World’s Smallest 8K Camera Moving Forward December 31, 2013 By James DeRuvo 1 Comment Photo Credit: Cinema 5D Will 4K end up being a bump in the road? By James DeRuvo (doddleNEWS) You may not remember 8-Track tapes; they were essentially the Jan Brady of recording media. But the thing about 8-Track was that it was an awesome format; you could not only bring albums to play in your car, but you could just play them on an endless loop. Sadly though, the window for 8-Track was short lived, thanks to its smaller cousin the cassette. Now why am I talking about 8-Track in a videocamera story? Because Astro Design has announced the world’s smallest 8K camera, and it’s making me wonder if 4K is a bump in the ultra high definition road, and the modern video equivalent to 8-Track. We almost missed this story, as Astro Design showcased this small form 8K camera at InterBEE 2013 last month. It was designed to work with Japan’s NHK News network which is looking to be the first network to broadcast in 8K by 2020. Based on a design similar to the Sony F5 and F55, the camera is essentially a head, or brain, that records directly to an external recorder via an optical output with XLR connectors for audio. The chip is huge, too, at 2.5 inches. The recorders are being developed in tandem and compresses at 1 over 6 to be recorded. It can record at 60p with plans for frame rates up to 120 fps. Currently, there’s only a prototype, but Astro Design is expecting the 8K camera to run about $300,000. Test broadcasting of 8K will begin in 2016, with it going to the market shortly thereafter. But while I’m wondering if 8K is going to come on like a freight train, the camera’s inventors aren’t so sure. In fact, they say that Japan is pretty much going to be going it alone with 8K for the foreseeable future. And the issue may just be due to the same limitations that 4K is facing… biology. There comes a point where people just can’t tell the difference in resolution. And even if they can, users are either faced with being really close to your TV, or having a screen so large that you can’t even afford the privilege. Currently, to see the difference of 1080p to 4K, you’d have to have a 70 inches or larger 4K screen. The current cost of which hovers around $5,000 or more. So think of an 8K image you’d easily have to have a screen that’s over 110 inches. And there’s only one screen invented that could handle it, much less one anyone but mega corporations could afford. But for motion picture houses, the big screen would really shine with 8K. Then again, you run into another issue and that’s theaters have already undergone the expensive transition to digital 4K projection and they’re unlikely to want to move on to 8K after only less than 10 years of use. But such is the brutal nature of Moore’s law that states that technology becomes exponentially more powerful every 18 months. So I’m thinking that Astro Design’s engineers may be right that 8K isn’t going to catch on for quite awhile. But wouldn’t it be interesting if it did?
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 09:05:39 +0000
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