I am about to purchase a new camcorder. I would like to have the
ability to make still photos from the video.
Is there any particular camcorder or type of camcorder that would be
better than another for this function?

How do you make quality still photos from a camcorder video?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

The resolution of the picture will be that of whatever tv standard you
are using  - 720x576 if it's PAL. Beyond that the quality of the
picture will depend on the optics and the electronics of the camera. A
basic rule of thumb says that the more you pay, the better it gets, but
the resolution will limit you whatever. Some cameras have a built-in
stills capability, but the camera pick-up chip still won't be that
good, because it doesn't need to be.

Better to buy a nice 6 megapixel stills camera and use the movie
machine for what it's best at.   If you really have to get stills from
it, all editing systems, even Windows Movie Maker (free) will extract a
still.

Bnerie

<zazza***@cox.net> wrote in message
"Quality" needs defining.
I'm not sure about other makes, but my Sony TRV22 is capable of recording
"snaps" to its Memory Stick during playback.  They're limited in pixel size,
and no better than you'd expect from originals typically shot at 1/100s.
Later models offer more pixels, (upto 3MP I think) but this mode probably
won't apply to capturing from replayed video where the pixel density is set
during the original recording.
It's fine for certain types of scientific analysis, and perhaps on a par
with camera-phone stuff.

Matters may change when HD video becomes the norm.

The best way would be to transfer the video to a DVDR disc.  Then you
can use a program such as Cyberlink PowerDVD on your computer to freeze
the image you want as a still and make a screen capture.  Microsoft
Picture It! 7.0, which I use for modifying screen captures, does a fine
job cropping the image and adjusting the color quality.  A picture made
from this procedure may not look good when enlarged above 4" by 6."

The best way would be to fiddle with the image  - recompress or
whatever - absolutely as little as possible. Play the video down the
firewire as dv (the recording format) to the computer, take it in to an
editor as dv, and extract the still as a bmp.

Then adjust in Photshop or whatever.

Turning into anything else on the way degrades the picture.

Sorry, no, that is the worst way.  To make a DVD, the video must be
recompressed to DVD-compliant mpeg, which uses a much higher compression
ratio, compresses temporally, making it harder, if not impossible, to get a
video still from the "reference" frames, and introduces more image
distortion and information loss.

The best way is to transfer the video to a computer and use virtually any
video editing package to export a single frame.  Bring the single frame into
a program like Photoshop and apply a deinterlace filters.

You'll still wind up with a low resolution still ( 720 x 480, if you're
using NTSC) of approximately 345k or 1/3 megabyte.  Considering that even
the cheapest point-and-shoot digital still cameras produce images of at
least 3 megabytes, and "decent" still cameras produce images of between 5
and 12 megabytes, don't expect to do much with your still beyond making
rather crappy 3" x 5" prints.

Show quoteHide quote

zazza***@cox.net wrote:

You don't. Better off getting a digital camera.

Dave

On 1 Sep 2005 11:29:53 -0700, zazza***@cox.net wrote:

You don't, really.  The video picture is about 800 X 600 pixels.  Fine
for video, but very low by today's standards for stills.

Any video editing program will grab a frame.   But if you want quality
stills carry a 4/6 megapixel still camera too.

For digital camcorders:

720 x 480 NTSC
720 x 576 PAL


Show quoteHide quote

I made a previous posting advising that if you have a stand alone DVD
recorder, you can make a DVDR to use to capture a still photo.  Using a
Panasonic DMR-E80 recorder, I used the method to capture pictures off
DVDR movies.  The 704 X 480 images are only fair, since I used a video
source.  But with a DVDR of your camcorder video, you can pick the
frame you want easily using a program like Picture It! 7.0, a program
much easier to learn than Photoshop (and much cheaper, it came for free
as part of Microsoft Works).  Using Picture It!, pressing one button
automatically fixes the color level, and the program lets you easily
crop photos.  It is also a lot more convenient to watch a recording on
a DVDR than from a camcorder.  Besides that, Panasonic DVD recorders
can sometimes improve the quality of the video going in through the
composite inputs.  If you don't have a DVD recorder, my method is
useless for you, just as is the suggestion to use Photoshop if you
don't have that software.  I have been capturing images from DVDRs
for two years using my method, and it is pretty easy to use.  Postings
telling you to use a digital camera are asides that do not answer your
question.  We all know the best way to get quality digital pictures is
a 2.1 MB digital camera or higher.  Today, it is strange though, for
someone to buy a camcorder as you intend to do, without already having
a digital camera.

Your previous posting said this was "the best way."  It is not.  Doing it
this way introduces an extra digital-analog conversion step.  It does not
"improve" the video, it will further degrade any already low-resolution,
poor quality still.

Back at the top of this thread the original poster asked -
"I am about to purchase a new camcorder.How do you make quality still
photos from a camcorder video?  "

Several of us said that you can't make pictures that are of great
quality from video, as the resolution is too low, and offered the best
options based on a good number of years of doing this.

Gerry - as PTravel says, DVDs are not the answer, as they reduce low
resolution even lower.  Your system may be easy to use for you, but it
definitely isn't the best, however long you've been using it.

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