Frame Grabber makes snapping pics of squirmy kids on your HTC EVO a breeze
Anybody that has young children in their lives, whether they be offspring or siblings, knows how hard it can be to snap a good picture of them, especially when you are using your HTC EVO.
I'm not talking about little Johnny turning green when you snap a pic of him with your HTC EVO 3D either. No, I'm just talking about children's nature in general.
Most of them don't like to sit still.
But as people who love the kids in our lives, we need to document their existence somehow. But do we really want to have a scrapbook of blurry photos and just-missed moments because our HTC EVOs can only take one picture every seven seconds?
Well, we would have . . . until Frame Grabber came along.
The easiest solution to not missing the exact moment a child smiles or something funny happens is to take a video. But, as G&E reader Darth Obama brought to our attention, there is no way to steal snapshots from a video by default on our HTC EVOs.
That's where Sony Digital Network Applications's Frame Grabber comes in. It's the perfect solution to grabbing still images from recorded video.
The EVO 4G is an officially supported device and any video shot can be scrutinized for snapshots. The EVO 3D, although not officially supported (and not tested by me, due to a lack of 3D in my life), should be able to take advantage of this app as well.
Frame Grabber's interface is a bit tricky to figure out at first. But once mastered, it is very intuitive.
First, you select your video and are brought to a screen that has a bunch of little pictures of the video you are grabbing still images from.
The center button can be dragged in four directions. Moving it up "zooms in" the capability of the app. This allows you to select screenshots at closer and closer intervals (advertised up to .04 seconds, I personally got up to .08 seconds).
You can also hit Menu and Zoom. This will let you go frame-by-frame until you find the least fuzzy picture to save in the FrameGrabber folder on the root of your SD card.
Although the quality of the photos snagged from recorded video is not the best, they're good enough for a Facebook upload or a quick 4×6 that goes on the fridge. Compare the snapshot from Frame Grabber (above) with a scaled down 8MP picture from the EVO 4G's camera (below).
Frame Grabber will set you back around $2.99. There are free alternatives like Freeze Frame, but those can be more of a guessing game. They do not allow you to go frame-by-frame and rely on your ability to hit the pause button at the right time.
If you have some children at home that can't sit still for a picture or are always doing things at the spur of the moment, then take a video of them. Then when you want a still picture from that video, use Frame Grabber.
Links: Market (EVO) | Market (web)
Not a bad workaround, but you still need to be recording a video. I was recording a video of my nephew playing with a slip and slide in the backyard and as soon as the fun looked like it was over, I stopped recording. A few seconds later, he tries to pull his falling pants up and falls on the ground. It was so hilarious, but I missed it.
They need a true hardware control that allows you to snap a picture or start a video as quick as possible, without even opening the software app, or even delaying the actual display of it. Possibly have it snap a few quick photos at different focuses with predefined settings for MP, white balance, etc.
I agree. There have been so many times my kids have done something great but miss it due to the process it takes to access my camera. The sense 3.0 lockscreen (agile lock on my OG EVO) takes care of an extra step, but it’s not enough.
Saw several comments for this app that go like this:
1-star rating by Dan– April 22, 2011
I read the EULA and felt it’s too open-ended and unconscionable. Why write such an intrusive license for just a video frame grabber tool? Refunded.
With more emphasis on smartphone hacking lately, these kinds of comments make me shy away from apps. Other comments referred to the list of accesses to personal data the app requires. Since Google doesn’t check out apps, it makes me nervous.
can’t wait for them to implement the same feature as WP7 – dedicated camera button (yes, I know – my 3D has the button too, but the WP7 camera button works much much faster.
GO BEAVS!
Hell yeah! Beaver Nation!
Just how fast is the camera button on WP7? Forgot to really take note when I last played with one. Long press on the Evo 3d does take a few seconds, faster if the camera app is already in memory. Bad thing is that it might not work in all apps, as the app might override the camera longpress.