The list of shame fake 4K cameras and CMOS size

[Gibson99]

VLC is a good program, but not good for 4K - I use always MPC-HC for 4K ... with no problems.
VLC often freezes 4K, MPC-HC never.

Ah. My monitor is only 1920x1200 (yes 1200) so I can't see anything higher than that. Vlc played the videos recorded by my git2 at its highest resolution setting, but of course they were downscaled to fit my monitor, do that might be a factor.

If I can find a good 4k monitor about 32-36" for a decent price I may upgrade.

 

[Pytha]

I use a 28" AOC 4K monitor, price was €399 and a 40" LG 4K tv, price also was €399.
http://geizhals.eu/?cat=monlcd19wid...=uk&hloc=eu&plz=&dist=&mail=&sort=p&bl1_id=30

 

[Pytha]

Hmmm, I think H8R uses for 1080/60fps a trick.
If it is bright light, it makes 60fps, if it is low light, then it makes 60fps bei doubling frames =
30fps+30fps.

Look (using MPC-HC)

I tried it - video starting in bright light .. then moving to dark .. "H8R-phenomenon" occurs 🙂

 

[jokiin]

that's normal for 1080p60, in low light they will either drop to 1080p30 or frame double, if they stay at a true 60fps in low light the performance is not good

 

[Gibson99]

Hmmm, I think H8R uses for 1080/60fps a trick.
If it is bright light, it makes 60fps, if it is low light, then it makes 60fps bei doubling frames =
30fps+30fps.

🙂

Yup, what @jokiin said. And it's not just eken. Better cameras including GitUp and gopro both do it. It's either drop to 30fps or have a video that's too dark to see anything or just too grainy.

 

[jokiin]

Yup, what @jokiin said. And it's not just eken. Better cameras including GitUp and gopro both do it. It's either drop to 30fps or have a video that's too dark to see anything or just too grainy.

the better way (I believe) when dealing with low light is to frame double, you get the same effect as you would with 30fps but without the mess of creating files with different frame rates which would then make editing more of a challenge

this is not the same as some of these cameras that are only capable of 15fps at higher resolutions and use multiple frames to try and look like they're more capable than they are in reality, that's just cheating

 

[TeriTerryTarry]

Well I'm embarrassed.😳 The website I thought was the official Elephone site, elephone.cc, is only a reseller. It reminds me of when I bought my SJCam there was a website that looked like the official one but wasn't. Anyway the official website, specifically the official web page for the Elephone Explorer Pro is this: http://www.elephone.hk/ELE-ExplorerPro.

Now this causes me to go back to my statement that the 4K interpolation was disclosed on their website. It was disclosed on the reseller's website but I haven't found it on the official website. The Elephone might need to go back on the list of shame BUT I'm unwilling to say that for sure just yet. I only just found out about this now and I want to make sure I get it right this time! I'll have a look at it tomorrow and will give you an update. In the meantime comments are welcome.😀

Cheers. 🙂

EDIT: Also not disclosed are camera settings for 16MP and 20MP photos - greater than the 12MP sensor.

 

[Pytha]

I tested H8R in bright sunshine - 1080/60fps are full okay. If few light it changes to doubling frames with 30fps.
4K is ALWAYS shaky and frame doubling = unusable. 4K/10fps and 4K/15fps cameras are toys. 🙁

My SJ8000/M20 (not SJCAM) make real 4K/24fps and always 1080/60fps!

 

[TeriTerryTarry]

When I right-click > Properties > Details for the 2K and 4K Elephone Explorer Pro videos it doesn't show the Frame width, Frame height or Frame rate. How can I verify what these are? Details for other resolutions are shown.

 

[Nigel]

When I right-click > Properties > Details for the 2K and 4K Elephone Explorer Pro videos it doesn't show the Frame width, Frame height or Frame rate. How can I verify what these are? Details for other resolutions are shown.

Load it into your video editor and ask for properties...

Or Registrator Viewer will show you the details when you ask for properties.

Windows doesn't display all the details if it doesn't understand the video format.

 

[Pytha]

When I right-click > Properties > Details for the 2K and 4K Elephone Explorer Pro videos it doesn't show the Frame width, Frame height or Frame rate. How can I verify what these are? Details for other resolutions are shown.

Use (free) MPC-HC for playing, it will show you all values.

 

[Gibson99]

Use (free) MPC-HC for playing, it will show you all values.

VLC (also free) will also show similar info.

 

[TeriTerryTarry]

Okay, I have the size and frame rate but now a new question. Shouldn't the video reflect the interpolated size? In other words the original size is something less than 4K, then it's interpolated to 3840 x 2160 (using the 4K Ultra HD spec). Shouldn't the video's data indicate 3840 x 2160, not the original size?

 

[Pytha]

Some cameras take/save 2880x2160 - and show this. Players know to show as 3840x2160.
Other cameras also take 2880x2160, but they stretch this INTERNALLY to 3840x2160, then players show this "numbers" ...

 

[TeriTerryTarry]

Some cameras take/save 2880x2160 - and show this. Players know to show as 3840x2160.
Other cameras also take 2880x2160, but they stretch this INTERNALLY to 3840x2160, then players show this "numbers" ...

Right, this is exactly what I'm trying to figure out. As a minimum it appears that the Elephone Explorer Pro does not record 4K as a native resolution - no surprise there. But the question is, is the output even an interpolated 4K or just the original resolution and they don't even bother with changing it? With action cams generally, if it's changed internally so it shows up on the data as 3840 x 2160, how could you know that it's interpolated (unless you know for sure that the sensor and processor can't support 4K)?

 

[Pytha]

Some resellers say, their camera makes reeeeally 3840x2160, but these are fairy tales!
Some small Sony sensors can produce up to 4096x2160/60fps ... these sensors also are named with
their cameras, but it is only a joke for silly, allbelieving people. CPU is not strong enough and
these sensors are too expensive for little cheap cameras.

Better are smartphones with tiny sensors/lenses which produce REAL 4K/30fps with top quality!
Of course their price is much higher. Quality is not comparable with action cams, smartphone
videos are 3.14159x up to 6.67408x better!

 

[Gibson99]

yes, note the info in my screenshots above - it's from a git2 on the original firmware, set to 2160p. vlc plays it at the correct 16:9 ratio so that it looks correct. but if you use vlc to extract a frame, it displays in 4:3 instead of 16:9.

 

[arcticfire]

How would a dashcam running real 4k deal with the heat? My Xperia gets very hot very quickly and I think it won't even allow prolonged filming at 4k.because of this. I don't even know if it's real 4k tbh.

 

[Gibson99]

How would a dashcam running real 4k deal with the heat? My Xperia gets very hot very quickly and I think it won't even allow prolonged filming at 4k.because of this. I don't even know if it's real 4k tbh.

Big heat sinks, maybe even along with a small fan. Also different chipsets may run cooler in the future so may not be an issue. But yes my Canon digital elph point n shoot camera gets pretty hot shooting 1080p but not 720p, and my note 3 gets hot shooting 2.5k but not 1080p. As chipsets get better, heat becomes less of an issue.

 

[Nigel]

Quality is not comparable with action cams, smartphone
videos are 3.14159x up to 6.67408x better!

I think you have been comparing very cheap action cameras with very expensive smartphones!

All these number don't really mean very much, what matters is the result, zoom right in to show every pixel in the image, do you have detail in every pixel or is it blurred and lacking detail?

You can easily see that this image from my Gitup Git2 is not interpolated, it has detail in every pixel: