
Relationship between bit rate and video quality

Do you know the “bit rate” when recording movies?

Bit rate is a value that indicates the speed of data transfer and is one of the factors that determines the image quality of video. Basically the larger the size, the higher the image quality.
Actually, I didn’t understand anything at first, so I tried to summarize it briefly this time.
Video camera image quality
In general, I think the following three are the main factors that determine the image quality of a video.
1. Image size (FHD, 4K, etc.) → Number of pixels in the photo. Larger images (more dots (number of pixels) that make up an image) look better when viewed on a compatible monitor.
2. Frame rate (24p, 60p, etc.) → How many frames are taken per second? The more, the smoother the movement will be (it does not mean it should be smooth).
3. Bit rate (100Mbps, 400Mbps, etc.) → Close to the JPEG compression rate in the photo. The higher the value, the more elements make up the video and the higher the image quality.
Of these, I think the image size and frame rate are relatively easy to understand, but what is the “bit rate”?
Simply put, how much data are you sending to the media per second? With the value of, the higher the data capacity, the better the image quality. It may be close to the compression rate of JPEG in photos. The lower the compression, the better the image quality, but the larger the data, right? On the contrary, a large amount of data means that the compression rate is low and the image quality is good.
This large amount of data means that the bit rate is high.
It is usually expressed in units of Mbps (megabit per second). I think there were many single lens digital cameras in the past at around 25-50Mbps, but recently, especially high-end models, many models with high bit rates exceeding 100Mbps have been lined up.
For example, the bit rate of the FUJIFILM X-T1 is not disclosed, but it is probably between 35 and 50 Mbps. On the other hand, the successor X-T2 has a significantly higher bit rate of 100 Mbps As a result, the image quality when recording movies has improved dramatically.
It’s more! On X-H1, it is 200 Mbps, which is double the value. I tried ETERNAL mode the other day and the FUJIFILM camera I received from the X-T10 I was using before is a high quality camera that completely nullifies the poor video performance image.
Image quality comparison based on different bit rates
Here, I would like to compare the image quality of two FUJIFILM X-T1 (probably around 40 Mbps) and X-H1 (100 Mbps: FHD / 30p) models to verify the effectiveness of high bit rates.
The X-H1 has a 100Mbps bit rate even when shooting at FHD 30P, so you must use a card with a UHS speed class 3 (V30) standard or higher that supports high speed bit rates.
SD card
First, let’s record the same time and compare the file sizes to see if there really is a difference in bitrate. This also means checking how different the bit rate is from the X-H1 because the bit rate of the X-T1 is private.


















