Once again there is no enthusiasm for 8K but Japan is driving forward with an 85″ Sharp television in October this year. The best of it is the Japanese who are always the early adopters of new technology don’t have enough space in their houses for an 85″ screen which could seriously limit sales.
In the UK alone the majority of TV sales are with HD ready televisions with about 1% of the market selling 4K to an audience of zero ! Its laughable when we have no 4K DVDs or TV channels that are even contemplating 4K let alone 8K.
Both Canon and Ikegami are working on an 8K cameras but once again 8K for editing down to 4K or even HD will look spectacular but is there a need for it.
With my example below you can see how the security services would welcome 8K surveillance cameras.
Take this 8K picture out of 16 full HD pictures you can crop at 100% to identify people in a protest.
So why is there a push for 8K when there is such a limited market, we are already seeing 6K productions coming out in the cinema filmed on a 6K RED Weapon like The Martain.
Camera manufacturers are into every marketplace and the more HiEnd the production the better publicity they can make from it.
Digital Cinema is the one place RED have got their teeth into and you only have to look at their web site to see a ton of major films and TV productions being made with RED cameras.
Personally I think 8K is positioned firmly at the digital cinema marketplace though it is very limited and RED won’t want to give up their stronghold without a fight.
Heres a look at a 10K video that I have shown before but its so good a second look won’t go wrong…
10328×7760 – A 10K Timelapse Demo from SCIENTIFANTASTIC on Vimeo.
excellent article, you said everything. I don’t really care if they’ll sell TVsets or not. What I care about is the future of my segment (yes! I’m selfish!). The problem that I see right now with 4K as opposed to the regular HD is that the manufacturers don’t want to give fast read-outs to accompany 4K. Making 4K some sort of a joke for marketing purposes only. 8K will require even faster read-out. In the end we are in the hands of their marketing departments. Me? I say 8K is better than HD, better than 4K. But if it looks like 4K con pro-sumer cameras right now then I’d better off with a good old XL1 on VHS (panning and tilting). And that’s not “progress” for the better, that’s idiotic marketing for the money and who cares about the productions of the pro-sumer segment.I shoot sports, mainly at night: niw I see that tennis show on that 8K screen and I imagine ” do I have to show up with 10 cameras to use 8K and seal & lock them and never move?” because if the moment I pan I get a mosaic of pixels (like 4K now) then what kind of video will I produce? a Cartoon for impressionists ?(painters)
This article follows a post I read on Facebook within a news shooter group based in Australia who also noted Sharp’s 8K television along with NHK’s intention of broadcasting in 8K.
First of all, as a 24 year Japan resident, I have to take strong objection to your statement that Japanese homes cannot accommodate an 88″ screen. Absolutely not true and is the result of false reporting by those who like to say that everything in Japan is small. Tokyo apartments are certainly smaller than those in European cities perhaps, but those who can afford to buy such screens have the space for it and those space are not so small that a 100″ inch screen looks out of place. Trust me. I have a 55″ screen in my own living room and there is enough space on either side to have 3 screens in a row…:-) My apartment has a floor space of 75 square metres.
As for NHK’s claims of 8K broadcast, what they often mean is a ‘trial broadcast’ to a large screen that they setup outside of a venue. 4K hasn’t taken off in Japan much either and is not too different to the UK in reality I think.
The main channels still have camera operators attending events and are recording to A1Js amongst other tape based cameras. Indeed, at a Miss Japan regional contest a few weeks ago, a photographer from a national newspaper complimented my ‘nice camera (FS7) and asked if it used tape….He’s a pro and a veteran and yet thought that 4K could be recorded to tape. This sums up the reality of 4K here in Japan.
Unfortunately, NHK (a mouthpiece of the State) and Japan Inc. is so wrapped up in their ‘technological brilliance’, quite frankly they send out a message to the world that does not reflect what is really going on here. The manufacturers may develop all they like, but no client has asked me to deliver in 4K and I recently delivered an event shot on 4K on a DVD. Yes – 4K to 720p. That is the reality of Japan.
@ Andrew : LOL , DVD … and here comes reality! Our colleagues working weddings and events (private) have to deal with DVDs , still …. imagine how they see this 8K thing here LOL
I did a personal research to find out how the new TV sets handle the memory sticks (just out of curiosity) via USB port (on the TVset) and there is no standard even there. Blu Ray is a failed media (with all those idiotic restrictions by the way that didn’t help at all). Then even DVD players are kinda hard to find now. What’s left? Youtube. but that means free distribution or the “free” character of the distribution may bother the category. And Youtube allowed 60p just recently while 4K is tough to play even by the newest computers and fast connections. Back to the DVD : standard definition 720×480 or 720×576 … and here we’re talking about 8K … it is funny, in a way 🙂