4K Airplane Footage in Denali National Park

The Power of 4K

You might be wondering what does 4K or UltraHD mean?  Have you heard the term being tossed around at Best Buy or in GoPro Advertising but are not quite sure what it does for you?  The above video was captured using the GoPro Hero4 Black mounted with an Nflightcam Exterior Billet Mount.  When viewing make sure you click on the icon in the lower right corner and select 2160p 4K.  You need a high-speed internet connection to load 4K video.
Other than a cool name what does 4K do you for?  Each video frame is twice as wide and twice as tall as 1080p.  Video resolution is measured in pixels.  1080p the current High-Definition standard, is 1080 pixels by 1920 pixels.  4K or UltraHD is 2160 pixels by 3840 pixels and each frame is equivalent to a 8mp still image.  The bottom line is that a 4K image will look better on a bigger screen than a 1080p image will.  You capture more colors and definition with 4K camera than possible with 1080p.  It makes cropping and image stabilization easier as well.  The downsides are that it takes a high-end computer to process the video, it eats up more storage, and takes a high-speed internet connection to stream it.  Right now YouTube.com supports 4K video but Vimeo.com does not.  It is almost a given that over the next 12-18 months all of the major video websites will be upgrading to 4K.  If you want to take full advantage of your 4K video you need a 4K TV or monitor to view it on as well.  The price on these has recently dropped into a more affordable range with new 4K TVs selling for as low as $2000.

There is no doubt that 4K is quickly becoming the new standard and will most likely remain the standard for the next five years.  Our recommendation is not to run out and upgrade everything now but when you are purchasing new cameras, TVs, or computers consider how they will do with 4K content.  The GoPro Hero4 Black is a great 4K camera and what we used to make this video.  We are testing all of our products with 4K cameras and raising our standard from 1080p to 4K.