As some of you may know, Im about to buy a new camera to play with 4K RAW videos. Since I have to wait until the end of September/October for the release of a possible new version of that camera I decided to do an exercise to understand where I am, and where Im going to.
So I did some comparison test shots. With the same camera and the same lens I shot the same scene with different settings:
1st shot - 1080p h264 - FULL AUTOMATIC CONTROL (Exposure, Picture Profile etc) and no post processing.
2nd shot - 1080p h264 - FULL MANUAL CONTROL + Custom flat Picture Profile (Sharpness, Contrast and Saturation all the way down)
3rd shot - 1080p h264 - FULL MANUAL CONTROL + Custom flat Picture Profile (Sharpness, Contrast and Saturation all the way down) - USING HDR CORRECTION IN PREMIERE PRO
4th shot - Compressed 4k - FULL MANUAL CONTROL + Custom flat Picture Profile (Sharpness, Contrast and Saturation all the way down
5th shot - 4K RAW - 13 stops of DR - FULL MANUAL CONTROL
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I did SEVERAL tests in many different conditions, but I only uploaded 3 of them.
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[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOLz1bnQXkg[/media]
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ORIGINAL 4K VIDEO
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https://mega.co.nz/#!4p1DHZoA!UXV36VwTFy_KpA_cvMLPNg5ssupI74e7h7MNj-zVkFU
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MAKE SURE YOU DOWNLOAD THAT TO SEE THE REAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 1080P AND 4K
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MY CONCLUSIONS
1. After doing that test I realized that I will never ever again spend more money in a new 1080p h264 camera. NEVER EVER AGAIN.
2. As everybody knows, the Dynamic Range of the RAW is AMAZING. BUT, if you have a video with a good compression method and if you use MANUAL MODE and a good PICTURE PROFILE, in scenes where you dont have EXTREME CONTRAST, RAW dynamic range is not essential.
3. The color reproduction in the RAW file cant be matched. The compressed 4K have great colors, MUCH better than your average AVCHD video. I could live with that color depth. But the RAW is simply BEAUTIFUL.
4. The color reproduction in h264 videos is bad. They look artificial and they lack color gradation.
5. When you use h264 + picture profile + post processing you can have a much better dynamic range than when you shoot full auto videos. The problem is that when you process the video you bring A LOT of artifacts
6. A 1080p RAW video has much more detail than our ordinary 1080p AVCHD. I couldn't see the difference in detail between the 4K compressed and the 4K RAW, obviously because im using a 1080p monitor
7. I've seen people saying that when you shoot RAW, you have to watch out for blown out highlights. They say that its better to underexpose. THATS WRONG!! Its easier to recover blown out highlights than shadows. When you recover the shadows you bring a lot of artifacts. When you recover the highlights you bring NOTHING. So to have the best Dynamic Range in your shot, using RAW, you should OVEREXPOSE a little bit your highlights because you can ALWAYS recover a good amount of blown out highlights
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All the videos were made with a Sony NEX-5R. I used some tweaks to extract a really fast 4K video. Its a low frame rate video, it lasts only 1 second and it overheats the camera, but it was a nice exercise.
