Is the 4K useful

Many people (no pro) don’t see difference between SD and HD
Only few people see the difference between HD and 4K

For me a good codec is way more useful than resolution, 1080prores from raw look like 4K but with better dynamic

Not many sells in 4K

I wonder why manufacturers do not developpe higher fps (like Bilbot movie) instead of pixel

http://noamkroll.com/why-shooting-4k-is-becoming-less-important-the-resurgence-of-the-arri-alexa-classic/

A stock video site (such as Pond5) is not for the average viewer who can't tell the difference between SD and HD. Pond5 is for people who create videos, and creators always want the highest quality video that they can afford. If someone is looking for a video and has a choice between an HD clip and a 4K clip, all things being equal, the 4K clip will probably sell.

Can perfectly shot and processed HD look great? Definitely. (I just shot some high-bit-rate 60fps HD yesterday.) But I generally shoot in 4K and try to keep the quality as high as I can.

@OliverM There is definitely an advantage in shooting in 4K and 1080 of the same scene. When they are cropped to 200% on the same single object you'll see artifacts in the HD and less to none in the 4K cropped object. The FPS adds nothing to the quality of either resolution.

I was uploading and working in HD for 6 months or so as a test. I saw few sales and my production time / storage costs / upload time all increased by 60%. I decided it wasn't worth it. Perhaps in some niches, but not in mine. It got in the way of the process and fast mass editing / uploading.

tbmpvideo, did you test working in 4K or in HD? Your post says HD, but if your storage cost and upload time increased, you must mean 4K. Can you clarify?

I don't have any difference in production time working in 4K, as compared to HD. But it certainly takes longer to upload and more storage space to save it. 4K takes longer to render, as well, but that's a marginal difference on a 25-second clip. And for many Pond5 uploads, I upload directly from the camera chip with no processing.

As an editor, I use 4K all the time in my 1080 projects. Its very useful being able to re-frame or punch-into a shot, especially when editing a one-camera talking head interview. It's like having two cameras on-set.

I think if more buyers knew of this advantage, we'd all sell a lot more 4K clips.

Same question several years ago would have been: "Is HD usefull?" ......... when the overall standard was SD and TVs had a 4:3 ratio ;)

@Beckhusen SD vs HS is a hudge difference

But human eyes have limits, 4K or 8K it will be impossible or only on BIG screen

BUT the lack of fps is clearly visible on mid-speed pan

BTW the link I put is quite intesresting

When in some years there are only 4k+ monitors and TVs available, ..... i won't know how a standard HD record looks on 4k or maybe 8k screens.
Doing the math the difference from SD to HD is "nearly" the same as HD to 4k. Upside the width it doubles.
And really, i record 4k since some years now and see only down-converted HD. But when i see my former original HD at my 29# HD monitor, that's as if i watch old SD TV quality.

@OliverM The big difference is in the resolution (quality) of 4K vs HD. Whether shooting in 4KUHD or say 6K for a timelapse sequence the footage can be downsized to HD and both will produce a much higher resolution than HD. When shooting higher resolution footage I can downsize and post both in 4K UHD and HD so both have the same high quality as the original footage. Or just leave it as 4K UHD with the option of a P5 downloaded copy in H264.