back through my TV, which is a faff. When 4k screens are introduced into the phones then it will be a selling point for me. Even then, with those microscopic pixels you wouldn't be able to tell it apart from 1080p screen due to the pixel density. ;)
 
Apple is always late to the game on features like this. Look how long it took Apple to consider releasing a larger screen -- after literally every other major smartphone maker.

A future iPhone is likely to have 4K recording, at which point the same people who don't see a need for it now will be posting about how great it is then.
 
barkomatic said:
Apple is always late to the game on features like this. Look how long it took Apple to consider releasing a larger screen -- after literally every other major smartphone maker.

A future iPhone is likely to have 4K recording, at which point the same people who don't see a need for it now will be posting about how great it is then.
Click to expand...

Why then, let's skip 4k and go right to 8k. This way apple can really be ahead of the curve.
 
I would just love for it (maybe iOS 8) to not allow portrait video recording. Almost every video clip you see on the news or TV is a portrait video recoding. Portrait video recording is 99.9% useless.
 
Based on the past and how long it takes apple to adopt certain technology I would say 100% no. 4K is nowhere near being mainstream for video content. Maybe in a year or two.
 
If they did add 4k Video Recording...nice thought but in my mind doubtful just yet...I'd prefer to have the option to "downgrade" my video recording.

Also would love to downgrade my photos. I don't always need the top-level photo. There are times I take a snapshot of something to remember for later.

yes, I can take a photo, then do a screen grab and the resolution is lower...but i forget to always do that, then it goes into the Photostream and I forget that too
 
Shoot in 4k, automatically store as 1080p using digital image stabilization. Sounds like something Apple might do.
 
iPhone 6 - 4K recording?

Jimmy James said:
I have no interest in producing higher res shaky handheld video of useless stuff no one will ever want to see.
Click to expand...


That's the point of 4K to most in its current form. Better video stabilization and higher res.

We can't help that you have nothing interesting to record.
 
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