Hi Guys, does anyone know if it's possible to extract good quality photos from video footage? I'm trying to decide whether to go for a photo or video package for an upcoming trip to Telos. My thinking was that if its possible to get decent photos out of video footage there would be no point getting a photo package.

No you can't get quality images from video unless you spend big and record at over 120fps with 4:2:2 or raw.

and if you pause VCR tapes too much it stretches.
Blokes who were teenagers in the 80's will understand.

^^^^^^^^

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mitchbat said..

Hi Guys, does anyone know if it's possible to extract good quality photos from video footage? I'm trying to decide whether to go for a photo or video package for an upcoming trip to Telos. My thinking was that if its possible to get decent photos out of video footage there would be no point getting a photo package.

no you can't. best for this is GoPro at hi-qual, but still not great.
my meagre understanding says that most formats use interleaving and interpolation such that no single frame is ever good nor complete.

still, some softwares are less bad than others - best utility by far for freezing most AVIs is VirtualDub.

Canon Eos Rebel T3, not very expensive, has an auto shooter (rapid fire stills) all pics are of high quality, and you'll capture that magic moment using the 18-55mm zoom that comes with it.

i do screen shots off my contour and they usually turn out ok but only in good light. still a tad grainy though.

Thanks for the advice guys.

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saltiest1 said..
i do screen shots off my contour and they usually turn out ok but only in good light. still a tad grainy though.

The photos you clip from videos are of a similar quality to the old fixed focus point and shoot box brownie cameras, or worse.
If there is any movement in the frame then the quality is progressively worse, depending on the speed of movement.
Even in the pic posted above you can see from the sign on the side of the basket, it is so blurry as to be unreadable.
A picture like that taken with a real camera should be sharp as a tack.

The pics are better than nothing if you haven't got anything else but only just.

yeah. like i said a tad grainy.
just an example. some of the other guys do amazing crisp pics but I'm really just not that into it.

go pro,
while taking a movie press the "mode" button and it takes a still as well.
W

canon 1d c and the upcoming gh4 from panasonic will yield magazine quality stills from any frame of video. can also be done with any red camera.

go pro in 2.7 or 4 k would be half decent ish