Issue 2, Vol 1 - April / May 2007

A 16MP still image from a DV camera? American photo-journalists are now covering news events with High Definition DV cameras and grabbing 16MP still photos from the footage! by Jon Mitchell In February 2007, the first images originally captured on HDV movie cameras were transmitted on the Associated Press photo wire service, it passed with little fanfare, though it was a milestone in photo-journalism. Of course, photo-journalists shooting video is not new, many people take video footage as well and find this is often more lucrative than the still photos of the same project. Having the ability to do both is a great tool and this will surely lead us more into the video arena. Are DSLRs dead then? Well, not really, while these cameras are great tools, I suspect it will be more the wire service and staff newspaper photographers who would be most attracted to them. Certainly, the claims of these US photo-journalists seem well-founded and the Dallas Morning News has ran these frame-grabs on their front page at large sizes, proving that the technology does work. High Definition Digital-Video is a new technology which takes much better resolution for film work, on these cameras, the Sony HVR-A1U and the HVR-Z1U produce a single frame at 2,000 pixels or so on the longest side. Using software like Final Cut Pro, you can grab a larger frame and save it as a still photo. These cameras use the HDV 1 standard (also used by Canon), which offers better resolution than the HDV 2 standard used on JVC cameras. They weigh in price wise at about £2,500 or US$5,000 and the 'shotgun' microphone is not included. You may need to spend a lot more on accessories and perhaps some video hardware. Of course, it is worth looking at all the new HDV cameras before you make up your mind, as I suspect this market may become quite active in the next year or two. Some are already appearing, like the new HDV Handycams from Sony, though as with still cameras, there are some bargains, though a decent 3 CCD HDV camera is now obtainable with a 2 Megapixel sensor for between £500 - £800 (US$1,000 - 1,600), these may be good for those wanting to get to grips with filming, as I am sure the size of these sensors will increase to several Megapixels as new models hit the market. A basic rule of thumb is that you want a camera which is HDV (not simply DV) and it needs to have a resolution of about 3 Megapixels plus. Combined with the right software, this gives you an excellent quality video capture with auto stills capture built-in. You may need to read up more on the technical aspects of this on other more dedicated web sites. Photos are selected by frame-grabbing from the resulting footage and these are then processed as normal into your stock photo collection. Certainly, this grey-area between still and moving images is an interesting development and a bit like the telly - is certainly a space to watch! *NB This story may get updated in the next few weeks with more useful info on this topic as I get it, so please check back again on this page.