What is the inherent resolution limit of FCP 6.0?

[Stephen Pruitt]

Hi all. . .

I have a RED One camera on the way, but someone has informed me that FCP 6.0 has a 2K resolution limit. Is this really true? And, if so, is there anything that can be done to allow me to shoot 4K, 4.5K footage on the RED? I'd like to use the camera at its best if possible.

Any thoughts?

Thanks much.

Stephen

[Robert Lane]

Keep in mind, that no software-based editor can handle raw 4K footage - yet. FCP can easily handle 2k and routinely does such as the projects we've shot on the Viper, which outputs a DPX format at 4:4:4, 2k resolution.

Even at 2K, you're going to need a machine with as much horsepower as possible and a very fast external RAID array (SCSI or Fiber only, eSATA won't be able to keep up) pumping out a minimum of 250Mbs to keep up with multiple streams of 2k footage. Even with all that be prepared for long renders unless you have a SAN environment and a distributed network of CPU's crunching your edits.

REDCODE will convert the camera raw into literally anything you want or need but right now the practical limit is 2K. Your software guide that will come with the camera will show you in detail how to handle your footage based on the system/format you're wanting to edit in.

[Glenn Chan]

There's really no reason to edit at 4k. Work with 2K or 1K proxies. You can edit the 4K material that way.

Even for color grading Hollywood movies, it is done with 2K or 1K proxies.

To quote Michael Most on the reduser forum...
http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthr...7647#post77647

Even if you could monitor it - and right now, you basically can't - there is no reason to "grade in 4K," period, just as there is no reason to "edit in 4K" when you can use proxies and do everything you need to do. That's what the Red post workflow is all about, and why it's so well thought out. As long as the colorspace is the same, and as long as the proxy is done correctly, color correction is going to look exactly the same on the proxy as it will on a 4K render - and the process is a hell of lot more fluid. This is, in fact, how almost every existing DI company does "4K DI" work - they use 2K or even 1K (in the case of EFilm) proxies during creative color correction, then do the final render using the 4K files. There is no need for monitoring 4K prior to producing the final release element. And even at that stage, there is no current release format for 4K other than film and Digital Cinema Packages (although the vast majority of Digital Cinema equipped theaters use 2K projection). The beauty of the availability of 4K origination on Red is that it provides oversampling for every other current release format, so that even projects that don't get theatrical distribution (and I would think many projects being referred to here ultimately fall under that category, with the exception of possible festival screenings) get a lot of benefit from originating in a deeper, higher resolution format than they're released in.

The important characteristics of post production, especially with color correction, are a proper color management path, proper monitoring, knowledge of the intended deliverables and their unique requirements, the ability to produce those deliverables, and an understanding of what color correction does and how to apply it - not what resolution you happen to monitor while you do it.