Printing stills from video footage

[Vitold Vidic]

I was wondering if anyone had a chance to grab stills from XLH1 HDV footage and print it out. What would be the maximum size before pixels would start showing?

thanks
VV

[Tony Davies-Patrick]

At approx 2MP and upto 5fps, the still image option of the XL-H1 are ok, but the results when printed are a bit lack-lustre.
Even a cheap simple low-rez DSLR would produce far better prints. You would struggle with even A4 prints to make high quality photos with rich colours and good detail, although the pixels will still hold up at that magnification, depending how far away the person views the prints.
But there will be times when a still image captured from the XL-H1 will be your only option, and in that case it is a worthwhile back-up to have onboard.

[Jeff Kellam]

There are a few basic faults with video to print. One is the slow shutter speed (60/29.97) does not stop motion and there is blur. This works fine for video, but not for stills. A still camera usually needs higher than 60 to get a good image too.

Shooting interlaced creates it's own set of artifacts when viewed on a frame level basis, that is not as visible in video.

Bottom line, you can make a fair 4X6 from a good frame.