Why do professional camera-people take single or rapid burst shots of the event they’re photographing, instead of using a high quality video camera and selecting the best frame later in edit?
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The resolution of a still photo that would be blown up for use on say a Wheaties box, the cover of SI or on a billboard is SUPER high. Each single frame or image at these resolutions takes up a bunch of megabytes of storage space. For storing a few hundred of these images yeah we have GB flash cards etc. no problem. But for video at that resolution, that would be gigabytes per minute. So video gets compressed. Problem is though, while possible to recreate one particular still frame from a compressed video, its a pain in the butt; and still won’t look as good as the still image.
For example your typical “pro” camera, the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV – say $3k just for the _body_, no lenses etc. – is a 30 megapixel camera. Each still shot is 30 million pixels. “oh 30MP is just 30MB right? Nope. Each pixel takes more bits to store color and brightness info. If I recall, RAW format is 14 bits per pixel? So 30 MP at 14 bits RAW is 52.5 megabytes. Per image.
Meanwhile, “4k” video resolution = 3840 x 2160 pixel = 8,294,400 pixels = 8 megapixels = 14.5 MB per frame (if it were stored at the same 14-bit RAW format).
For instant replay purposes on your 4k TV screen, this is great. But even an 8megapixel raw video frame might not be sufficient if you want to show the concerned look of panic on the quarterback’s face on a magazine cover.
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