I rediscovered Vixia's ability to shoot photos and googled the res and they are indeed 2MP images. I will use Mr. Powershot most of the time but on occasion why not use Vixia? So the question I have is anyone else around here using a video camera to shoot photos and what are the tradeoffs? BHPhotovideo.com says that their video cameras do indeed sell well even those in my budge of under $500. Best Buy may be discontinuing them but not everyone is.
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Advice on shooting photos with a video camera
- Thread starter jwolf6589
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The obvious tradeoff is the photo resolution.
For your Vixia, that's 1920 x 1080, if I read the manual correctly. These days, I doubt even the cheapest phones have resolution that low. If that doesn't concern you, then have fun with it, and see what you can do.
As another comparison, my Powershot A95 has a 5MP sensor, with 2592 x 1944 resolution. I still use it because I have a waterproof housing for it, so it can go to the beach, or go sailing, or even kayaking or snorkeling, and I don't worry about it at all.
For your Vixia, that's 1920 x 1080, if I read the manual correctly. These days, I doubt even the cheapest phones have resolution that low. If that doesn't concern you, then have fun with it, and see what you can do.
As another comparison, my Powershot A95 has a 5MP sensor, with 2592 x 1944 resolution. I still use it because I have a waterproof housing for it, so it can go to the beach, or go sailing, or even kayaking or snorkeling, and I don't worry about it at all.
I may just shoot on occasion with it. Sometimes it’s a pain to take Powershot out of my bag to take a photo of a sight when I am using the Vixia. It probably wont concern me since most of my shots are of nature sights and not of people. If I were taking shots of people then I would use Powershot but I will play. Going to Rocky Mtn this weekend to take shots.
Just know the capability is there but to be clear, you have an iphone 13 and even the powershot, which will pummel the Vixia in stills image quality at moderate distances - the Vixia has a longer zoom range of course but the quality of the sensor will not yield quality shots.
Yeah I mostly will use Powershot but sometimes it’s more convenient to use one camera so will use Vixia for stills sometimes.
If you enjoy the quality of images you get with 2MB, then just do that and enjoy your images. There isn't much else we can add if we don't know the gear you are using.
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Yes, I am just saying that in the photo forum, most of us aren't as familiar with video cameras. I can guess settings of a different brand of stills camera, but having zero experience with video cameras, as most in this specific forum, you aren't going to get the help that you would like.
However, since it is in this forum, I do hope that kenoh's answer above helped you. Most of us just don't have the necessary background for being able to discuss video and stills together.
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I plan to do more testing but will still use Powershot most of the time. Sometimes it’s just a pain to use 2 cameras for everything.
The video shot with the Powershot will be significantly better than the photos shot with the Vixia. So if you want to only use one camera, that's probably the better way to do it.
In fact, even using your iPhone 13 and zooming way in will still probably beat the Vixia for image quality. But you've got all three, so may as well go outside and try them out to compare!
In fact, even using your iPhone 13 and zooming way in will still probably beat the Vixia for image quality. But you've got all three, so may as well go outside and try them out to compare!
Another advantage to Powershot over the iPhone and Vixia is that it displays better in bright sunlight and is more readable. I just remembered that.
It became a popular feature in the earlier days of digital, when there was not as large a disparity between the standard video resolutions and the standard max photo resolutions (i.e., 1-2MP or less), so it would be less jarring to use one device for both. I imagine it simply felt like a poor marketing move to "remove" a feature, so they left in the ability to take still photos but never bothered to improve the quality with the times.
I did my testing this past weekend. Photos on Vixia are poor quality. I will use Powershot for still’s and Vixia for video since it has more features for video than Powershot.