Magic Lantern unlocks Canon 5D to shoot 14 bit raw via liveview

[Chris Barcellos]

I've now used the Batchelor 2 Beta1 build for batch conversion of the Magic Lantern Raw Files to DNG files. No need for transferring files to your hard drive. It takes the file on the CF Card and spits out individual directories at a designated location. Very nice job.

[Chris Barcellos]

Originally Posted by Ted Ramasola

Jun 16 Nightly build has much improved framing in the crop modes.

Ted: Never used this mode. Is there documentation somewhere on use and methods ?


Okay, I found this, and now understand: Back end of this video explains it.

5D mark III Magic Lantern Raw with 3x Crop mode! - YouTube

[Ted Ramasola]

Chris,

Right now the only use i see out of crop mode is lock down shots. Either small macro subjects or faraway ones that doesn't require following a subject as currently, developers are trying to follow the raw buffer from the canon focus box, doing so gives you near accurate framing at the expense of resolution and color.

Simply put, using crop mode there are a couple of ways to achieve preview and framing,

ML grayscale = near accurate framing but low rez (pixelated) and grayscale
Canon= high rez but inaccurate framing that currently pinkish and magenta in color. (this is due to reports that having this in color results in artifacts in some cameras)

However, this is jun 16 build, I'm reading the change logs for jun 18 that this is being improved.
Jun 18 is not yet uploaded, just the change logs.

The good thing about this mode is its 1:1 pixel so its sharp. On the 5dmkII this mode gives optimum results without a VAF filter.

[Ted Ramasola]

Here's a simple way to engage crop mode on the mkII.

ML menu raw video=ON
ML menu FPS over ride= ON 23.976 ( this gives more recorded frames than OFF)
Press magnify button once=5X
ML raw video menu choose resolution you want.
ML raw video menu Preview= Auto or ML Grayscale
Press SET to start recording

Resolutions I tested on the mkII and #frames; based on jun 16 build
2152 x 1078 = 165 frames
2048 x 1078 = 190 frames
1920 x 1078 = 285 frames
1920 x 960 = 720 frames
1880 x 854 = continuous
1728 x 972 = continuous

[Jon Fairhurst]

Ted, I wonder if the rolling shutter is lower in crop mode than in full mode?

On one hand, the camera still needs to read about 1.5MP from sensor. On the other hand, it's reading a smaller area, which might speed things up.

There are two ways to test it: One is to pan the camera with vertical lines in the scene. The other is to use a manual flash unit. To use the flash approach, you need to find a frame that includes a full line from the flash and an additional pair of frames that captures the flash line at the end of one frame and the start of the next. Given those three frames captures and the frame rate, one can calculate the read-reset (rolling shutter) time.

I've ordered a Komputerbay 64GB 1000x card and plan to shoot tests starting next week.

[Chris Barcellos]

Originally Posted by Ted Ramasola

The good thing about this mode is its 1:1 pixel so its sharp. On the 5dmkII this mode gives optimum results without a VAF filter.

So do you recommend actually removing in the VAF filter in this case? I will give it a try once I get the hang of it.

Sounds like in crop mode that I am going to end up with about the same I have with my Black Magic Cinema Camera.....

[Ted Ramasola]

with the vaf filter with crop mode, the image will be usable(depending on the subject) but its not the best image you can get from the 5d2 raw video in crop.

I won't recommend you keep on removing it during your tests but when your using the 5d for something important and using crop mode, I recommend you remove it if the situation permits.

Attaching res chart of crop mode.

[Jon Fairhurst]

For best results, definitely remove the VAF for crop mode.

[Chris Barcellos]

Thanks guys.

[Ted Ramasola]

There are some bugs in crop mode with the jun 18 NB for 5d2, so if you plan on doing some shooting in 5x crop mode use the jun 16 for the mean time.

Crop mode in jun 18 shows some pink cast in the image. The normal 1x modes seem ok.

[Chris Barcellos]

I am getting see loss of exposure control with the June 16 version. The live screen show a pink cast and it seems like exposure that was set before entering mode goes away. Not sure the dynamic range is still there. I do have camera set at Cinestyle mode, so that could be an issue.

[Ted Ramasola]

June 19 NB still got problematic crop modes. 1x are ok.

[Jon Fairhurst]

Received the Komputerbay 1000x 64GB card yesterday. Got a "functionally" stable 1880x864 today using the June 16th build on the 5D2. The key for us was to turn off sync beep.

At that resolution and 23.976 fps we recorded 16GB before we got bored and stopped. :) ML benchmarks the card as more than fast enough to handle 1080p. In our test, the buffer was growing at a very slow rate, so the firmware won't do that rate forever on our camera. Hopefully, the new buffering strategy will deliver that last bit of performance.

FWIW, the Komputerbay card is available for just over $100.A great price for such a large, fast card!

Next week, I'll receive a Hoodman USB 3.0 reader. I'm hoping to eventually be able to transcode directly from the card to a RAID 1 or RAID 5 hard drive setup near real time. That would make a two or three CF card setup "wrangleable" with little to no downtime.

FWIW, 1880x864 @ 23.796 fps at two bytes per pixel is 78 Mbps (68.2 Mbps if it does bit packing with its 14-bit words.) That's over 13 minutes of shooting per card. That's not unlike shooting 3-perf film with 1,000 ft magazines.

(Sure, you don't have to backup your magazines to hard drives and film has way more resolution than ML RAW, but you don't have to buy ever more film stock or process your bits with chemicals either...)

[Alister Chapman]

You mean 78MB/s not Mb/s.

Trouble is though you still need to get up to around 2.3k/2.4k of bayer pixels to achieve HD resolution and that means around 70% more data than your recording at the moment. 1880x864 of raw bayer data falls well short of HD.

[Jon Fairhurst]

Yes. Big "B".

And you're absolutely right about the effective resolution of a Bayer signal being lower than the physical resolution. That said, I believe that the 5D2 delivers its h.264 signal from less than 1920x1080 photosites anyway. Shooting a similar number of pixels, preserving the full bit depth, avoiding the codec pre-filtering, and avoiding the DCT coding is all to the good. :)

Personally, I'm not a big resolution seeker. Don't get me wrong. I like the ability to shoot more clear detail, but I'm more into bit depth, dynamic range, nice grading, and good grain texture than the really fine stuff. There are a lot of great looking older films and photos our there that aren't particularly sharp. However, if I shot documentaries and nature footage, I'd be all over high resolution!

BTW, taking a close look at low ISO 5D2 RAW crop footage graded to ridiculous extremes, the grain looks amazingly good and filmic. As it falls apart at the limits, it does so gracefully. I think that's due to the high bit depth. Rather than the noise being on or off, blocky, and splotchy, it has a smoothness and grace about it that one doesn't usually associate with digital video. (This was with DNG processing in After Effects.)

Yes, I'd like more resolution, but getting this value out of my five year old camera is amazing. :)