Messages

Although I agree with much of  @blackcannonfilms, I have also used both the 5D4 and the Sony A7R2 and have to say, I think the video from the Sony is vastly superior, as are it's video related features. There is much less of a difference in the quality of the stills (though if you are shooting landscapes / outdoors or printing huge you will definitely notice it). However, the sony is a horrible camera in many ways. Its menus are a labyrinth, its buttons inferior to Canon. Using an adapter is often problematic and certainly doesn't increase your feeling of confidence when using the lens. Also, and possibly most importantly, the Sony is a nightmare for dust on the sensor - I rarely had issues with the Canon or my 5D Mk3 before it, but all I have to do is change lenses on the Sony and (if I am outside or in a dusty environment) I can pretty much guarantee I'll have new dust on the sensor. If you shoot a lot outside, this (along with the Sony's much less robust construction and lack of weather sealing) is a deal breaker. Much better quality video spattered with dust spots is not much better quality video. Or worse yet, no video at all is not better quality if as your adapter has failed (as happened to me twice with two different adapters).

The truth is that neither of these cameras are great for shooting video. For stills, I think I would choose the Canon. If I was shooting video entirely in clean studio environment I would choose the Sony. Otherwise I would buy a dedicated video camera. I think the Canon is just a bit of a turkey in this regard and only slightly disappointing in terms of stills (and in six months it will already be showing its age). Maybe the ML guys will be able to work a miracle (again), but I wouldn't put my eggs in that basket.

Currently it is only possible to trigger focus stacking from the ML menu. Please allow focus stacking to be triggered from a remote in the same way exposure bracketing is triggered. This helps avoid camera shake and allows automated focus stacking using a motion control rig (e.g. Kessler Slider / Second Shooter).

Looks like this isn't possible which is a real shame, when triggering exposure bracketing with the remote is possible. Guess it's a limitation with Canon't firmware. Only option seems to be using a piece of hardware like the Promote Controller: https://www.promotesystems.com/downloads/manuals/pctrl1/pdf/Promote_Control.pdf.

Is there a way of triggering focus stacking from the shutter release button or a remote? It seems like the only way to run it is from the ML Menu?

[Info]

Just come back to magic lantern after some time away and don't seem to be able to get the original Canon overlays to display. As far as I can remember I used to press Info (I'm on a 5D Mk3) to toggle between Canon's overlays and to ML's overlay. The last thing I remember doing was setting up Two LV Display presets (one which had no overlay and one which had histogram, focus peak etc), and they are there, however pressing Info just cycles between them and never to the Canon overlays.

Is it the case that if I use these presets I lose access to the Canon overlays?

I'm sure I'm misremembering something, so please can someone tell me how to display the original Canon overlays (I need the one that shows horizontal tilt).

Thanks.

Thanks for the detailed explanation and that link looks great.

According to this thread: http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=12096.0, when I select EV units for spot metering, the value is:

the EV from saturation (overexposure)

And I assume this is true of the use/display of EVs elsewhere in the overlays.

At 100 ISO if I set the histogram to show dynamic range (Overlay > RAW EV Indicator > Dynamic Range), it gives me the value of D11, which tallies up with what I've read about the 5D Mk3 which is that it has 11 stops of dynamic range.

However, If I set the histogram to show an ETTR Hint  (Overlay > RAW EV Indicator > Show ETTR Hint) and cover my lens, the maximum value that is displayed is 9.3EV, suggesting that the difference between no exposure (because the lens is covered) and overexposure / over-saturation is only 9.3EV.

Additionally, with the lens covered, the histogram displays data over the first three EV bars. With no light entering the camera, I would expect a spike at (or around) the left edge of the first EV bar.

So why does the ETTR hint max out at 9.3EV when the camera has a dynamic range of 11EV, and why does the histogram show 3EVs of data when no light is entering the camera?

I have lots of footage shot on a 5D Mk3 shot in numerous places (with numerous types of lighting). I would like to edit this footage in Premiere CC and grade it in Resolve 11 Lite. I've been trying to come up with the best workflow given that Resolve is sluggish when using CDNGs (I'm on a 2013 Macbook Pro), but great with Prores files.

The workflow I'm thinking about using is:

1. Mount all .MLV files as .CDNGs using MLVFS
2. Import these .CDNGs into Resolve.
3. Set Project RAW settings to:
    Decode Using: Project
    White Balance: Custom
    Colour Space: BMD Film
    Gamma: BMD FIlm
4. Set Project LUTs to:
    3D Input Lookup Table: BMD Film to Cinelog 2.0
5. Manually set white balance for all clips
6. Export individual clips as ProRes 422 HQ
7. Import exported clips into Premiere
8. Edit in Premiere
9. Export XML from Premiere
10. Import XML into Resolve
11. Grade clips in Resolve
12. Export deliverable from resolve

Does that make sense? Is there a more sensible workflow?

Thanks.

@dmilligan That makes sense. I'll try and narrow down the issue later today. Anyway. It's a great approach. Thanks for all your work.

@dmilligan Got plenty of mlrawviewer .crash files, but nothing relating to MLVFS.

@dmilligan That's definitely not working for me. If I mount a directory that contains sub directories, the web UI does show the subdirs, but then locks up when I try and navigate into one. DR is the same - it shows the top-level dirs, then locks up (spinning beachball) for a while, then the directories disappear and the mounted MLVFS drive unmounts.

I can mount individual dirs by themselves though.

If I can help you debug - send logs etc just ask.

@DeafEyeJedi Thanks for clarifying. I was expecting the mount directory to appear as a drive in DR (like my RAID 0 and backup drive), but you made me realise I should actually navigate to the mount directory.

Am I right in thinking that you need to mount each directory separately?

For example if my directory structure is:

- shoots
  - 15_01_07
  - 16_01_07
  - 19_01_07

If I run the MLVFS service on shoots, I just get it's children as empty dirs in the mounted dir. The only way to get CDNGs from the contents of these dirs is to mount them individually. Is there any way to mount a whole directory structure so that any mlvs within child directories are mounted as CDNGs? I Need to use shots from a large number of directories in a project, so individually mounting each directory every time is a bit of an issue.

@DeafEyeJedi I don't see anything called 'DR' to enable. The only mention of DR is Naming Scheme which I have set to DR.

Thanks for replying.

2. complete (all metadata)

What metadata is lost in the conversion? Camera / vendor specific metadata?

If space is an issue, not to mention time, you might want to try MLVFS (frame-serving of virtual dngs):
http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=13152.0

I was hoping to use this, but the mounted drive doesn't show up in Resolve.

Once I have converted MLVs to CDNGs is there any point keeping the original MLV?

I feel like an idiot. I've been using it for a while without realising I could set in and out points.

Thanks.

I need to use and archive a set of mlvs. Due to the nature of the shoot, the vast majority of each take (3-4 minutes) is junk, with a short section (10-20 seconds) of each that is of value. There are a large number of takes, so that gives me a huge amount of material that I will never use of need and which doesn't need to be kept.

How can I extract the section of each take that I want to keep whilst keeping it as mlv (cdng would also be fine)?

Thanks DanHaag. That does indeed look like a good solution.

@dmilligan Thanks. You are bang on the money. I am confusing the two.

So assuming the footage is (reasonably) well exposed, if I set the correct whitepoint and choose a neutral LUT in MLRawViewer before exporting to Prores, this will give me that greatest flexibilty when grading the footage after it has been edited?

Hi Chmee. Thankyou for for replying.

I realise that MLViewer can handle(2) white-balance/tint, but It only offers me control over exposure. There is no means to set (1) black and white level independently, so I don't see any other option than to use another app for this step. I am assuming that moving black and white levels independently to achieve the optimal/desired spread of values (as I would with a photo) is the right way to go, or is this also something that should be dealt with in a later grade? If this is so (and setting just exposure is enough), what should be my guide in setting the exposure?

As for(3), thanks for confirming that. I guess my difficulty here is that I understand the goal, but not the means. As you say, some of the LUTs are pretty severe. Is something like C-Log an appropriately neutral LUT to allow for flexibility in the grade later down the line?

I've spent a lot of time today dredging the interweb in an attempt to understand the optimal way to convert from mlv to Prores. I understand how cumbersome cdng files are through my own experience and I understand the benefits of converting to Prores for editing, however some of the subtleties of this process are currently escaping me. If anyone could take a moment to put me right I'd much appreciate it.

I'm currently looking at going from MLRawViwer -> DNG Sequence -> AfterEffects -> Prores. I like this workflow because I know ACR (and Lightroom) very well, so I know how to get the RAW files into the shape I want them. My question is what shape should this be? My initial assumption was that I would grade the RAW to look the way I wanted in Aftereffects and then export, but heavy grading at this point seems very premature. So am I right in thinking that what I really want to do is to ensure that as much information as possible is extracted from the RAW files and present in the encoded Prores file. This would then allow more latitude in grading later on down the line. If this is a sensible approach, what should I do to make this so? How should I grade the RAW file to maximise the amount of information in the Prores file? As far as I can gather I absolutely have to get the white-balance and colour-balance right at this point, but what else should I do (if anything)?

[Disabled]

Build: Nightly.2014Aug07.5D3123
Camera: 5D Mk3

There is an AFMA mode option, but the only values are Disabled | All Lenses | This Lens

That's exactly what I suggested in the last sentence:

Should I run it at each end, then input the values manually?

I was just interested if there was anything built in. If there isn't, maybe it would make sense to add an option to run it as diagnostic-only - so it doesn't actually save the value - as overwriting both values is not correct in any circumstance so far as I am aware unless the adjustment happens to be the same.

Please will someone confirm whether this can be used with zoom lenses? If I was to do this manually, I would adjust the value for the wide and tele ends of the lens, but this process only runs once at one focal length and sets both values.

On running this with my EF 70-200 this gives me:

When run at 70   : Both values are set to 0
When run at 200 : Both values are set to 6

How should I calibrate for both ends of this lens? Should I run it at each end, then input the values manually?