The Samsung Galaxy S20: 8K videos comes with at least 128 GB of storage, but how long can you film in 8K? As it turns out, Samsung compresses the video enormously, but the memory requirement is still massive.
Samsung Galaxy S20: 8K videos vs. 4K RAW
Samsung says that it takes about 600MB per minute to record 8K video. This means that the 128 GB memory of the cheapest models is full in about 3.5 hours. At first that sounds like an immense amount of memory, but compared to dedicated video cameras it seems that Samsung is compressing the data enormously.
600 MB per minute corresponds to “only” 10 MB per second. For comparison: The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K, which is cheaper at around 1,300 euros than a Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra (from 1,349 euros on Amazon), requires 135 MB per second to record Blackmagic RAW in 4K resolution – more than 13 times the memory requirement with just a quarter of the resolution. In the 6K model, 323 MB / s are even due.
Many restrictions – is 8K worth the effort?
In addition, according to SamMobile, there are further restrictions for the Galaxy S20: The maximum length of a video clip is limited to 5 minutes, the frame rate is only 24 frames per second, and video stabilization is completely missing in 8K mode.
Samsung states that individual images with a resolution of 33 MP can be taken from an 8K clip, making it possible to record an event as a video and then export a photo of the perfect moment. Restrictions also apply here, of course: If the correct shutter speed (1/48 second) is selected for 24 frames per second, then motion blur must be expected. In addition to a few 8K TVs, there are hardly any possibilities to view the material in its full resolution.
So is it worth taking 8K shots with the Samsung Galaxy S20? Extensive tests will soon show whether the quality is clearly superior to the 4K recordings. For the foreseeable future, a dedicated video camera such as the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera mentioned at the outset, despite the usually much lower resolution, still seems to be the better option when it comes to absolute video quality.
