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Canon 5D Mark III hacked - Magic Lantern on way


Andrew Reid
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It almost seems a little too easy. Like the guy in charge of Firmware security knew that the 5D3 was so crippled, that in order for the camera to sell well to the video crowd, he needed to make it and easy ML hack. Or else, sales to video people would no be up to par.

I seem to remember it took Vitality months to hack into the GH2 because the encryption was so strong. The 5D3 firmware just came out 2 days ago, and it seems like the ML team was in within a day.

Well, I guess none of us are complaining.  :)
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[quote author=gene_can_sing link=topic=649.msg4807#msg4807 date=1335563066]
It almost seems a little too easy. Like the guy in charge of Firmware security knew that the 5D3 was so crippled, that in order for the camera to sell well to the video crowd, he needed to make it and easy ML hack. Or else, sales to video people would no be up to par.

I seem to remember it took Vitality months to hack into the GH2 because the encryption was so strong. The 5D3 firmware just came out 2 days ago, and it seems like the ML team was in within a day.

Well, I guess none of us are complaining.  :)
[/quote]

I was thinking the same thing. 8)
They managed to block the 7D pretty well and would have more reasons to lock the mkIII now with the C cameras out.
Remember how a Canon guy was telling about the clean HDMI out on the1dx, saying it is not gonna happen because of the "video division".

That would be the perfect answer from the "Still division", a good way to raise the  finger without any direct confrontation, potentially increasing sales in this niche.
Everyone win and keep the face  8)

But who cares eh? Go Alex !!
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I'm hoping they'll get clean HDMI out for the 5D2.  It's an incredible camera.
I'm still excited about the BM camera.  How good will it be?  The dynamic range is excellent (talk of up to a few extra stops above the 13 could be a possible - doubt, however 13 stops great).  The video posted to date suggest a very filmic image.  The sensor needs to be calibrated properly.  After these tweaks, will the image parallel to an Arri on most of the shots?  I want to play with some footage straight from the BM camera. 

The FS700 will be interesting too.  So far alot of slow motion shots from pre-models.  What will the dynamic range be for this camera? 

We are indoctrinated by camera manufacturers.  Visual perception has changed due to new video cameras too. 
F35 compared to Arri compared to Red to DSLR.  Getting the footage to look like film is the goal of many.  Exciting times lie ahead in the next couple of months.  Heard some rumblings about May and Canon - could be bs. 
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[quote author=FilmMan link=topic=649.msg4830#msg4830 date=1335625905]
I'm hoping they'll get clean HDMI out for the 5D2.  It's an incredible camera.
I'm still excited about the BM camera.  How good will it be?  The dynamic range is excellent (talk of up to a few extra stops above the 13 could be a possible - doubt, however 13 stops great).  The video posted to date suggest a very filmic image.  The sensor needs to be calibrated properly.  After these tweaks, will the image parallel to an Arri on most of the shots?  I want to play with some footage straight from the BM camera. 
[/quote]

At the moment the Arri has 14 stops but BM already has 13 stops before fully calibrated. It is felt they can tweak a bit more out of this thing so hopefully it can match the Arri at 14 stops by the time it goes on sale.
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I don't think they'll be able to increase resolution, it looks like it's running some sort of binning routine on the sensor before the processors can get ahold of it so the bottleneck will probably occur before Magic Lantern can intervene. That could be wrong though, after all the AA filter should have had no impact on image sharpness in video mode but apparently there is some. A clean HDMI or crop modes may certainly be doable though. Now the 1DX might be another story, but by then you're starting to talk about real money
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I don't think they can improve resolution, and I do think there's some kind of binning that's done in hardware and that will be impossible to effectively circumvent, but if they can either (ideally) improve the sharpening algorithm to something less completely terrible or even increase the ALL-I bitrate so you can sharpen it without macroblocking we'd be in business.

The resolution isn't as bad as most people claim (it's significantly better than 720p and better than the 5DII), but the apparent softness is even worse.  We need some better in-camera sharpening, though most people are going way overboard in post.  For CUs the camera looks amazing as is.  But look at wide shots and compare them with the Alexa...not even close.
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I think it would make more sense if the binning was done by software.  I'm guessing it's just a matter of  telling the processor to read more info for each frame.  Since the 1dC can handle at least 400Mbs (for 4K), with 2 digi 5s , you'd think they could probably double the current max rate of the 5D3 from 90Mbs to 180Mbs. Might generate some heat though... 8). 
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[quote author=TC link=topic=649.msg4784#msg4784 date=1335537340]
[quote author=sandro link=topic=649.msg4782#msg4782 date=1335535477]
I doubt Canon was so stupid to limit the resolution via software though
[/quote]

I fear you over-estimate the intelligence of the-powers-that-be at Canon.  Amazing engineers, but it is run like most big Japanese companies - by an elite group of old men stuck in the past and completely out of touch with reality.

Anyway, back to the subject of this article - Magic Lantern.  Fantastic news!  I think we all know the firmware is the main limiting factor in the 5D III's performance.  I haven't ordered yet and have been a vocal critic on these forums, but if it can be hacked to give a higher bitrate, I'm ready to buy.
[/quote]

Well of course they did ! I meant in a way that can be changed via firmware hack!
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[quote author=HurtinMinorKey link=topic=649.msg4848#msg4848 date=1335667323]
I think it would make more sense if the binning was done by software.  I'm guessing it's just a matter of  telling the processor to read more info for each frame.
[/quote]

The sensor can't read out fast enough for the binning to be done in software.  The 1DX's sensor has twice as many readout channels to achieve twice the fps at full frame (twice as many pixels), and four times at 1.3 crop (also roughly twice as many pixels read out per second).  Obviously no one has publicly confirmed how the binning is done, but if the sensor were fast enough to read out full raster, why would Canon have twice as many readout channels on the 1DX for twice as many pixels per second?  The c300 seems to bin in camera, though.
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