[Sirfishalot]

Is it possibe or practical to get high quality still images from a DV camcorder or does one have to purchase a digital camera additionaly? I tried to grab a still from an IMovie clip, but it seemed to be lacking in overall quality (sharpness,brightness,etc.) I don't have experience with the program and am wondoring if there is an app better suited to this task.

Thanks

[MickS]

It depends on what you mean by high quality.

Most DV camcorders have the ability to record a still onto the tape. This is usually better than trying to extract a frame from the video stream but is still at video resolution which is much less than current digitial cameras.

I have a Sony PC100 which allows you to take higher resolution stills onto a memory stick (1152 x 864 pixels). This is okay in good light conditions but under poor lighting the quality disappears very quickly. The size is okay for standard size prints of the whole image. With a digital camera of 2 mega-pixel + you have much more flexibility when it comes to cropping the image.

For my current use of stills the camera is fine. If I was going to be looking to take more professional stills I would buy a better camera.


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Mick Sheppard

Powerbook G3 (firewire)

When using the "still camera" setting, how can I take advantage of the improved(?) pic quality when importing the pic to the Mac? I.E., how do I import the seven or so (tape) seconds of image into iMovie, not merely as "capture frame"?

[Dispiacere]

You can do 2 things... if your camera has memory stick or some sort of mm format, switch to VCR and hit photo capture and you will get your pic in 640x480. If you can't...open the footage in movie player and copy the frame using cmd C. Then go to photoshop and paste...you should have the image in 720x480 and it should not be degraded like it is in QT player.

[Dispiacere]

I forget to mention that you may get interlaced video if your DV clip is high motion. so you will need to deinterlace the frame anyways

[jwardell]

This is sort of related, I have a Sony DCR-TRV20 that takes 1024x768 stills onto memory stick. Transferring these via tape obviously degrades the quality to 640x480 (or 720x480). I know I can read these with a memory stick reader, but I do not want to spend the money on one. The camera has a serial interface and comes with a serial cable, but of course only has windows software to use it. Does anyone know of 3rd party software that supports accessing sony cameras via serial?

[Dispiacere]

Get the USB reader from sony ( MSAC-US1) or the floppy disk adaptor MSAC-FD2M. If you have a laptop it's MSAC-PC2. they all work on Mac.

You might want to check out RedHawk Vision.
Their software combines DV video frames to cancel out
digitization noise and derives stunning still images.
They have a gallery of images online here:
http://redhawkvision.com/gallery.html

Beware of their solicitation for Beta testers. It's really a bait and
switch - You'll get an offer of a "special discount"
of $300 off Video Pics™, an Adobe Premier (5.x or later) plugin with
a retail price of $695.

Whether you find this tactic distasteful or not, the gallery is
stunning and worth a visit.

[videoalex]

I suggest using BTV Edit, it has a great still image grabber in it, and works well with Firewire. just plug the camera in, playback, and you can capture as many frames as you want, in pict format.

The address for the BTV website is http://www.btv.org.uk
---Alex Johnson



[This message has been edited by videoalex (edited 11-06-2000).]

[MickS]

I used the serial MS reader via Virtual PC on my laptop for a little while before deciding that the USB MS reader was the way to go.

The main reason for this was that I bought a 32MB MS and the length of time to download the images via the serial reader was just too much.

[jcarr]

Check this out:

http://www.microtechint.com/cardreaders.html

Microtech has several readers to choose from. I have the CompactFlash & SmartMedia reader and it works like a charm.

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I'm cookoo for Cocoa Apps!

I have been using a program from evological called ImageDV and I have been impressed with the results. And it's a lot cheaper than other alternatives. Check it out at http://www.evological.com/imagedv.html