4K not sharp

[Mauiwind]

Perhaps I've got something screwy, but when I look at my 4K footage on my computer at 100% it seems to be less sharp than my 3K footage at 100%. Huh,, is there something inherent with 4K sharpness or did I shoot out of focus? (That'd be weird)

thanks

 

[Thomas B]

The monitor you watch it on?

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

I'm assuming you're watching them both on the same monitor.

If you shot the 4K in manual focus mode, it wouldn't be weird to shoot out of focus footage. It would be a little hard to do with such a side angle lens, but if it was set to wide-open aperture, then touched something in the screen that was near to the lens (even if by accident, it would focus on that distance) then shot mostly distant objects, it would be out of focus.

I wouldn't make any solid determinations without testing things out though, to be sure you have proper focus on shots that seem not very sharp.

Chris

 

[Mauiwind]

My monitor outside of my laptop is a 3K monitor. I can't help but think that its my focus. I've been trying to replicate the problem. I think I need to go back to the route, time, etc. and try again with a Very carefully checked focus. thanks guys, it was making me crazy..

 

[Silverfang2340]

My monitor outside of my laptop is a 3K monitor. I can't help but think that its my focus. I've been trying to replicate the problem. I think I need to go back to the route, time, etc. and try again with a Very carefully checked focus. thanks guys, it was making me crazy..

If your monitor is 3K and not 4K output, the image could be blurry because of upscaling. try to view the 4K footage on a 4k monitor or TV if possible and see if the results are the same.

 

[Dave Maine]

Depending on your playback conditions, playing 4K at 100% on a 3k monitor will require every pixel in the image to be remapped to the 3k screen. This remapping of millions of pixels has to happen 30 times a second. All but the best computer systems will down res the image in translation to make it possible. You can see the change by playing the footage looking carefully at sharpness, then stop it and look at the frozen frame to judge sharpness.

 

[CanadaDrone]

If your monitor is 3K and not 4K output, the image could be blurry because of upscaling. try to view the 4K footage on a 4k monitor or TV if possible and see if the results are the same.

If his monitor is 3K it has to downscale the 4K footage to display it natively, not upscale it. That will not make it blurry in most instances. It's like watching a 1080P show on a 720P TV - it should still look perfectly fine. I watch 4K footage on my 1440P monitor and it is very sharp.

OP - did you set your focus manually and with focus peaking? What aperture are you using? It starts to get really soft after F4.0-5.6 or so, and pretty well unusable by F8-11.

 

[Dave Maine]

Not necessarily true. It depends on the hardware and the software used. Most of the NLEs in common use will prioritize the ability to play at the defined frame rate over full res images, and will sub sample the images to maintain playback speed. The test in my last post will show that effect clearly.