What is 10bit?
What does 8-bit and 10-bit quality mean??
One of the factors that determine quality of an image – stills or video – is colour depth or bit depth. They’re the same thing. This is simply a measure of how many shades and colours it’s possible for the camera to record and, all other things being equal, the more colours there are, the more nuanced and higher quality the footage can be.?
How does 10-bit colour improve quality??
While 10-bit reaches 1024 colours per channel, 8-bit will only reach 256 per channel. This means that 8-bit files will display 16.7 million colours, while 10-bit will display about 1.07 billion, which is a lot more! Then we get to 16-Bit that's used in RED Cameras, which reaches 65,536 colours per channel, which totals to around 281 Trillion possible colours!?
But it’s worth mentioning that there’s nothing wrong with 8-bit colour. In fact, it’s the mode used across almost all of the video you see displayed on your TV or online.?
Even though the difference between the two of them doesn’t seem huge, there are some things a video editor can’t live without. In the past years, technology experienced a huge jump, and if 5 years ago we were limited to filming at 8-bit at most, some of the newest cameras can even provide 16-bit recordings. Now, if you use an 8-bit monitor, it’s clear to say that you are not experiencing the full potential of most cameras' colour spectrum!?
领英推荐
When should you pick 10-bit over 8-bit??
The thing is, most viewing devices – be that your TV, computer monitor, smartphone, or anything else – will only display an 8-bit signal anyway, and even if you play 10-bit video on them, it’ll look just the same. So, what’s the point of 10-bit video??
Really, it’s all about getting extra control and quality when editing. The greater the number of colours available, the more aggressively you’ll be able to edit the brightness, contrast, and colour in the footage without it losing quality. So, whereas an adjustment to the sky in an 8-bit video might end up showing banding – strips of solid colour that should look smooth – 10-bit footage has the extra information required to fill these ‘gaps’.?
Why should you calibrate your monitor??
Colour grading is an important process of content creation in all its forms. When you’re editing pictures or videos, most times you are colour grading because you want that content to look a certain way. Still, why should you have a 10-bit monitor for colour grading??
It's important to calibrate your monitor if you are colour grading, editing photos, graphic design or anything to do with editing colours. Especially being a professional, you want the client or person viewing to see the correct colours you intended to show. If your monitor isn't calibrated, then the colours aren't going to be the same as what the other person is seeing. Especially if they have a calibrated iPhone or mobile.?