Cameras like the Canon 7D are special. The photographer can decide on-the-fly whether to shoot Camera Raw images or HD video. But, what if you need both? Photoshop will allow you to open the 7D’s MOV files in order to extract a single image from the movie.
So, why not use the movie file for both video and stills? There are several reasons:
- Image resolution: A still from a HD video will be 1920 x 1080. A Camera Raw file will be 5184 x 3456. That’s a big difference.
- Image detail: The greater image size will also yield greater detail.
- Compression: MPEG video is a compressed format. You can not get around that. Camera Raw is uncompressed Raw data.
Take a look at the 100% crops of both images side-by-side.
So, always plan on shooting a few Camera Raw stills. Even if you only use them as reference images, it is better to have them than to wish you took them.
My Full Year with the Canon 7D
Premiere Pro CS5 & 7D HD-Video the Easy Way
Canon 7D Tips – Shooting both Stills & HD-Video with One Camera
Flip the Magic Button to Jump Between HD-Video and Still Photography
Still Video Image or Camera Raw on Canon 7D
Canon 7D – Tips on Shooting Time Lapse Video
Canon 7D – Tips on Creating/Editing Time Lapse Video
Canon 7D Tips – Image Stablization Video Comparison
Canon 7D / 5D Mark II Tips – HD video editing the easy way
Darn it. I guess this is why we should probably wait for that 60d/70d right? (If you’d like to create quality images from video). Or maybe even the 1DsMk4 & 5dMk4. Thanks so much for this post.
Even the Mark 4 will not improve a video still size. If you are shooting video at 1080P, that means the set pixel image size is 1920 pixels x 1080 pixels. The image quality will be great for that intended image size & resolution. But, if you want a large image for print, you need to flip the switch and shoot a still photo.
The 7D does allow you to shoot a still in the middle of shooting video by clicking the shutter button. However, this will cause a break in the video and a 1-second pause while the camera flips modes.