Taking still images from digitised video files

For background to what I intend to do, see https://national-preservation.com/threads/things-that-cheer-me-up.173786/page-734#post-2964228

I wonder if anyone here has done this and can say what software and what sort of results were obtained when getting still images from digitised video tape files.

I'm just getting going with Oxford Duplicating to see how my U-Matic SP master tapes digitise - some were made from low band video 8 tapes, and others with Hi-8 shot on a Sony pro Hi-8 camera.

I will start with a U-Matic SP master tape using Hi-8 camera tape that I edited back in the day throughout with decent pro gear.

And also try with a Hi-8 camera tape shot on the Sony pro camera.

Both to be digitised as ProRes files.

The only software I have for video editing at present is a free download of VLC media player just so I can play the ProRes .mov file. That's letting me evaluate the Oxford Company results at present. By mistake I sent a U-Matic master I made from low band video 8 to them for my first test - almost all lowish/golden glint lighting. And all moving stuff. From that and the very basic sofware I can only expect an image up to 1/8th A4 page size at the largest, and not many of those either!

My research says that Adobe Premier Pro could be good at what I want to do.

All help gratefully received.

Many thanks in advance.

Bryan

 

An update. I'm also trying another company to digitise my low band video 8 and Hi-8 tapes to compare results and timescales. So my first three video 8 camera tapes, one low band and two Hi-8, have been digitised and are on their way back, but a decent res version has also been put in the Cloud for 14 days. From which I've taken some full screen images to play with.

An A4 page testing how I plan to use them, with text and captions planned on an adjacent page is attached. It is a very low res jpeg version. And covers one train heading to a servicing stop at Oranje River that I filmed in detail. 1989 South African steam festival with 25 class condensing loco 3511 heading GMA garratt 4122. This is from the low band video 8 camera tape filmed on a video 8 consumer camera with an average lens and dodgy focussing (camera and the dinosaur operating it). The two hi-8 video tapes shot on a Sony 3 CCD pro Hi-8 camera with a good lens look a lot sharper

Anything moving at more than very slow speed is no good as it gets blurred of course and I assume that will be the same for my Hi-8 tapes. Video film shot in 1989 was mostly designed to be watched as video and not as still frames - as far as I know.

The camera raw page of Photoshop Elements automatically changed the res for the digitised still images from 72 dpi to 300 dpi whilst keeping the image size the same.

But, up to now I am very pleased with the digitisations; from low band video 8 I had hoped for a maximum image size of 1/8th A4 page at very best. But some of those images will go to 1/4 page or even 1/3rd A4 page. My Hi-8 camera tapes shot on the Sony pro camera with a quality lens may do even better than that.

Bryan

Photo needs to be viewed at full A4 size please.

 

I've just had time tonight to look at the Hi-8 film. It's one I shot in the 1991 steam festival during a 4 week trip to SA when I only filmed and took no still shots. But I had a 3 CCD Sony Pro camera.

The two below are pre-dawn and are as good as 35 mm pre-dawn still shots I took on Kodachrome. Indeed in the closer shot the loco front is sharper. I know that similarity will not be repeated in daylight shots, but at least I've now got some 1991 trip still images!

It's 3511 the 4-8-4 condenser working away from Beaconsfield yard, pre-dawn on a frosty morning. In the second shot the steam from two other locos (on easy to spot the other is only just visible) can be seen in the background. Either in the yard or leaving Beaconsfield loco shed to pick up freight trains in the yard.

Both very quick edits and low res shots as usual from me here.

Bryan

 

I continue my work on getting my South African video 8 and video Hi-8 tapes digitised so I can extract still images to fill some rather large gaps in my four trips between 1989 and 1991, when video had taken over from slides.

And as maybe one day someone else here will be following the same action I will update my progress from time to time.

I'm still on a learning curve but so far the only new software I've needed to add to my existing Photoshop Elements 2025 has been VLC so I can play .mov files and take full screen snapshots of the frames I want.

I've also partially sorted the issue of faster moving trains - 1/50th second effective shutter speed is behind that. If I choose to pause/take a moving screen shot when I was zooming back at the speed of the train as it approached me, I get much better locos shots. But as with panning when moving a camera at the same speed as a train passes I get the same blurred background. Not always as much, and I can reduce that a bit by taking the still image a bit earlier.

My two 1989 trips saw me using a low band video 8 consumer camera - so I find at very best I can rarely move above 8 or 6 images on an A4 page.

For 1991 I was using Hi-8 in a decent 3 CCD Sony Pro camera - so I can go to half A4 page shots from time to time.

For 1990 I thought I had a Sony pro camera with Hi-8 - but if so, it wasn't a full size one, so I possibly had one of the first consumer Hi-8 consumer cameras. An obvious improvement over low band - but not fully up to my 1991 camera tapes.

I won't ever get full 35 mm Kodachome 25 slide results from any of the above - but even without yet finding truly effective sharpening and upscaling software (if that exists, as I have my doubts) I am increasingly pleased with my results.

Below is a result of a dull weather/quite early morning shot of a 24 class leaving George on a freight train to Knysna. Taken in 1990 this was filmed with what I now think was a consumer Hi-8 camera.

Not photographic quality, but very useable IMHO.

Bryan