Canon 50D Magic Lantern raw review

[Andrew Reid]

[media]http://vimeo.com/70047921[/media]

Music by official EOSHD collaborator Herdwhite

The Canon 50D is a Super 35mm alternative to the 5D Mark III for raw video costing around $500 on eBay (click to search). Just how good is it as a raw shooting cinema camera?

[url=http://www.eoshd.com/content/10770/canon-50d-magic-lantern-raw-review]Read the full article here[/url]

[Nikkor]

Nice article, I just have to point out an error in your article. The 50D has been writing up to 81mb/s for almost a month now, check the 50D thread on magiclantern. That means continuous or almost continuos 1920x1080. I tried it on a komputerbay 32gb 1000x and I stopped at about 1200 frames or more, it expected a lot more.

[Andrew Reid]

Nice article, I just have to point out an error in your article. The 50D has been writing up to 81mb/s for almost a month now, check the 50D thread on magiclantern. That means continuous or almost continuos 1920x1080. I tried it on a komputerbay 32gb 1000x and I stopped at about 1200 frames or more, it expected a lot more.

 

Hmm. I have the latest build but my maximum is 65MB/s. I think you have to turn live view off for the 80MB/s or some other drastic compromise.

[Bruno]

I wonder what makes you claim it is a better raw camera than the 70D, is there even any proper h264 examples out there yet?

It's just weird that you even make that comparison, maybe you meant a different model?

Magic Lantern won't be able to see what it can do before a firmware upgrade comes out, so I guess until then we can check for moire and not much more, when it comes to its raw video potential.

[cantsin]

It's terribly difficult to obtain up-to-date practical information for setting up the 50D for raw video. MagicLantern's reference information for the 50d on http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=5586.0 is outmoded/not properly updated; among others, there are newer builds of the 50d ML raw video extensions on the download repository https://bitbucket.org/GregoryOfManhattan/magic-lantern/downloads/

- but is this even the right repository? And should its files be mixed with the stable ML 2.3.5 release or the nightly builds?

 

I just went on and downloaded the most current June 28th build from GregoryOfManhattan together with the stable ML 2.3.5 release, and it works for me okay... But on the other hand, I do not get the 1584*... resolution in the menu that this mentioned in the article, and I have no idea how to switch between crop and full sensor mode. 

 

All of this information is probably buried somewhere in the (currently...) 86-pages MagicLantern forum thread mentioned above, but seemingly impossible to source from one consistent source. I don't dare to ask these questions on the ML forum itself in order not to create noise between the development threads.

 

(And I've even had plenty of experience with ML on my 550D, and used to be a guy who compiled his own Linux kernels...) So, users beware, shooting raw video on the 50D is highly experimental, and the information is not even straightforward to obtain for people with more technical geek leanings...

 

- Any help on the above questions would be highly appreciated, of course, and would likely help others, too. If EOSHD decides to write a raw video manual for the 50D, I'd be willing to pay.

[Nikkor]

Hmm. I have the latest build but my maximum is 65MB/s. I think you have to turn live view off for the 80MB/s or some other drastic compromise.

Nah, it works exactly as usual, black and white live view (the actual recording is fullcolor, just in case someone takes this wrong) in crop mode (you dind't mention it, but that's the way it is in crop-mode, because of the pink tint you get without that, this is with and without small hacks)

 

Read through the post and take a look at the magic lantern forum, the test shown at nofilmschool is with a 600x card that's why he only gets a few frames, I have tested it with a 1000x Komputerbay 32gb and it worked perfectly, maybe you just didn't read the advice of turning on "small hacks", these small hacks don't turn off the liveview as you are saying. The origin of this is a way of using the buffer more efficently.

 

As I said, this is 3-4 weeks old.

 

 

Canon 50D Couldn't Shoot Video in 2008. Now in 2013 It's Doing 1080P RAW

 

http://nofilmschool.com/2013/06/canon-50d-magic-lantern-raw-video-1080p/

 

If you ever looked in the comments from raw_rec.c, you have noticed that I’ve stated a little goal: 1920×1080 on 1000x cards (of course, 5D3 at 24p). Goal achieved and exceeded – even got reports of 1920×1280 continuous.

During the last few days I took a closer look at the buffering strategy. While it was near-optimal for continuous recording (large contiguous chunks = faster write speed), there was (and still is) room for improvement for those cases when you want to push the recording past the sustained write speed, and squeeze as many frames as possible.

So, I’ve designed a new buffering strategy (I’ll call it variable buffering)

 

[Andy600]

@Cantsin - The 50d is still very much in development with Gregory adding the latest updates from the unified builds and 1% adding and enhancing new and missing features to his Tragic Lantern 2.0 branch of Magic lantern. It's still early days.

FYI If you want the extra writing speed you need to use Tragic Lantern from 1%. It has a function to disable shutter timers in the debug menu. You select this before going into Live view. You still get the same preview modes etc (no, you don't have to work without Live View) and it is quite stable. The only drawback is that you need to restart the camera to undo the timer hack but it's not a big issue (although it breaks the 'safe' rules that A1ex applies to the Unified Builds of Magic Lantern).

The raw module included with Tragic Lantern is also slightly different. It has additional functions to automatically disable Global Draw when you hit record (it re-enables when you stop recording) and also lets you delay the start of recording by 2,4 or 10 seconds.

re: Pink frames and magenta casts. This issue seems to be resolved.

As a reference I get 72MB/s write speed on a Transcend 16gb 600x CF card which is about 300 frames at 1080p/25p. The komputerbay 64gb 1000x card is continuous at 1080p although I haven't shot anything for more than 20-30 seconds so as to not waste valuable card space.

1% doesn't release constant builds of Tragic Lantern but I try to compile any new changes/updates and after testing on my own camera I upload them here: https://bitbucket.org/andy600/tl50d/downloads

The main 50d topics do need updating but I wanted to let things settle a bit before adding a set-up guide. I'll try and do it this weekend, time permitting.

[Andrew Reid]

I wonder what makes you claim it is a better raw camera than the 70D, is there even any proper h264 examples out there yet?

 

The 70D doesn't have a fast enough card slot for decent raw video resolutions.

[Leica50mm]

Ive been trying to install Magic Lantern on to my new 50D and i have had zero luck and wasted nearly a day trying. What a mess!  it makes hacking the GH2 seem simple . Help!

[Andrew Reid]

Nah, it works exactly as usual, black and white live view (the actual recording is fullcolor, just in case someone takes this wrong) in crop mode (you dind't mention it, but that's the way it is in crop-mode, because of the pink tint you get without that, this is with and without small hacks)

Would you mind elaborating about 'small hacks'? The nofilmschool article is absolutely no help at all. I know about Alex's buffering strategy and don't need it cut and paste onto a page with ads for sliders!

Andy600 your footage at 1080p is not continuous it is 6-10 seconds. Have yet to see anyone record continuous 1080p in crop mode on the 50D at 80MB/s but I would love to be proved wrong.

[Andy600]

Ive been trying to install Magic Lantern on to my new 50D and i have had zero luck and wasted nearly a day trying. What a mess!  it makes hacking the GH2 seem simple . Help!

Have you followed this guide? http://wiki.magiclantern.fm/install

If you are having problems it might be because you don't have Canon FW version 1.09 installed or you are using a CF card bigger than 32gb???

[Andy600]

EOSHD - The 1080p Vimeo footage I uploaded 2-3 weeks ago wasn't continuous because the hack was literally only 1 hr old and things have changed since then. I now have a 64gb Komputerbay card and with the shutter timer hack and global draw OFF plus photo mode set to Jpeg I get continuous 1080p/24p using Tragic Lantern 2.0 Try it yourself - https://bitbucket.org/andy600/tl50d/downloads :)

P.s. I'm hitting 81 - 83MB/s on the KB card

Tip: use C1 or C2 on the mode dial and turn off all the canon photo stuff (HTP, Auto Lighting Opt etc). You gain a bit more CPU/Memory

[Andrew Reid]

Thanks Andy. I had a different build (27th June) for the review. No 'Small Hacks' menu within Raw Video.

 

I will download it and give it a go.

[Andrew Reid]

Seems quite a few forks of the 50D branch. Hope you guys can bring it all together soon as it may confuse people and you will get Newbie Question Hell :)

[Andy600]

Seems quite a few forks of the 50D branch. Hope you guys can bring it all together soon as it may confuse people and you will get Newbie Question Hell :)

There are afik 3 forks relevant to the 50d. The Unified build which doesn't have raw video. Gregory's builds which are unified + raw and Tragic Lantern 2.0 (by 1%) which is bleeding edge stuff (he did the nice H.264 ALL-I/Gop stuff on the 600d). I just compile TL2 if no one has already done it.

BTW your first shot will likely not get up to speed and stop recording after a few frames but you should hit 80+ MB/s on your next with a KB 1000x card. You'll also notice you have black bars on the side of the frame, this was done to squeeze a little more speed but you can get back to full-width view if you don't like it by pressing the INFO button a couple of times.

Another tip if you don't already know it :- File Browser in the 'debug' menu lets you preview and delete raw files ;)
 

[Andrew Reid]

Not getting 80MB/s yet, about 10MB/s short. Does it matter how the card is formatted?

[Andy600]

Not getting 80MB/s yet, about 10MB/s short. Does it matter how the card is formatted?

I format in-camera. Did you enable the timer hack. You need to NOT be in Live view to do it.

Boot up the camera
hit the trash can button and go to the debug menu
scroll down to Dialog Timers and select 'Disable' (the screen will go blank)
Hit the Live View button

You can then record :)

[cantsin]

Not wanting to bitch, but things get even more confusing when reading this thread. "TragicLantern"? And Andrew doesn't seem to see the "small hacks" menu within the raw video submenu that I, on the other hand, see with Gregory's 28th June release? Where do you switch on and off the crop mode, or does this happen automatically if you specify particular video resolutions?

 

So far, a how-to would be:

 

1. Format your CF card in the camera, take it out and put it into the card reader of your computer
2. Download the current stable, unified 2.3.5 MagicLantern release from http://www.magiclantern.fm/download
3. Download the most current development snapshot for 50D raw video recording either from https://bitbucket.org/GregoryOfManhattan/magic-lantern/downloads/ (Gregory's 50D Magic Lantern tree) or from https://bitbucket.org/andy600/tl50d/downloads (1%'s TragicLantern tree)
4. Create a folder for the Magic Lantern files on your computer
5. Unzip the downloaded archive of the stable Magic Lantern release into that folder - and trash the file "autoexec.bin" + the folder "ML"
6. Unzip the 50D development snapshot into that same folder - after which "autoexec.bin" and the "ML" should be visible again.
7. In this folder, you should now see a number of files ending with ".fir", the manuals "INSTALL.pdf" and "Userguide.PDF", "autoexec.bin" and the folder "ML".
8. Copy "autoexec.bin", "ML" and "50D-109.fir" onto your CF card (that still rests in the card reader of your computer).
9. Cleanly unmount/eject the CF card via the software menu of your operating system and put it into your camera.
10. Make sure that you have a fully charged, preferably original Canon battery inside your camera.
11. Switch on the camera. Press the "Menu" button (on the upper left), go to the third  (olive-colored) menu with the tool icon, go to the "Firmware" entry, press the button and run the Firmware update.
12. Wait for all installation messages till you get the message that it is safe to switch off the camera. Switch off the camera.
13. Switch it on again, wait a few seconds, and press the trashcan button on the lower left to enter the MagicLantern menu.
14. With the joystick, navigate into the menu with the video camera. Scroll down and adjust the entries with the big scroll wheel.
15. Activate the entry "REC key: HalfShutter".
16. Scroll down to the very bottom to the submenu "RAW video". Activate this option. Then press the "Func" button on the lower left to enter its option menu.
17. Start with conservative settings/low video resolutions (like 640x480) first. Activate the entry "Small Hacks".
18. Press the trashcan button to leave the Magic Lantern menu.
19. Press the Live View button on the upper left (next to "Menu") to enter LiveView. If this does not work, activate LiveView in the normal configuration menu of the camera (in the second olive tool menu).
20. If Live View is working, adjust shutter speed and aperture (if you are using a modern Canon lens) by pressing the trashcan button and going in the first submenu of Magic Lantern. Press the trashcan icon once you are done.
21. In Live View, half depress the normal camera release. You now see an indication that raw video is being recorded. Stop by pressing the release again.
22. When you are done, switch off the camera, copy the files ending with ".raw" from the DCIM folder of the CF card to your computer, use a program like RawMagic for Mac OS X (http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=6218.0) or ... (don't what is the recommended Windows solution at the moment, so I better leave this blank) to transform the files into Cinema DNG sequences, then grade/transform with your favorite raw conversion/grading tool (AE, Lightroom, Resolve...). 

     

[Andy600]

Cantsin - No, nearly right but it's important that you Install Magic Lantern 2.3 unified build first exactly as described here: http://wiki.magiclantern.fm/install

 

Don't even think about the latest updates until it is installed and working. Then all you need to do is download Gregory's or Tragic Lantern 2.0 and overright the autoexec.bin and module files on the card. You can just copy the contents of the zipped builds to the card and overright.

Then it's just a case of loading up the modules to get raw video capability. There are a few changes to the Canon menus that you need to do such as disabling HTP etc and selecting Jpeg photo mode but once you have done that you can write it to a custom memory on the dial (C1 or C2). The modules also save their last state to config files.

 

[tosvus]

This is probably a really stupid question but here goes.... For Chroma-keying it important to have sub-sampling of 4:2:2. This is often discussed in threads where they talk about clean HDMI out. Is this something that is a constraint at that level, or when it is recorded from the sensor?

 

In other words, can a Raw file still be 4:2:0, or would it always be "perfect". If the raw file can differ based on sensor/processing constraints, which of the Canon dslr's are better? (4:2:2 or better)

 

Hope this made SOME sense...