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CityEater
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Canon Magic Lantern 14bit RAW video hack

Fri May 17, 2013 12:30 am

I thought everyone might have seen this already posted across the internet but the team at Magic Lantern have made a significant breakthrough in getting high quality footage out of the 5d mk3 (and a handful of other Canon models).
14bit RAW data which is then processed into .dng sequences.

http://www.cinema5d.com/?p=17980

Significant caveats but this has the potential to change how I work so I thought the gerbils could chew it over if they hadn't seen this already. A lot of coding work going on right now over in the ML forums so this is still best defined as pre-alpha and hot off the presses,
Lots of issues to still work out but some of the footage posted so far is looking really good, could be quite a tool in the right hands.
 
Airmantharp
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Re: Canon Magic Lantern 14bit RAW video hack

Fri May 17, 2013 3:45 am

I've been watching this closely too; I'm wondering if they'll be able to get it running on my 6D, as close as it is in real hardware to the 5DIII. If they can tackle the moire issue, that'd be a godsend, though I didn't buy this camera for video. Just knowing that I can use it to shoot something with higher quality than pedestrian digicams would be nice.
 
CityEater
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Re: Canon Magic Lantern 14bit RAW video hack

Fri May 17, 2013 5:02 am

Nice range of lenses in your sig.
Even for just stills it enables some form of shutterless operation which could come in handy. I've seen the 6d brought up but it seems to be the 60d (Same? Is that the t4i?, I get confused there's so many model numbers) and the 5d mk3 that are making the quickest strides.
It all comes down to the card reader speeds on each model and what they can sustain. To be honest I'm hoping they find a work around, Ideally I don't want to use a CF card at all and would prefer an external ssd to dump down too (this may be day dreaming though). Sustained write rates are pretty low compared to a quality SSD. Some thought has gone into a wireless drive as well but I would never be able to rely on that.

Some of the Moire/Aliasing issues are mitigated in 1:1 mode but ideally I'm looking for the full frame sensor being used and a little line skipping and then aliasing in post might yield a better result anyway. I'm waiting for there to be an alpha before I have a play around, I'm in no rush but can fool with some of the .raw's and .dng's in the meantime which people have posted.

http://www.eoshd.com/content/10351/new- ... ema-camera

Blackmagic might find themselves with stiffer competition then they'd expected in the race to the lowest price semi capable RAW shooter market. Low light isn't everything but it's certainly handy when you need it particularly with zooms. Although I'd rather see a few more charts shot instead of pastoral scenes.

Still its quite exciting as I've been shooting with the 7D and 5D 2/3 for several years now and its incredible what they've managed to achieve in a week! Would have used this many times in the past had it been available. 6gb a minute is a lot to tackle though. Breathes new life into older gear.
 
Aphasia
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Re: Canon Magic Lantern 14bit RAW video hack

Fri May 17, 2013 5:43 am

Airmantharp - Btw, saw it in the last thread, re your sig, where the heck did you get a 85/1.4 :wink:
Guess it's the 1.8 model, or if it it's the 1.2 model, you are one lucky sod, because the latter is incredible...


As for the magic lantern, very interesting that they still continue with the third party stuff, what I do wonder is why Canon is so inept as not to provide the good features in the first place...
 
Airmantharp
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Re: Canon Magic Lantern 14bit RAW video hack

Fri May 17, 2013 9:29 am

Aphasia wrote:
Airmantharp - Btw, saw it in the last thread, re your sig, where the heck did you get a 85/1.4 :wink:
Guess it's the 1.8 model, or if it it's the 1.2 model, you are one lucky sod, because the latter is incredible...


You're right; I'm not shooting Sigma glass yet, though I am drooling over their new 35/1.4. That said, even a 85/1.2L wouldn't convince me to put down the 85/1.8. Two lenses for two different purposes :).
 
Airmantharp
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Re: Canon Magic Lantern 14bit RAW video hack

Fri May 17, 2013 9:34 am

CityEater wrote:
I've seen the 6d brought up but it seems to be the 60d (Same? Is that the t4i?, I get confused there's so many model numbers) and the 5d mk3 that are making the quickest strides.


I have a 60D with the full ML kit-out, and it's great for stills; I know they'll get at least that much for the 6D. But the 6D is basically a slightly down-specced 5DIII into a '60D-ish' body. It's a pro build though, tough as a nail. Main takeaway is that it has the same DIGIC 5+ CPU as the 5DIII running a full-frame sensor, with the addition of WiFi and GPS, which are both well implemented and useful. I'm loving the hell out of it for over $1000 less than the 5DIII kits were going for, and I'm hoping that they'll get the video working in the same vein as they have on the 5DIII. Though I know I'll have to buy some faster cards :).
 
CityEater
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Re: Canon Magic Lantern 14bit RAW video hack

Fri May 17, 2013 10:57 am

Come to think of it I think I've had a look at that model. I liked it, has it made the 7d defunct? I don't see as many of them around anymore. As long as it has that same CF port I'm sure it will get support if it doesn't already. Bypassing CF altogether and going to some sort of CF extended external recorder seems to show some progress. At 6gb a minute, roughly enough, something like a 256gb SSD would be a pretty adequate mag and plenty of write speed to saturate the UDMA 7 spec. It seems some of the 64gb UDMA 7 CFs are faster than their 128gb counterparts but results are mixed.
Its great how quickly they get cheap, I'm happy to wait.
Is it the same sensor as the 5d?

Aphasia wrote:
As for the magic lantern, very interesting that they still continue with the third party stuff, what I do wonder is why Canon is so inept as not to provide the good features in the first place...


This product segment just didn't exist 5 years ago, Raw or not. Video capabilities were an after thought intended for paparazzi to be able to glean some video while spying on celebrities the world over. It took 8 months to support something other than 30p, Canon was taken aback by the way film makers and videographers quickly adopted it and part of their reluctance now is they have products already competing in those parts of the market that need big sensor shooting. This is exactly the type of thing that would make it tougher for them to compete at $8k when at $2.5K they're offering a camera that offers expanded PQ. Even still Canons adoption of the whole HDSLR thing has led to better support from them compared to Nikon or Panasonic.

With or without these hacks the DSLRs will never be as good a operating video camera as a C300 (for instance) but it may ultimately produce higher quality images. Or at least offer PQ which is competitive enough that it becomes a compelling option against something 2/3 more in price. Were this to work it could also shake the rental market up a bit (which is good for me). They're still awful to use for video ergonomically but have become somewhat practical with support over time.

Canon don't have a traditional video dept as most of their video cameras use a modified Sony back end.
 
CityEater
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Re: Canon Magic Lantern 14bit RAW video hack

Fri May 17, 2013 11:04 am

For anyone unsure what we're talking about

http://vimeo.com/66228674

This may go some way in explaining the traditional limitations of the footage as compared to whats potentially on offer.

All the best

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