BIG NEWS - Hands on with CONTINUOUS raw recording on Canon 5D Mark III

[Chrad]

In order for this to be successful this feature has to trickle down to the Rebel cameras as well. If the Magic Lantern team can get this on the 550D, 600D, 7D, and 5D Mk II...game over.

A super 35mm raw camera for under $600? Where do I sign up?

Could be great once they get their new APS-C sensor out there.

 

Panny need to sacrifice their pro division (as if it was making them money, heh) and put this stuff in as an official feature in GH5 (or GH3 via new firmware) or else it's over for M43 for filmmaking.

[_kevink]

This is truly a remarkable feat. However, I am worried about CF card prices at the moment. Say I went conservative with the 1920x720 option, 2MB per frame. 24fps x 2MB per frame brings us to 48MB per second of footage or approximately 2.8GB per minute. A 64GB 1000x CF card runs about $300 on Amazon. That's $300 for about 23 minutes of footage. The BMCC gives you about 30 minutes per 256GB SSD, which will run you $200, with a little more DR and 2.5k res. I think if you do not own either camera, the BMCC is still a better buy, but they are so so close now.

 

However, those of you lucky ones that already own a 5D MKiii, congratulations on Magic Lanterns best discovery yet and turning your camera into a BEAST. 

[QuickHitRecord]

I'll be watching with great interest as we learn more about the stability of this hack. Really interesting stuff.

[Arash D]

Andrew,

 

Did you compile the files yourself or they sent you the .fir file?

[Zach]

I would love to be a fly on the wall at the Canon headquarters when they find out about this

[nahua]

Is there a way to get the BIN file?  I'd gladly test but I don't know twat about compiling.  I can test the 5dmkIII vs GH2 and GH3.  I might be able to get the BMCC too for a test.  Can't wait to see more!!!

[squig]

Andrew did you shoot with that cheapie 1000x card? 

 

A couple of burst mode samples

http://vimeo.com/66032893

http://vimeo.com/66004038

[nahua]

Wait till you see how the original DNGs grade. Here's some! Put them in Photoshop and dial the magenta / green slider back to normal.

 

http://www.eoshd.com/uploads/5D3-raw-eoshd.zip

 

And here is one from my 3.5K clip which had a few dropped frames...

 

http://www.eoshd.com/uploads/5D3-raw-3-5k.zip

I just tried it out.  Wow there's a lot of detail.  I really like the frame with your dog.  Just being able to pull up the exposure, saturation, and really important you can change the white balance too.  Damn I'm loving this.  Amazing job by the ML Team!

[squig]

Is there a way to get the BIN file?  I'd gladly test but I don't know twat about compiling.  I can test the 5dmkIII vs GH2 and GH3.  I might be able to get the BMCC too for a test.  Can't wait to see more!!!

Don't bother testing it against the Pannys, it blows them away. It should have the edge on the BMCC too given it has no aliasing and less noise. Rolling shutter and dynamic range will be close.

[MattH]

I'm a bit confused about the resolution thing.

 

I presume the "full frame modes" use the full height or width of the sensor (or both depending on the aspect ratio),

 

That would mean that the camera is down scaling from the full resolution of the sensor to the output resolution.

 

But that would mean the data is not raw in the sense that it has to be debayered.  Does this mean you can only have video output in the full frame modes, or is it kind of like 14 bit bitmap frames with a blue, red and green component for every pixel?

 

In relation to this, your list of resolutions also confuses me:

 

1280 x 1280 (16:9)

 

how can that be 16 by 9?  Is that a mistake?

[Rockect Sky Sword]

Shut up!!! TAKE MY MONEY!

My mark III is hungry.

[Andrew Benton]

A super 35mm raw camera for under $600? Where do I sign up?

Could be great once they get their new APS-C sensor out there.

 

Panny need to sacrifice their pro division (as if it was making them money, heh) and put this stuff in as an official feature in GH5 (or GH3 via new firmware) or else it's over for M43 for filmmaking.

And I just got a GH3... love how I'm mixing still shooting between this and the 5D MKII and it's hard to tell the difference between the two, while video wise the GH3 is outstanding... but look now the 5Ds are going raw and things are changing up fast.
But, unless raw video becomes available to the lower tier DSLRs I don't see M43 filmmaking going away just yet. Aside from cost especially for multi-cam there's weight, which can be a big deal when doing rig and steadicam work, or travel, and then there's that flip screen, which is nice to have but yeah not a game changer compared to raw. But then 5Ds will need to be able to shoot faster, at least 60FPS for slow mo, the MKIII has 720P 60 so if that can be shot in RAW, and possibly at higher res then yes it's over for M43.

[Andrew Reid]

I'm a bit confused about the resolution thing.

 

I presume the "full frame modes" use the full height or width of the sensor (or both depending on the aspect ratio),

 

That would mean that the camera is down scaling from the full resolution of the sensor to the output resolution.

 

But that would mean the data is not raw in the sense that it has to be debayered.  Does this mean you can only have video output in the full frame modes, or is it kind of like 14 bit bitmap frames with a blue, red and green component for every pixel?

 

In relation to this, your list of resolutions also confuses me:

 

1280 x 1280 (16:9)

 

how can that be 16 by 9?  Is that a mistake?

 

That's a typo, fixed. Should be 1920x1280.

 

To be honest, I have no idea how the sensor scaling / debayering works in detail so probably best not to answer!!

[tungah]

It's funny seeing people talking about Canon freaking out about this. For me it's obvious they saw it coming. The folks at Magic Lantern have been hacking the Canon cameras for years now. And then, out of the blue, they find a "hidden" feature in the camera left there by "accident" because Canon would never imagine anyone would find it?
This is the only way Canon would evolve the specs on their cameras. Us, the low budget enthusiasts will buy tons of cameras, the pros wont compromise on reliability and will continue buying the expensive toys. Everybody will continue buying Canon glass. Anyone daring trying to undercut them will suffer, just like Black Magic. It's a win win win for Canon.
Kuddos to the ML guys for making this happen. You guys are so awesome that Canon was counting on you to do this. I'll be donating and hopping this comes to the cheaper models as well. I'd sell my 60D and get a 7D or 5D2 in a heart beat. Even though I'd miss the rotating screen. :)

[Andrew Reid]

I would love to be a fly on the wall at the Canon headquarters when they find out about this

 

I think they'll like it. Canon DSLRs are about to get a big sales hike.

[Andrew Reid]

It's funny seeing people talking about Canon freaking out about this. For me it's obvious they saw it coming. The folks at Magic Lantern have been hacking the Canon cameras for years now. And then, out of the blue, they find a "hidden" feature in the camera left there by "accident" because Canon would never imagine anyone would find it?

 

It isn't in there by accident. The raw sensor feed enables live view. Ever since the first live view cameras the sensor has had to do a raw video output continuously.

 

They all do this.

 

Amazingly, no manufacturer has thought to give us access to it.

 

One of the reasons why they haven't is that until only recently the cards just weren't fast enough.

[gabbassov]

Hi, Andrew! Thank you for such a good news!

That is a big pro feature add to the 5d. Magic Lantern teams rocks!

But... is there a way to playback the raw in camera real time? I mean the playback is the essential thing on a set, otherwise you really don't know what you have shot...I hope the ML will consider it too.

For now I would stick with normal mushy 5d III, and RED's and may be one day my own BM 4K.

[blueranger1980]

How do i download this from the Magiclantern forum? Must have!

[Zach]

I think they'll like it. Canon DSLRs are about to get a big sales hike.

The question begs asking, why not enable it themselves from the get go? 

 

Unless of course they simply didn't think of it. Either way, I'm stupidly excited for this

[squig]

The question begs asking, why not enable it themselves from the get go? 

 

Unless of course they simply didn't think of it. Either way, I'm stupidly excited for this

When they developed the camera the cards were too slow, but I don't think they would have ever bothered trying, it's a consumer wannabe  camera after all.