Is there any advantage to up-rezzing to 4K?

Len Kaufman wrote on 8/20/2015, 2:37 PM
Hi all,

I shoot with the Canon C100 MK2, which has a 4K sensor. The camera down-rezzes in camera to 1920x1080 (so that Canon can sell their more expensive C300 LOL).

I sell video clips as stock. Is there any advantage to up-rezzing to 4K before uploading to the stock video site? 4K seems to command a higher price, but I don't want to put something up there that is inferior in quality.

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 8/20/2015, 2:41 PM
The only advantage is possibly getting the higher price ... at least until your customers start wondering why your "4K" clips look fuzzy like uprezzed 2K material.

I'd prefer to take the honest route.
John_Cline wrote on 8/20/2015, 2:46 PM
Your are shooting 1080 HD, upsampling your footage and passing it off as 4k to command a higher price would be deceitful and potentially fraudulent. Besides, there is no way that upsampled 1080 footage would look anywhere near as good as footage shot in native 4k, you wouldn't be fooling anyone.
Len Kaufman wrote on 8/20/2015, 2:50 PM
I'm not trying to deceive anyone. The sensor on the C100 is a 4K sensor; the same one that is used in the C300. But it is down-rezzed in the camera. So, the original is actually, to my understanding, 4K, before it is down-rezzed.

I seem to see various threads on various sites, where people are down-rezzing to work on the files, and then up-rezzing for delivery. To me, this sounds the same as what I was inquiring about.

As I said in my original post, I don't want to put something up there that is inferior quality.
John_Cline wrote on 8/20/2015, 2:59 PM
Once it is downsampled to 1080 in the camera, the damage is done and it can't be upsampled back again to 4k. Your files are 1920x1080, you are not shooting 4k (which is 3840x2160).

As far as downsampling to work on files, they are taking native 4k files and generating a completely new set of "proxy" files at 1080 for editing purposes (because it takes considerably less computer horsepower to manipulate and play 1080 files) and then substituting the original 4k files when it is time to render to a 4k finished product.
Len Kaufman wrote on 8/20/2015, 3:00 PM
Thank you.