While many of us may hoped 8K resolution from the newly announced action camera that is affordable for most of us, some professionals have already reached 18.7K with a custom made cine camera.

https://petapixel.com/2024/08/26/gorgeous-underwater-whale-footage-shot-with-custom-18-7k-cine-camera/

I would like to see a comparison with the new GoPro, but based on the posted videos, I'm not really impressed. Maybe the conditions were not so good or the camera operator was too far from the whales but I can't see the extra resolution (I watched at 4K)

What do you think?

My opinion is that due to the physical properties of the water it doesn't make sense to go beyond 4K with wide angle. More resolution might be useful for macro.

If you watch 4k content on a 1080p monitor, you can't see the difference from a 4k video to a 1080 p video, the same here, 18.7k on a 4k monitor, you can't see the difference, even more since it is uploaded and compressed by vimeo.
But the original file must be BIG, the advantage is that you can crop a lot without losing quality.

 

I knew that only YT was able to display 8K. IDK if Vimeo filled the gap.

The big advantage going from 8k to 4k is reframing and oversampling.

 

Pawel Achtel is famous for his custom lens and camera for cinema use.

 

I remember an interview (maybe on Wetpixel?) with one of the recording managers of "Avatar 2" talking about a resolution problem they had in the crystal clear water of the pool where they shot many underwater scenes. The problem was to achieve real 4K (or was it 8K?) resolution. So I am wondering how much sense it makes to shoot in 18.7K when the "water visibility" reduces it to 1080p or even below...?