How to snap pictures while recording?

[Bodkin's Best Photography]

are you a railfan too?

Can't have one without the other. Well, you can but they kinda just sit there.

 

[Meta4]

It really sucks DJI doesn't implement this very important feature.

You don't want to pay for the camera that can shoot stills while recording video.
It's a very rare camera that can do it.

 

[GadgetGuy]

are you a railfan too?

Here's a railfan video, shot by a friend, with over a million views. Have Look! Pretty cool!

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[Kilrah]

I know right? Phones have been able to do that for years.

Again phones that allow this just grab a frame of the video which you can easily do yourself after the fact. They do NOT take a full quality still, stopping video recording, switching to photo mode and back is the only way to get a full quality still on them too.

 

[SkyeHigh]

I know right? Phones have been able to do that for years. To those that say stop the recording and take a picture and start recording again, When I'm shooting a fast moving train i want to record the engines passing by and take a picture. if i stop the recording then the video is ruined because the engines won't be in the video. I mostly use my drone for train pictures and videos. It really sucks DJI doesn't implement this very important feature.

It’s not that simple. There is only so much the onboard processing can do: receive and act on commands from the controller, feed video and telemetry back to the controller, monitor all object avoidance sensors, battery voltages, process received GPS data, read altitude, read IMU data and process current position and orientation solution, feed motor speed corrections to motors… and record video in real-time and stream to onboard or microSD card. And you want to put a hold on video recording, close the file, switch to still camera mode, wait for the camera to focus and set aperture/shutter speed (based on user settings, which it has to read from memory) or in Auto mode. Take the photo, send a low res copy to the receiver, switch back to video mode and start recording again.

Microcontrollers and FPGA’s are fast but there’s only so much they can do without creating excessive heat in a very small enclosure and still stay within reach of consumers pockets.

 

[railfan-eric]

Again phones that allow this just grab a frame of the video which you can easily do yourself after the fact. They do NOT take a full quality still, stopping video recording, switching to photo mode and back is the only way to get a full quality still on them too.

That is not true. The modern Samsung phones takes full res photos while recording video. I've been doing that for over 5 years. I don't what phones you use. But i used the Samsung Galaxy S7, S9+, and now the S21. I've been able to take full res photos while recording video on all of those phones. And the LG G6 I have.

 

[SkyeHigh]

That is not true. The modern Samsung phones takes full res photos while recording video. I've been doing that for over 5 years. I don't what phones you use. But i used the Samsung Galaxy S7, S9+, and now the S21. I've been able to take full res photos while recording video on all of those phones. And the LG G6 I have.

That may be the case for Android but the subject of the thread is about the DJI camera.

 

[GadgetGuy]

That is not true. The modern Samsung phones takes full res photos while recording video. I've been doing that for over 5 years. I don't what phones you use. But i used the Samsung Galaxy S7, S9+, and now the S21. I've been able to take full res photos while recording video on all of those phones. And the LG G6 I have.

I sincerely doubt those are 12MB or 20MB full resolution DNG stills, like the stills all DJI cameras take! What is the size of those "full resolution" photos you are referring to?

 

[railfan-eric]

I sincerely doubt those are 12MB or 20MB full resolution stills, like the stills all DJI cameras take! What is the size of those "full resolution" photos you are referring to?

lets see the pics i shot while recording video with my Galaxy S21 is 4032x2268 (9.1MP) . Do you guys not use Android phones or something? You guys act like you don't believe me. I know what I'm talking about. I'm not imagining things. I'm a tech person and keep up with phone tech.

 

[railfan-eric]

That may be the case for Android but the subject of the thread is about the DJI camera.

With all due respect, the OP was mentioning phones can take pictures while recording and was asking why we can't do it with drones at that cost just as much. So yes this is part of the subject of this thread. I don't know why every time i post in this forum people have to criticize me so much.

 

[GadgetGuy]

With all due respect, the OP was mentioning phones can take pictures while recording and was asking why we can't do it with drones at that cost just as much. So yes this is part of the subject of this thread. I don't know why every time i post in this forum people have to criticize me so much.

Because the better DJI camera drones are taking 20MB DNG stills, not compressed 9MP jpg's. Big difference. As stated by @Meta4 above, if you want that capability in a drone camera, you'll be complaining about the price. Smaller cell phone sensors also do a lot of computational photography.

 

[scro]

Galaxy S10 can take 9mp stills while recording video. These are not simply upsampled frame grabs from the video as there is marginally more detail in the still photo than a good frame extracted from the video. This is true even when the video mode is set to UHD (ie 8mp equivalent).

With electronic stabilisation enabled the field of view of the video is slightly different when compared to the still photo taken during that video.

edit: The main rear camera is 12mp, but only when capturing in 4:3 format. If used in 16:9 format its full resolution output for stills is 9mp whether in photo mode or capturing a still during video recording. 4:3 aspect output is not an option for capturing stills during video, nor for the video itself.

 

[SkyeHigh]

With all due respect, the OP was mentioning phones can take pictures while recording and was asking why we can't do it with drones at that cost just as much. So yes this is part of the subject of this thread. I don't know why every time i post in this forum people have to criticize me so much.

Hey, no criticism at all. That was never intended.

 

[spudster]

That is not true. The modern Samsung phones takes full res photos while recording video. I've been doing that for over 5 years. I don't what phones you use. But i used the Samsung Galaxy S7, S9+, and now the S21. I've been able to take full res photos while recording video on all of those phones. And the LG G6 I have.

Modern phones have multiple cameras so they can do that. The Mini 2 has a single lens camera.

 

[scro]

Modern phones have multiple cameras so they can do that. The Mini 2 has a single lens camera.

Do you have any evidence to back up that? Or, is it just a guess?

The Galaxy S7 has just 1 camera on the back so it can only use that camera for simultaneously recording video and full resolution stills .Using its only other camera (front facing) would result in a completely different view. On the Galaxy S10 it uses the same camera for stills as it is using for video. I know it does this because I tried covering over all the other rear facing cameras, so if the phone tried to use them it would have resulted in a black picture. The S10's 3 rear facing cameras have different focal length lenses so when taking video with the widest lens the only option to take a still with the same field of view is to use that same sensor/lens.

 

[railfan-eric]

Because the better DJI camera drones are taking 20MB DNG stills, not compressed 9MP jpg's. Big difference. As stated by @Meta4 above, if you want that capability in a drone camera, you'll be complaining about the price. Smaller cell phone sensors also do a lot of computational photography.

Oh really? I have my drone set to take JPG's not DNG's. It gives you the option of one or the other or both.

 

[railfan-eric]

Do you have any evidence to back up that? Or, is it just a guess?

The Galaxy S7 has just 1 camera on the back so it can only use that camera for simultaneously recording video and full resolution stills .Using its only other camera (front facing) would result in a completely different view. On the Galaxy S10 it uses the same camera for stills as it is using for video. I know it does this because I tried covering over all the other rear facing cameras, so if the phone tried to use them it would have resulted in a black picture. The S10's 3 rear facing cameras have different focal length lenses so when taking video with the widest lens the only option to take a still with the same field of view is to use that same sensor/lens.

Thanks for backing me up on this. You are correct.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Oh really? I have my drone set to take JPG's not DNG's. It gives you the option of one or the other or both.

Correct, but because DJI gives you the options of JPG + DNG, in addition to JPG or DNG, their DNG stills take longer to process and save to the cards than a JPG only on a phone camera. DNG significantly slows down the photo rate, as it has to save all the data to the card, instead of throwing away 80% of it in a compressed JPG. So, were such a feature available on a DJI camera, it would likely be limited to only when shooting JPG only, and most still shooters want the full DNG, so the demand for it is not worth the compromises. Everything in photography is a series of compromises. You need to choose what is most important to you, as do the programmers, based upon anticipated demand.

 

[railfan-eric]

Correct, but because DJI gives you the options of JPG + DNG, in addition to JPG or DNG, their DNG stills take longer to process and save to the cards than a JPG only on a phone camera. DNG significantly slows down the photo rate, as it has to save all the data to the card, instead of throwing away 80% of it in a compressed JPG. So, were such a feature available on a DJI camera, it would likely be limited to only when shooting JPG only, and most still shooters want the full DNG, so the demand for it is not worth the compromises. Everything in photography is a series of compromises. You need to choose what is most important to you, as do the programmers, based upon anticipated demand.

I never shoot in DNG or RAW since the file size is bigger. My photos take enough space as it is the way i take photos all the time. I've never tried doing DNG or RAW. I know i can do RAW on my phone too. Can't remember if the stock camera can but I think i can with Hedgecam or other 3rd party cams.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I never shoot in DNG or RAW since the file size is bigger. My photos take enough space as it is the way i take photos all the time. I've never tried doing DNG or RAW. I know i can do RAW on my phone too. Can't remember if the stock camera can but I think i can with Hedgecam or other 3rd party cams.

You've hit the nail on the head! The larger file size of DNG precludes the simultaneous stiil and video shooting on DJI drones, as it likely does on your phone. Let me know if you find out otherwise, ie., can you do both video and stills while shooting RAW on your phone?