Update (2023-01-03): Better video here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ipuqarynvc_GXYU.html It turns out my camera has soft 1080, so this isn't a great comparison. The new video does a much better job illustrating the difference.

I’m about 8ft away from a 43in 4K tv. I was able to accurately spot the 4K clips due to the details in smaller objects like grass or the folds in the flag. The night time scenes were the hardest for me. I didn’t have as many of the tell tale signs I was looking for, and I would imagine that higher ISO can soften an image more. My take away was that I was actively looking for differences in parts of the image the ultimately didn’t matter. If these were dialogue scenes, I wouldn’t care about the detail in the foliage.

I love how short sweet and to the point your videos are. Great job!

Hey man, I watched some of your vids and it really helped! just keep up the good work :)

All other things being equal, it's all about the size of the monitor you are viewing with. Smaller monitor = cant tell 1080 vs 4k. Its that simple. Larger screens means the higher resolution makes a difference because of the pixel size. IMO, a monitor 50" or less means a 4K is most likely a waste of money. Those of us who were around back when SD (480) was the standard remember how 480 seemed crisp and detailed on 12" or less TV's. The bigger the screens became in those days (up to 30" or a little more) the more obvious it became that 480 was terrible. So again, it's all about monitor size.

I was viewing your footage on my laptop in 4k, and it was really easy to spot the difference. I don't export in 4k so I guess it doesn't matter if I don't film in 4k, but I can see the clear benefit of filming in 4k for those who do

Viewed on my iMac 2019 27 inch 5K on full screen, the difference is huge. The 1080 footage is way softer, but not in a pleasing cinematic way. 1080 still good more than enough when viewed on smaller screens with less definition. Thank you for posting this test.

In doing some research on video related content...you have been suggested to me 3 times now... Gotta say, KZfaq nailed this one...as your channel fits exactly what I want in information and delivery. Thank you

This video was SO WELL DONE. Thank you for making it so clear between the two while keeping it clear of common cognitive biases.

Can you see the difference if you're viewing on a phone? Let us know!

Watched only 2 videos and subscribed. Amazing content. Thanks.

great content man keep the good work !!

This is exactly what i needed. Thank you!

Thanks, James, for yet another informative video! I was watching it on a 1080p 40 inch tv screen and I could see the difference though it was pretty subtle. I got 6/8 correct.

Such an important video! Because of how well you created the comparison between 4k and 1080p it was easy for me to decide: I will definitely be shooting the vast majority of any future video documentary in 1080p, NOT 4k. I found NO difference in the videos with my macbook pro with M1 chip. People have little idea of how significant it is to shoot in 4k in terms of storage space issues. Thanks again.

Awesome test James, I'm hard pressed to see the difference. I'll have to watch this a few more times.

Great comparison. A lot of comparisons show a side by side which makes it hard to notice the difference, but here the difference is clear.

Thank you so much for this information and guidance

Thanks for the comparisons - viewed on a Apple HD monitor - I actually missed a couple on the tests, I shoot with a "ancient" C100 M2 - (4k sensor that downsizes to 1080) I have a problem that my files right out of the camera look decent by themselves at 4.20. 8bit, but when I when I output in Premiere at 10Mbps the quality really degrades - banding and pixelation in shadows is really bad. I almost always up my output bitrate to get a little edge on quality without making the file size too crazy. Yes I do have 4k envy for detail and higher quality files, but can't justify it yet cost-wise.

Hi James, I could clearly see the difference too. I was viewing your video on my 2K resolution monitor, thus it makes perfect sense that the 1080p looked a bit blurry. I find this all the time (and do struggle a bit with it) when editing my travel videos as I alternate between footage from my action cam shot at 2.7k and that shot on my DSLR shot on 1080p

The Most Underrated Channel 🙌🏾

I know this video was done a few years ago, but I still want to thank you. I'm struggling with the decision as to what resolution to use. In any case, I did, in fact, get all but one of the clips correct in the test. I couldn't tell the difference between the two clips at #2. All the others I got correct. (I was kinda hoping I wouldn't see any difference so I could more easily justify using 1080). Thanks again.

Hi, Thank you for taking the time. I found your video very informative and helpful. I viewed the comparisons twice on my 19.5" desktop monitor. The first time, I focused on particular areas containing detail, e.g., trees, leaves, etc. Then again, from edge to edge, as you would when viewing a video. In the first viewing, I noticed a slight improvement in the 4K footage; there was more detail. But when watching the video from edge to edge, I could not discern one from the other despite knowing one was better. On a large monitor/TV, the difference might be more pronounced. But if your target audience intends to view the video on their desktop or mobile device, I don't see the benefit of recording in 4K.

Great comparison! Watched on my galaxy S21+, 1080p panel, and I barely noticed any differences with each pair.

Thanks for video :-) Can definitely tell the difference. MBP both at 4K and at 720p, the latter being what we normally watch content at.

Watching on my Macbook Pro, full screen, watching at the KZfaq settings I usually watch on (1080 HD setting), no pausing, no rewinding, and no pixel stalking. I honestly did not see a huge difference. Slight more detailed in some 4k shots, but if I'm just casually watching the content for what it is and not looking for resolution, the differences were not that significant.

Thanks for the vid! Watching on a Samsung S22 Ultra @1440p. I got all of them correct. The only one I wasn't 💯 on was shot 6. Took a best guess but got that one right also. Looks like you can definitely tell a difference with individual shots. I don't think it would be as obvious within the context of a full story or video. The differences don't seem drastic enough to be important in most cases.

4K LG OLED TV (B7A to be specific) 1-6 (daytime shots) I could immediately tell 1080 vs 4K when the first image (image A) was shown. 7-8 (nighttime shots) I could only tell the difference after both shots were shown and the difference wasn't as pronounced, especially with the last shot. 60 and even 30 frames give me a hyperreal soap opera effect that I don't like but increased resolution does not do this at 24 frames. I prefer it. I'd like to know how long editing in 4K extends your workflow, if at all.

Good test. Thanks

Fished all day for this exact topic thank you

I didn't think I could tell the difference since I'm watching on a 1080p monitor, but I actually got every single one of the tests right. I am amazed by how much better 4K looks even when you don't have a 4K display.

Good evening sir... Not only you look and speak like 'Ben Affleck' but you are awesome in narrating story and jokes with a straight face. That's so amazing and unique at the same time 😄👍 Also, the information you provide is definitely not biased (Unlike many other channels) ... Infact you guide us to a right direction in terms of decision making. Esp. Video on A73 vs A7s3 Best of luck for all your future endeavours. 🙂🌹

I watched on an 11-year old Imac with a 21.5 inch screen that has 1920 X 1080 resolution. I expanded the video to the full width of the screen and had to watch each one a couple of times to see the difference. The differences, in terms of detail, were subtle, but I guessed correctly 7 out of 8 times. The last one, with the skyline at night, was really hard to distinguish. I suspect that the differences might have been more apparent on a larger screen with a higher resolution. I'm not sure which one I prefer, as I watched them only looking for detail. I guess it depends on what effect you're looking for and what the expectatoins of the client might be. Thanks for the video.

I think it depends on whether the camera is with or without movement. With movement, FHD will not be much different. But without movement, you can see every detail or sharpness. In your video examples, 4K is clearly better. Thank you for your comparison!

Nice comparison, I could tell for the most part but not enough to worry me. I've been uploading content t my channel for years in 1080p, yesterday I decided time to actually up my efforts, so I recorded in 4k, and bought a new mic (wirelessME) game changer for me I love it, I have a voice that sounds like a walrus getting his piles lanced, so the new mic actually makes a huge difference, no more lancing just soothing cream being applied, anyway, re. 4k christ it's grinding my macbook to a halt, footage looks good but will my regular viewers in their hundreds appreciate how much ball ache I went through to produce it in 4k....I think not. My usual video editing takes a few hours in 1080....this 4k lark is killing me once it's done I'll upload it and get back to shooting 1080. Liked and subbed thanks for the vid.

Awesome!

I’m genuinely surprised by this. I’m 46 years old and going long sighted and am watching this sat up in bed tired on an old iPhone XS. The difference is clear. 😮 A real surprise.

hey james ...u earned urself a new subscriber lol

This stuff has always interested me and how upscaling works even tho im watching a dvd or whatever i have a 4k tv and upscaling newere dvd blu ray player so that would be my guess that even tho its not all actually in 4k it makes it all look better then usual.

Definite difference - 4K definitely makes a difference, and for anything shown in a classroom, or on a screen that isn't a phone or tablet, 4k feels well worth it. Thanks for the side-by-side comparison.

Hi James, love the channel and your communication style. I would love if you could cover what our eyes actually see. Do i see in F3.6 or F22 . i suspect i see in F 5.6 and then change focus to another point in the frame which then becomes sharp ? Is this why 24FPS is more pleasing ????

Hi James, thanks first for this video. my answers - I watched the video in you tube 4K mode, full screen on a 2K monitors - I got the 4k answer right for video 1,2,3,4,5,6,7. For video 8 I could not tell. - Regarding preferences, I prefer the 4k video. except for video 8 which I cannot tell

"Marketing people are the worst". Subscribed.

75” Samsung. 9 feet away. Easily could see the difference. Thanks for posting this experiment. I’m not longer considering 1080.

I use Davinci Resolve 18.6. I tried super sampling (x2) the HD clips; then put them on a 4K timeline. I then export a video for 'max' parameters to a video file and then upload that to KZfaq.

Thank your for the video and your honest words in the beginning. But what still confuses me: I now watched all your 1080 footage in this clip in the 4k setting on youtube ... am i right, that this comparison is more a comparison between "real 4k" and "upscaled 4k" than "4k vs 1080"?

Supervid!😀

Many people watch this kind of content on their phones so I thought I would contribute with some thoughts having watched this on my phone. I tried watching this on a Samsung s21 ultra with the KZfaq playback setting change to Max quality. Even on the phone in landscape mode I could tell the difference, not in every clip but particularly in those with movement in the grass. Having said that the difference wasn't exactly striking and if you're not actively looking for it I don't think most people would even realize that there's a difference in quality. The one exception (again from the perspective of viewing from a phone) might be nature shots with lots of branches, fields of grass and that sort of thing slowly moving in the wind. That's where I saw the biggest difference.

Watched on my Samaung tablet s6 lite.. with 1080p settings and immediately could tell the difference between the crisp details, color not flooding the edges and all.. I remember the days when low-res, vga etc was normal and my friends got HD cameras and told "take videos in this format" and I was "well, the size, idk" Now looking at some videos and being sad that there is not more detail and some of those moments are lost in pixl blur. I'll definetly will use the 4k, so in the future I don't have this fail. You can always degrade a quality but works only that way. But I'm no pro.. just got iphone 13 mini with the super nice 4k...so I'll spend all my iCloud for that, ha. Thanks for the video !

Thanks

Great video. Thanks for the honesty. I wonder if the “big” KZfaq’rs are paid to push 4K by manufacturers who are looking to sell the “next thing”. I always hear, “you can zoom so much more” or “I use 4K to future proof my videos”. 4K does look slightly better, but it’s mostly seen on a bigger screen, which statistically, most people watch KZfaq on their phones anyway. It might seem like a lot of waste of money for most KZfaq creators, but I guess it’s your choice on how you do your channel. Thanks again.

I was able to tell the difference on most of the footage, but it was difficult watching on the Z Fold 2. Probably would be easier to tell on a bigger screen.

I watched it on a 13 inch macbook pro. And you really can tell the difference. You can even tell the difference on the clips of you speaking. The 1080p is a bit more blurred, and kind of "rougher." BTW that montage of going to shoot and while shooting was quite nice.

Good test to take ...it was quite visible viewing on a 4K monitor , but not that obvious on my iPhone. Really appreciate your stating your preference too ...i see a lot of people just saying in their videos that 1080 is much better , which to me seems like an attention grabbing tactic. However, i would be keen to know your views in end of 2023 (three yrs from when you published the video) ...do you feel that the trouble of handling 4k is justified by the quality ? 🙂

To those who want to view the difference, just zoom in on the video and you will see the difference. No need to watch on bigger screen to see the difference.

Watched on my 22-inch 1080p IPS monitor. Difference is noticeable in scenes 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 if you look more closely, but during lowlight it's way harder to tell. Also, it's been recorder on expensive digital camera where even 1080p footage looks very good, what about smartphones such as iPhone or Galaxy S Ultra, is there more or less difference?

On my onePlus 9 screen (1080x 2400) I could tell a difference on shots that had small scale high contrast detail. However, a few caveats. One, I had to turn the quality up, which KZfaq will not do on a mobile device by default. Two, any motion completely overshadowed the detail. I could only see the difference in stationary things. If you consider that in video the area of interest is often moving (like someone talking) and the area not-of-interest is out of focus (or has low detail to avoid distractions) the utility of 4k appears to be very low. At best the effect was similar to a very mild sharpening filter. I'm getting into video and I am pretty sure that for my needs 4k is not a priority in making engaging and watchable video compared to lighting and color. I think it's best to view 4k not as a necessity but as a creative choice. if you shot 4k of some crazy street scene in Times Square it might be overwhelming, but that might be the goal. Then again, maybe not. Our eyes have a limited depth of field I think and presenting this much detail on a flat display device is a bit overwhelming I think.

usually people bring down the in camera sharpness with 4k footage before hand by 7. sharpness gives the illusion of higher quality but this is not always the case (obviously 4k is higher quality but i’m talking generally). sharpness can always be added in post as well, but not taken away. i wonder what the difference will be compared to the 1080, because as you mentioned, often the sharpness doesn’t make things look good, especially for videos of people.

So what if I a simple content creator that is doing educational videos and not creative videos? I'm thinking about getting a canon 90D. So if I shout in 4k abut edit it in 1080, will I notice an improved picture quality, of should I just shot in 1080? If there is really no appreciable difference, is the 90D worth the upgrade? Any suggestions? Does this make sense?

Watching on a desktop browser with a larger monitor. I could see some differences but it wasn't super obvious. I did notice that the max resolution on KZfaq is currently 1080p for this video. You may want to re-upload a 4K version so that we can see the details. A 4K video when downsampled to a 1080P should look close to identical to a 1080P original recording unless you cropped in on a scene. (Does KZfaq take longer to process a 4K resolution upload?)

BUT You need to know if the A73 is over sampling the 1080 or pixel binning. This will be camera dependant.

nice test. i got evrything right viewing everything on a 4k screen. it was harder to figure it out on a 1080 screen. Shot 6 was the hardest to figure out but what made me decide were the railings

after 3rd set I did not have to see B part to know which res I am looking at in A scene. That is after I got a grip of your camera. I am looking at the footage on 2 screens: 2k rog pg279qm and 4k LG C1. When watching movies, I preffer 4k. But I mostly game. And due to not having a beast pc, and the fact I need over 100fps for my shooters, I stay at 1440p most of the time. In just few games I am able to crank it up to 4k. For me priority goes: framerate>resolution>details As for pinned comment- the phone's small screen is the only place where 1080p still looks passable :D

Totally can tell on my standard desktop with YT set at 4K. Not sure if its worth it though. Great video.

Watched on a 14" MacBook Pro 2021 with the M1 Pro chip with a resolution of 3024x1964, I was able to correctly identify all of them... But... making the conscious attempt to discern which was which and "cheating" in the sense that I needed to focus on very small details in order to achieve this, if one is casually glancing at the whole screen, then it's very difficult to see the difference, at least in a small screen as I have. Nice video. As to which one do I prefer, for the night scene with the buildings, 4K all the way, you want to see that! But for the grass, 1080 is more than adequate.

Thanks, I could see the difference, and watched it on my iPad Pro as well as my OLED, 65 inch, although, not as big of a difference as I thought it would be. So in the end, will continue to shoot in 1080 for most things. Strange though, when I watch a movie that is in 4k, I do notice a big difference. Most likely better cameras to begin with as well as color grading etc.

The differences you see on your monitor are one thing. The differences we see (or don't see) on our tablets or mobiles are another thing. Then there's the compression that KZfaq uses that degrades the 4K more than the 1080p making them more similar. If you're shooting footage for clients then it's a no brainer, use 4K, but for social media? I'd say stick with 1080p. The only advantage I see with 4K is that you can crop into the footage much more than 1080p and still get decent detail

Viewed on a 55" LG HD TV - can totally see the difference!!!

The fact is that the minimum resolution needed to understand the difference between these two qualities is a 4K 42-inch monitor at a close distance (larger monitors are needed for far distances), so if you are making a video for social media such as KZfaq, because users often use their phones or PC to see it, they don't see much difference in quality, so considering the costs, 1080 is better.

This is a very interesting question in that the people who produce the content often have a trained eye for this kind of thing but the people consuming the content might not. Then there's also the fact that people who shoot in 1080 with good lighting and equipment, who know what they're doing is ultimately going to produce better content than someone less knowledgeable producing the same stuff in 4k.

Viewed on an Iiyama 27" 4K 30Hz Monitor. I got most right. Thanks for this video.

Viewing on my iPhone 8. Also I didn’t understand if you meant all the videos a or b? Or each video individually cause that would require pin and paper or something to pause each one! That would take some time!

Watching on my 1080p phone screen, I could only tell a noticeable difference on 3 of the examples. On those 3, it was pretty obvious which was the 4K. This surprised me, I didn't think I'd be able to tell any of them apart.

old 19 inch 1280 1024 .. got the second one wrong, the rest right ... (it is in my kitchen, I hook my laptop to it when I cook, so I can watch video) ... but I did have to rewind a few times and look very carefully ...

Could see the difference a little better on my iPhone XR vs my IPad Pro 2nd gen :) Interesting info, thanks!

It was great finding your video comparison since I've often wondered how much I would miss 4K TV versus the 1080p Pioneer Kuro I have now. I didn't count the ones I guessed correctly, but I could see a clear difference in most of the scenes you shot. The exceptions were the night scenes and the scene with a field where I had to look for objects that had lots of detail in order to distinguish between 1080p and 4K -- lettering (e.g. StateFarm) made the comparison easy also. I watched on a 27" 4K computer monitor. But you made a comment about the cinematic look and how 60fps may not achieve this well or might look unnatural. I'd like to point out that most of us will judge how 'natural' a video looks through the lens of our experience -- that is what we're use to seeing is what we may associate with 'natural', and that is 24/30 fps because that's how movies are made. But the continuous motion of 60fps (or higher) is actually closer to what we see in real life, so thus more 'natural' or real. When (if) most movies are produced at 60fps, I suspect our concept of what looks natural will change to 60fps and 24/30 fps will seem choppy and 'unnatural'. But I welcome different views.

okay. slight difference on sharpness. but if I will have to choose between sharpness or rewinding/ or pushing my mobile data limit every single time for slight sharpness, I would choose FHD for faster viewing without disruption although 4k is a nice option to have when using unlimited data at home wifi.

Watching on 4k tv , can easily spot difference as you switch from A TO B , imo day shots in 4k looks good compared to 1080p which seems blurry. But in night it's not much difference . only diff I saw when looking at far away objects in night shots.

As a matter of interest have you considered using 2.7k..its a happy medium.. i noticed the difference watching on a 4k pc monitor... i guess it depends if you want to spend "even more money" on processing power to edit the footage great comparison BTW

Did you shoot in 24, 30, or 60 fps? Just curious and I would imagine whatever you shot in, it was the same for 1080 and 4k.

I'm watching this on my iMac 24 with a 4.5k retina display, and I can see a distinct difference between 1080p and 4k. It pops!!

I did notice 4K is sharper with tiny details and far details. I'm using my Razer Blade 18, which is 2560x1600.

I viewed this video on a 5K iMac screen with the video quality set to 2160p and could see the extra detail in the 4K footage quite easily.

I watched it on an iPhone 12 KZfaq setting was set for 1080p so I didn’t notice any difference between either of the clips if I watched it on my 4K TV set to 4K from KZfaq I possibly would’ve noticed

I watched in 1080 and got it. But I was looking for it, so that means something also. I do not recall watching a movie (which was good) and caring much. But there is something called TOO SHARP, but I think that is different issue. I would shoot 4k b/c it is the safe option but on a hi end DSLR the results vary from camera to camera.

I could see a difference on some of the clips of a touch more detail viewing full screen on a 1080p monitor on my computer. Was the difference worth it is indeed a moot point. For me I will continue to edit in 1080p which my computer handles extremely well with DaVinci Resolve, render in 1080p and mostly capture in 1080p although my camera can work in 4K. I will keep 4K as a option if I need to crop and enlarge or use image stabilization at the editing stage. In the distant past in worked on film in 16mm. By comparison the resolution and quality of 1080p video is brilliant. I mostly create for social media and for this purpose 1080p at 30 fps is entirely adequate.

My video camera only shoots in 1080 but I did try on my old IPhone 8 in 4K. I can tell a difference and yes using a lot more power than normal let’s call it. Interesting thanks for the video!

I watched the examples on a 32" 4k (still cheap) Dell monitor. Except frames 6 and 8 the difference is obvious. In frames 6 and 8 I can see as they switch but it's hard to tell which one is which without A/B switching.

(cheap) AOC 32" 1440p monitor. The comparison very easy to pick. The only one I had any difficulty with was the darkest one, #8, but still picked it correctly.

I am using the iPad 9 10.2 it was so good I totally loved it,I guessed it all correct cuz the 1080p was kinda blurry and u can’t see the far things good,while the 4k gave me a nice colour’s I saw every detail and I like it.

I prefer 2k export, no matter what the initial resolution was. 2k gives crisp images and the bitrate can be a tad higher than in 4k. I've never heard someone notice the difference of footage played on a 4k monitor / projector. Besides that, its critical to focus accurately (and use high resolution optics) in 4k to even get the resolution that 4k theoretically provides. To me 2k is the ultimate compromise between large files and brilliant footage.

Well done man bravo. I saw a clear difference between them, 4K just had a nice sharpness pop not only in detail but in the color at times. iPhone 11 PRO. But there’s a BUT, the a7iii has noticeably softer 1080 than other cameras. Due to it not being downsampled from 4K. I’d love to see this test on the a7siii which has much sharper 1080!

I watched it on a 14" Macbook Pro. I could tell the difference just because the 4k is sharper, but it doesn't matter that much if I was just watching it on a KZfaq video. In my opinion, the only time 4k matters is when you have to crop the image, which does happen often in certain scenarios.

Very easy to follow and 'real life' experiment. Personally, I shoot my family videos in 4K 30fps as it looks more crisp and vibrant - however, I prefer to watch movies and documentaries in 1080p 24fps as it feels a little softer and more 'cinematic'! I don't know, maybe I'm just weird.

Viewing this video on a UHD 15-inch laptop. On fullscreen, the 1080 footage is very fuzzy. The 4K footage is amazingly crisp.

To me, it's about the bitrate that counts. You can have a 1080p video with 5000kp/s and a 4K video with 2000kp/s and the 1080p video would look better.

Watched on an iMac 27". Could really see the difference! My 4K answers were all right ... Watched it once; no pixel peeping. Definitely prefer 4K!

I'm looking at the footage on my 1080p PC monitor and I can tell the difference between the sharpness at glance. The only pair that I can't really tell the difference is the last footage where it was night scene and both footages are kinda noisy and soft.

4k mode allows editor more field to editing. Lighting, cropping, ect...

Unless I am doing something wrong your video on KZfaq appears to be exported as 1080p so the 4K shots are not going to look much better?