Re: Does anyone else think the camera sucks?
I tried the screen write if you mean trying to capture a screen shot from a video. Worked fine on slo mo but normal video all I got was blur. Same if I paused the video to take a screen shot. Never had a Note 2 so nothing to compare to but I know there is software that allows you to do frame grabs.
If you are using S pen screen write and not getting blurry shots, detail your exact method. I am just pulling the pen and clicking on screen write when I want the still.
You have to understand the underlying principle of how video is captures, and it'll inform you of when you can get proper screenshots from a video.
See, video is just x number of frames per second of photos strung together in a sequence, and each one of these photos still rely on the basic principle of photography exposure. If a scene is dark, then the exposure time will be longer per photo, and the video recording will try to maximize the exposure time per frame, as long as within the x number of frames per second the video requires (which is usually 25, 30, 50, or 60, depending on device and the settings). Now, if you do some basic math, you'll see that the 60 frames per second which is used by the Note 3's normal video mode, allows the slowest shutter speed of 1/60, which is still slow for any kind of moderate action, so it'll definitely be capturing a lot of blurring of motion if the subject is moving around enough.
Blur in photos/video comes in two forms--camera/hand shake, and the movement of the subject. In order to be clear of camera/hand shake, you usually need shutter speed that's roughly equivalent to the focal length of the lens, so with the Note 3's 31mm (35mm equivalent) lens, you'd want to have at least 1/30 s or faster to just get rid of camera/hand shake. And to keep the subject clear of motion blur, it all depends on how fast the subject is moving. A person walking at normal speeds would likely require 1/90 or faster to capture without blur. A running dog would require much faster shutter speeds--likely 1/500 or faster. So depending on what you were shooting in your video, you get a rough idea of how fast the video's shutter speed per frame would need to be in order to capture the single frames without blur.
Now, a phone camera's video is not going to allow in-depth control over the frame rate and shutter speed as you can get from a dedicated high-end camcorder or DSLR camera, so you're at the mercy of whatever Samsung has set for the video recording. Which means, you can assume that the 60 fps of the normal video recording of the Note 3, will at the slowest, be 1/60 per frame, which isn't too bad if you're recording subjects that't moving too fast (such as a person just sitting there talking or eating). But if the subject is moving around fast enough, then you will get some blur when you try to do screencapture of one of the frames. Keep in mind that for the 4K recording, the framerate is half, so it's 1/30, which means the shutter speed per frame can drop down to 1/30, and the ability to capture clear still frames without blur will be at half the normal recording mode.
The takeaway from what I've just explained is simply this: The lighting condition and the speed of the subject's and the camera operator's hand movements is what determines if you can get a clean screencapture. If the video is shot during a bright sunny day out side, and the subjects/camera is fairly still and not running around too much, then your chances of getting a clean screencapture will be much higher.