Don Lindich’s Sound Advice Blog

Published October 26, 2002

 Q.:  A friend just died.   His mom commented that she has no recent pictures of him.   I have VHS-C video of him driving our boat and would like to “grab a frame” of the video and print it as a 5X7 for her.   I purchased a Pinnacle Linx cable with software but the pic is 1″ and 96 pixels.   No matter how I play with it, it is not of any worthwhile quality.   Is there a better way to do this?
-Thanks, Dawn Read

A:   My condolences on the loss of your friend.

A 96 pixel image is very, very small.   Your Pinnacle Linx is a USB video converter, which will not import the video at full size.   The actual size of your video image is probably 720 pixels by 480 pixels, at 72 dpi.   (Dots per inch- a pixel is a dot.)   This will yield a 5×7 that should be OK as a keepsake, but will be a bit below true photographic quality.   Depending on your computer, you would be looking at a several hundred-dollar investment to get the equipment and software necessary to convert your analog VHS-C video to digital video and then extract the still images from it.   Besides the financial investment, it would take time and effort to learn the software and tweak the image and print settings to get a good print, etc.   I would recommend you not purchase the equipment, and instead consider an alternate route.  

What I recommend is to find a professional videographer who will extract the images for you.   If you advance the tape to the appropriate spot, it will be very easy for the videographer to turn a few seconds of your analog footage into digital video and create a few still frames, which can easily be burned to a CD-R as .jpg files.   Given the small amount of work involved, and the circumstances you are in, you should be able to find someone willing to grab a few frames for you at a moderate fee.

Once you have the images on CD-R, find a photo processor that uses a Fuji Frontier printer.   This printer makes great prints from digital files.   You can find a Fuji Frontier at some Ritz Camera, Wal-Mart, and Sam’s Club locations.   If you call them, they will be able to tell you if it is the system they are using.   They will be able to print your 5x7s very inexpensively.   Because of the low quality of a VHS-C frame grab, I would not recommend printing over 5×7 inches.   In fact, 4×6 would be a better choice.

Product of the Month:   The Product of the Month is the aforementioned Fuji Frontier printer!   It’s not a printer you would actually buy for yourself, though… it’s a minilab-type processor you can find at Ritz Camera, Costco, Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart, and other locations.   It makes great prints from small 35mm cameras, and many digital photographers find it a better option than printing at home on an inkjet.   The Frontier takes your digital images and produces photographs on actual photographic paper, which will not fade or run when wet, and are indistinguishable from prints taken on film.   Simply bring in your camera’s memory card, or burn selected images to a CD-R as .jpg or.tiff files and bring them in for printing.   Advanced users can even crop, modify, and color-correct with programs such as Adobe Photoshop before burning to create a custom image.   Prices range from .29 per print at Sam’s Club to .49 at Ritz- a bargain in either case.   Larger print sizes are available as well.