7D 2048 x 930 resolution chart. How good it really is

[Ted Ramasola]

The Canon 7D with Magic Lantern raw video+sound is now maturing as a reliable raw camera, this is how good its 2048 x 930 crop mode video looks like. At 23.976fps with no VAF filter.
At this resolution, the 7D can record continuously at 23.976 to fill up a 1000x CF card.
Sound is sync with no drift. Just nudge it back 1-2 frames on the timeline.

[Ted Ramasola]

Shot this with an 11-16mm Tokina this morning, since it was a snowy "light dusting" weather, decided to rush out grab some shots.

All in crop mode. 2048 x 930 and edited on a 1920 x 1080 timeline. Downscaled it 93.8 %.

The ambient sound is actual recorded sound via internal mic.

Light Dustin Dallas - YouTube

[Jon Fairhurst]

Hi Ted,

Is there a similar resolution chart shot with the 5D2 or 5D3?

The main thing I notice with crop mode on the 5D2 compared to full frame is the noise. I have the EOS-M and it's crop sensor (for photos) is considerably noisier than similar photos from the 5D2. I'm curious to know more about the noise comparison from the 7D to the full frame cams when shooting RAW video.

[Ted Ramasola]

Hi Jon,

I'm currently running some tests on the nightlies for the 5d and 7d, I'll include that and give you the resulting frame.

I assume you don't want me to use the VAF on it right?

[Jon Fairhurst]

Right. For crop mode, no VAF, though a full frame test with VAF could be interesting as well.

We definitely see higher noise with the crop modes in our tests. We also see higher noise with Cineform RAW than with more of a native approach. Cineform RAW sure makes the workflow easier though!

Thanks!

[Ted Ramasola]

do you have a preferred ISO you want me to use to campare subjectively with your tests?

[Jon Fairhurst]

I was thinking you would match the ISO of the 7D test chart. It will be very interesting to compare the two cams.

[Justin Molush]

Originally Posted by Jon Fairhurst

Hi Ted,

Is there a similar resolution chart shot with the 5D2 or 5D3?

The main thing I notice with crop mode on the 5D2 compared to full frame is the noise. I have the EOS-M and it's crop sensor (for photos) is considerably noisier than similar photos from the 5D2. I'm curious to know more about the noise comparison from the 7D to the full frame cams when shooting RAW video.

7D for sure is a noisy camera in general compared to the true FF cameras. Then again, there are zooms faster than 2.8 out now which solve that issue ;)

I am looking to use this on my cam, however I do a lot of jib work and doing 1.5-2x bitrate hacks (not even raw), I get duplicated frames from maxing out the processor with an HDMI monitor. I wish there was a way to downsample on record to allow for raw rec with an HDMI monitor without duplicate frames in the files. 1000x cards should be here soon... Ill do a test regardless.

[Ted Ramasola]

I realized how almost all clips from the sample I posted above were soft. This was due to the difficulty I had in getting proper focus using the crop mode. The LV is low resolution/pixelized and not in realtime.
I discovered later that cycling through the info button brings up a clean 5X magnify which I can now use to quickly check for focus.
Unlike the 5D2 that you can use the 10x magnify to confirm focus, in the 7D, pressing 10x magnify freezes the lv so I disabled 10x in zoom tweaks ML menu.

When another snow storm hit us in Dallas last week, I quickly went out and retook similar looking scenes and uploaded the clip, this time in 2K in YoutTube. I took down the previous video I posted.

SLEET - YouTube

[Daniel Epstein]

So how big are the file sizes coming out of the camera? If you use the regular recording you get about 12 minutes for 4gigs if I am remembering correctly.

[Ted Ramasola]

approx 26'29" in a 128gig CF.

[Daniel Epstein]

Thanks Ted.