Sunday 13 March 2011

How to get a JPG Image from a Canon 5D2/7D/60D/550D/600D MOV movie file

I recently needed to get a still JPG/JPEG image from a movie that I had shot on the Canon 5D2. However the process for getting a still image from a MOV file is the same if you have the Canon 7D/60D/Canon 550D/Canon 600D DSLR cameras that shoot video.

Using the Canon Zoombrowser software if you open the MOV video file and start to play it you will see a button called Save As Still Image which will save out the JPG image of the movie at that point. This gives a better result than just trying a screen capture as it will use the frame from within the MOV file. You can also move the movie frame by frame to get the best pose or avoid unwanted blurring from movement. Shooting at a faster frame rate would reduce movement anyway but my video was shot in low light at 1/30 sec.
 I would recommend saving at the highest quality setting which strangely isn't the default within the software.