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

[Oscar M.]

Why do so many people think a company that charges over $5000 for a firmware upgrade to shoot at 4K would intentionally give away raw video in a $3.5K camera?

 

 

Perhaps because 80% of independent filmakers can't afford a 1Dc ?

[marceloborelli]

Andrew, is it already available for downloading and testing it? Do you have any link? I would really like to test it.

 

Thanks for the information!

[Andrew Reid]

Perhaps because 80% of independent filmakers can't afford a 1Dc ?

 

It's quite amusing looking at the different planets of filmmaking. Philip Bloom is saying raw is nice but "not for the 99.9% of us". How about the 1D C is that for the 99% of us running around with $15,000 to spare?

[AaronChicago]

Here is my comparison test of "image detail quality" on the 5D Mk III with and without ML then against the GH3:

 

 

Please notice that this was a fast test and if you find something wrong or unfair do let me know to fix it asap. :)

 

 

 

What are those vertical lines in the sky at 0:40, on the hacked version?

[Chrad]

Perhaps because 80% of independent filmakers can't afford a 1Dc ?

So they priced an 8 bit camera out of the budget range of most ghetto-budget filmmakers (like us) and didn't include raw in its feature set, but then gave raw away in an 'affordable' $3.5K model? Got it.

 

The thing people need to bare in mind is how expensive raw is if you want to shoot with it for a serious project. Anyone who opts for a 600D over a Mk III probably can't afford to shoot raw.

[Andrew Reid]

The thing people need to bare in mind is how expensive raw is if you want to shoot with it for a serious project. Anyone who opts for a 600D over a Mk III probably can't afford to shoot raw.

 

Depends on the project. If you are going to a lot of effort to make something look as good as possible and it is a short film, experimental art piece or music video then you can do raw cheaply. Just get two 128GB 1000x KomputerBay cards and dump to a laptop on set every few hours - be as economical with your takes as if you were shooting (and paying for) film by the reel.

 

Be careful what you define as serious. If by 'serious project' you mean shooting 20 hours of crap a day, well yes of course that gets expensive in terms of storage and media not to mention time spent managing the data and the extra time in post.

 

You can grade in raw economically and simply then simply convert to ProRes for editing and get rid of the masters. The cinematic end result is still there. No audience member will need to view your master raw files to get that.

 

Of course, we had this discussion many times with the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, and it doesn't seem to have put people off from leaping at the Pocket Cinema Camera which is even cheaper than the 5D Mark III!

 

If you need broadcast ready codec or ProRes straight out of the cam, then of course raw is not for your project and you'd be better off with a C300 or F5.

[OzNimbus]

It would be very cool if they get it working on the 60d.

[matt2491]

With all this RAW footage we're looking at lately, what's the deal with the magenta tint to everything? Its still subtly noticeable even after dialing it down in post.

[ScreensPro]

Even though you take a drop in quality, converting straight to Cineform raw will be the best option for super low budget users. 1/5th the space for maybe a 5-10% quality drop.... Seems worth it, when the quality is so high to begin with and will edit much faster.

 

Of all the things people crave from various cameras.... I think raw will be one of the most useful.

[Andrew Reid]

With raw the codec really is whatever you want it to be.

 

Just as long as you allow the time to transcode.

 

A laptop on location, an occasional break in the action, that is all that is required. It is like changing film in the old days. Yes it is a slower pace. Pros are used to working fast. I prefer the slower pace creatively.

[hmcindie]

 

Depends on the project. If you are going to a lot of effort to make something look as good as possible and it is a short film, experimental art piece or music video then you can do raw cheaply. Just get two 128GB 1000x KomputerBay cards and dump to a laptop on set every few hours

 

The amount of space that will take from your laptop will still be quite astronomical. 

 

For example, doing any kind off dialogue or a narrative is almost out. Yes, this is great for playing around but for shooting something serious this will need a lot of tinkering, time and cash (for storage). A lot of people are using Prores on the BMC.

 

Though I will definitely run this down and do a little short immediately this is released.

[mike_tee_vee]

Is the card controller in anything older than a 5D III (i.e. 600D, 5DII, etc) fast enough to write at 1000x?  In Rob Galbraith's compact flash recording tests, many of these cameras do not show any increased writing performance when going from a 30MB/s card to a 45MB/s card.

[Raul]

Hi Andrew, 

 

First of all thanks for all your work out here, I have just started a thread on CF cards in the ML forum and was sent to you for feedback on the Komputer Bay cards, I could see you mentioned the 64 GB version here in the forum, did you also get a hold of a 128 GB card? If yes it would be great if you could post some Benchmark screenshots for comparison. They come in at a third of the Lexar price...

http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=5391

Thanks again, good trip to Berlin and greetings from Kenya!

[filmersblog]

KomputerBay is your friend. These El Cheapo CF cards are amazing for the money. I've had no issues (albiet short term so far) with mine which I bought for the 1D C shoot a few weeks ago. 64GB 1000x one cost me just 80 euros.

Hi Andrew, do you have a link where to buy these in Europe? (I can only find them on Amazon and they won't ship to the Netherlands) Thanks.

[Nick DG]

Now, I'm not really the conspiracy theorist, but nobody thinks it's rather odd that this is happening at the moment BM is kicking Canon's (and everybody else's) butt with their affordable RAW offerings. Not to take anything away from Magic Lantern's achievement, but could it be possible that Canon willingly leaked some technical info that made this possible, at a time when it does not have a competitive RAW video camera at this price point?

[Oscar M.]

So they priced an 8 bit camera out of the budget range of most ghetto-budget filmmakers (like us) and didn't include raw in its feature set, but then gave raw away in an 'affordable' $3.5K model? Got it.

 

The thing people need to bare in mind is how expensive raw is if you want to shoot with it for a serious project. Anyone who opts for a 600D over a Mk III probably can't afford to shoot raw.

 

I think that the BMCC had a lot to do with what canon has done recently. You have to believe that the BMCC priced at 3K had Canon worried and definitly posed a major threat to their bottom line. Sure, Canon will do well just selling to the still photographers, but it has done much better selling the low budget filmmaker. It would be a loss to lose all these people to BMD.

 

OTH, Yes. I could be wrong and Canon is just totally oblivious to the needs of a large section of their customers.

[Oscar M.]

As far as how people are going to cope with storage:

 

Don't forget about a little equation called Moore's law. I guarantee you that if there is enough demand for cheaper larger drives, they will come sooner rather than later. 

[Chrad]

I don't think Canon are oblivious, I just think they don't want to hurt sales of the 'pro' video cameras they sell at much larger profit margins.

[Chrad]

I don't think Canon are oblivious, I just think they don't want to hurt sales of the 'pro' video cameras they sell at much larger profit margins.

[ScreensPro]

The BMPC will be starting to tempt certain still shooters too.

 

Canon and Nikon will hit out when raw video is cheap enough and good enough for stills shooters to take frames.

 

RED was always a bit too expensive and large to tempt the Canon/Nikon market.... But the BMPC begins to encroach on dslr territory (price wise, at least). A lack of proper still photography tools on the BMPC should put most off.... but the lines are blurring.