Photographers jobs at risk with sneaky ideas.

Chris_L

8

3 Feb 2012 - 1:06 PM

• Options
  • Report Error / Abuse

0

Kev, I've often thought about "the pick the frame you want" aspect of HD video. It's been discussed here before.

There's a few reasons why it's not as much of a threat to traditional stills as you might think.

Currently (due to the codecs used) a 1920 x 1080 still from an HD stream doesn't look quite as good as a jpeg at the same size. Play and pause some HD movies on your PC or freeze frame Frozen Planet on your digibox and you get the idea. They look amazing moving, not as good still.

In photo terms, HD video is not that high res 1920 x 1080 = 2,073,600 (A measly 2 megapixels)

The other thing is that if your video is 25 frames per second then your shutter speed can't be slower than 1/25s without losing frames.

It's true that picking from many frames taken quickly suits certain photography, sports, some wildlife, fashion. It wouldn't suit some other work like interiors, product photography, landscape, architeture etc.

Anyone considering a video camera would have to consider that there are DSLRs that have 12fps drive mode at full resolution and do video up to full HD (1920 x 1080) too. The two are definitely coming together.

If I was taking my video-capable DSLR to a sports event I'd still shoot stills. That might change in future

Chris_L

8

3 Feb 2012 - 1:26 PM

• Options
  • Report Error / Abuse

0

Quote: Give it a week

You miss the point that in order to create an illusion of movement video uses a couple of dozen frames per second. This limits what shutter speeds you can use in video. You can't do a 5 second landscape exposure.

Chris_L

8

3 Feb 2012 - 1:44 PM

• Options
  • Report Error / Abuse

0

You can't have a good workaround for it really. Look at a reel of 24fps cine film, you have to put something on each frame.

Imagine it's pitch black in a forest and I do a two minute exposure to gather moonlight. Easy with stills.

Any workaround would mean making several seconds of frame blank or the same.

You can either gather light for a still or for movement take 25 frames every second, but you can't really have both.

It's beside the point anyway, the thing was about being able to take your pick of the best frames. It only works with photography that's shot fast. You don't need a video camera to shoot landscapes. Unlike a video of someone diving into a pool, there's not enough going on between frames that makes one that different from another.

Chris_L

8

3 Feb 2012 - 8:07 PM

• Options
  • Report Error / Abuse

0

Yes but when I pointed out the downsides to pulling stills from video and the shutter speed problem you said "Listen.I expect some bright spark has this design on the drawing board already... Give it a week."

What were you referring to then?