Messages

Thanks for your answers..
I think I'll have to move on to Sony then 

EOS M is a 2012 camera. It is only available second-hand

https://www.dpreview.com/products/canon/slrs/canon_eosm

And no ML port for M200 available now
and nobody working on it.

Hi Alex/team,

It's been a while since I started using my camera again and I was hoping to upgrade my camera from 550D to a mirrorless.

Unfortunately, I can't find EOS M or M2 in Indian market!

The only product listed on Canon India website that meets my budget constraint is M200

https://in.canon/consumer/eos-m200-ef-m15-45mm-f-3-5-6-3-is-stm/product?category=photography&subCategory=interchangeable-lens-cameras

Could you please advise, if the hack works on this? Has it been tested by anyone?

I couldn't find any relevant thread, or I might've not searched thoroughly.

Any suggestions would greatly help me decide.

Cheers & be safe! 

Hi

Thanks so much for your reply.

I tried installing all library files, however, the application did not work.

It worked after I installed Wine!

Thank you so much again and apologies for posting the question in a wrong section

Cheers,
Prabhath MP

That was nice, very creative

Earlier RAW2DNG was working on my computer (Ubuntu 13.10), however, after I reinstalled the operating system, for some reason it does not recognize the application.

Any idea, how this could be resolved?

Cheers,
Prabhath MP

I saw this last night in Vimeo

It's awesome!

Hi,

Thanks so much for the details.

Any idea about the difference in flange distance between Sony Nex 5 and Canon EOS M sensor and lens mount? I believe they affect the focal distance and also the vignette/crop factor.

If they are same or which camera has an advantage over using the CCTV lens without additional efforts?

I found few amazing videos that were shot on Sony Nex 5 using CCTV lens; but could not find videos shot using similar lens on Canon EOS-M.

Also, considering the price they both probably are priced almost evenly.

BMPCC is an awesome camera but can't afford currently as it is too highly priced here in India.

Cheers,
Prabhath MP

Hi,

Thanks so much for replying.

The information was helpful.

I'll check if anyone has been able to use C-mount lens on EOS-M, else I might go for Sony Nex series.

Cheers,
Prabhath MP

Hi All,

I was checking some amazing videos on YouTube regarding usability of C mount (cheap CCTV Fujion) lens on Sony Nex series.

Could anyone let me know if you have ever tried using such lens on EF/EFs mount; are there any converters/adapters available out in the market?

I am fairly new in understanding the concept of Micro four third mount and I was hoping that there could be a way to somehow use it on my 550D.

Also, on the contrary I was thinking of going for EOS-M. Is there any way these lens might be useful on those cameras?

I was considering Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera, however, it is too expensive here in India (at 91000/- INR).

I had initially thought of going for a high end DSLR, however, after analyzing my needs and the time I spend with camera I have cornered EOS-M (as it too has RAW enabled with help of Magic Lantern Team)

The lens I am referring to could be found here:-

Hope to hear from you soon.

Cheers,
Prabhath MP

dafassi  is right. If the fps limitation doesn't help, you could run a speed test for your sd card.
Have you done a low level format before you started recording? 
This can help sometimes to get more writing speed.

Hi,

My knowledge in understanding write/read speed is limited, however, I tried the benchmark option on the firmware:-

I did a complete low-level format and tried to record RAW but still I only get few seconds of record on my 32 GB card whereas my 16 GB card can record for more seconds.

I assume that my 16GB card is better when compared to 32 GB card.

Cheers
Prabhath MP

Hi Friends,

I downloaded the latest nightly build for 550D and when I try to record in 960X540 16:9, I only get few seconds of record on my 30MBps SanDisk Pro 32GB card. Also, it indicates some bug (after it has stopped recording). I'm not sure if I have missed anything. I just replace ML and autoexec.bin to update to latest build.

Please, could anyone advise which RAW nightly build is more stable and has proven to record more frames?

Cheers,
Prabhath MP

No no, 60D has only 21MB/s SD controller. 650D for example will be much better. It beats 1280x720 continious easily. I have one and i'm shooting at 1536x640 usually.
Check this out: http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=6215.0;topicseen

Hi,

Thanks for sharing some really good/need to know information.

That was helpful. I was searching for a video on Youtube to check quality of RAW video from 650D, however, in video below, there was a reference to some problem of 'pink pixels' while recording RAW. Has this been resolved?

Also, on the official post, some are referring to 700D being a better option. Is that also true?

Thanks for your advise.

Cheers,
Prabhath MP

Hi All,

I was thinking of upgrading my camera probably next year, however, I wanted to know which camera would give more RAW resolution?

I was considering 60D (I tried finding 50D in my locality, however, there were none).

I have a budget constraint, so I cannot consider buying pro-cameras such as 5DMkIII/5DMkII/7D and others.

Please, could anyone advise?

Thanks a lot.

Cheers,
Prabhath MP

Go to Home Depot website.  Type in this:

EcoSmart 30-Watt (120W) Bright White CFL Light Bulb (1-Pack)

Great bulb, gives off yellowish color, which doesn't matter because when recording in RAW...white balance can be over ridden to suite ur flavor.  What matters is the 2100 lumen outputs.  More lumens = lower ISO = less noise + better shot.

One other thing.  If u can get one, the EF-S 10-22mm lens should prolly be the best lens u can use for wide screen and decent RAW filming.  The pure wideness of the shot will make up for the extreme cropping that takes place say when u do 960x540 or 1280x320.  However, with that in mind the price u spend on that lens could net u a 50D which has a much bigger memory buffer and screen output.  Decisions.....

Well said, Yoda

Regarding lights, which light source would provide more control? Can we attach a CFL bulb or a set of CFL bulbs to a dim/bright control switch?

Also, in few videos on YouTube, I came across using Work-Light as an alternative. I'm very new to all these lights. Could you advise, which one is effective/efficient both performance wise as well as cost wise

Thanks so much for your suggestions.

Cheers,
Prabhath MP

Because of the hardware limitations of the 550D, I do not believe you can upscale any video to 1080p with any decent quality.  HOWEVER, you CAN use a 1280x720p project, and get great quality.

Example workflow:

* Capture in 1280x320 at 24fps (use FPS over ride on ML)
*  Convert RAW file to DNG files
*  Import into Lightroom (or After Effects)
*  Apply color grading and other desire effects
*  Export as TIFF files, no compression, best quality, using original dimensions (1280x320)
*  Import image sequence into Quicktime Pro ($30).  Export to .MOLV (Apple ProRes 422 codec), use original source for frame size, frame rate, etc.
*  Open any NLE (FCPX, Premiere, etc).  start new project.  Use 1280x720 as your dimensions, 24fps.
*  Import your .MOV File.  Apply to video track (or in FCPX, the timeline).  Video should look anamorphic at this time in the preview pane.
*  Export (or share) movie using same Apple 422 codec.  Do not change any quality settings.
*  If desired for Youtube sharing, you can use any conversion utility such as Quicktime Pro, Compressor or other software to convert it to the h.264 desired format for streaming.
*  Done.

Note:  You CAN export to h.264 directly from your NLE, but the conversion process usually takes longer vs using a dedicated utility.

Hope this helps.  Works for me, and unless you have a trained eye (or are horrible in your capture/post processing technique), no one will know you even used a 550D when they see "the results".

If it looks good for you, thats all that matters in the end.

Hi Yoda,

Thanks so much for the inputs.

Will there be any difference in quality if we were to use only one application to render the video? I use Blender, by importing .TIF files as a sequence and then it is rendered in .H264 (.AVI) format.

Also, could you advise which video format would contain more details? (Preferably supported by Blender)

Thanks so much.

Cheers,
Prabhath MP

Yet discussed, and decided it's a too costly operation with no advantages.
Sorry but they are so great geniuses (like you said) that they yet thinked, discussed and rejected the idea ! Sorry !     

Opinions change over a period of time because they are always depending on situation. Hope the ML team will reconsider their decision once again and maybe in near future, there might be an actual 'Magic Lantern - 4K' camera

I'm just hoping/wishing that it'll be true someday in near future..

Cheers,
Prabhath MP

[Query to Magic Lantern Team]

I think 1200 x 500 is pretty close to a Super 16mm blow up. The shots i am getting at that res would give you close to what you get with a blow up to 2084 x 854 which is flat cinema scope. Even shooting 2K you lose half the resolution vertically in 1:2.35
I love the look of this stuff. I feel more inspired by the ML raw hack on the 550D than i did about the HD h264 because the grade is everything and I like the grain structure that you get, it feels organic and you get to keep everything. Some shots do suck in cities, but that maybe because this hack desires you film in nature, away from symmetrical lines! I cant see much difference in handling between this and the EPIC (which is just as difficult to post) and insure!

Wow, that was quite an inspiring statement actually

Thanks for your inputs. It has been very helpful.

I never knew that the quality of Epic in terms of dynamic range was more or less same as 550D (I have never got a chance to work with RED cameras until now )

Query to Magic Lantern Team:-
Team, you all are geniuses who have really made a revolution by creating such a wonderful firmware for Canon digital cameras (DSLRs particularly).

I will just pray to God that you get a Nobel award for all your efforts.

I was thinking, since we have so many people who use this firmware, I am sure I'm not the first person to be asking this query below:-

Why not design a camera?
Since, you all have so much knowledge in this field and you all know the limits of most Canon sensors, probably it would be easy for you to design an amazing camera with best features.

I sincerely respect your efforts so far. In a way I was motivated to take up photography/cinematography after I got to know about your application, while I was watching some video on Vimeo site few years ago

Cheers,
Prabhath MP

Hi Nanomad,

Thank you posting this. It's very helpful indeed

I still have one question, however.

I found few files which were probably error logs. Is there any problem if we delete those files?

How do we identify the files which are apart from the ML files? (I know that ML folder and autoexec.bin are crucial)

Recently, I got a chance to try the RAW recording feature on my 550D (It's awesome), however, when I tried the playback option, it crashed (I restarted camera after removing battery and that got resolved), however, there were few logs when I accessed card through Card reader.

I just wanted to be sure that I am not deleting the critical files

Cheers,
Prabhath MP

Hi prabhath.mp,
I'm using After Effects to convert any format into DPX
The benefits of using DPX or Tiff you can read here, I am not a supporter of anything.
Your workflow is OK
Cannot say what converter is good for Linux. Perhaps using Tiff is the only way for this moment

For windows I used Resolve for DNG to DPX exports. I haven't seen DPX workflows for Ubuntu/Linux options yet.
As @coolerinc says, would .TIFF from Blender be a viable alternative for you?

Thank you both for your suggestion and inputs 

From this I have come to a conclusion that .TIF file is quite reasonable alternative for DPX (though there might be some drawbacks), however, it should be far more better than the native video (H.264), in terms of dynamic range and flexibility to process during post-production.

This has been very helpful.

Thanks so much once again.

Cheers,
Prabhath MP

Why don't you work with DPX? Blender support it and I took a huge time with it.
The workflow is a little bit different:
1. Movie Clip Editor -> Open your sequence (DPX)
2. Video Sequence Editor -> Shift+A -> Clip -> Add you Clip

Cheers ^_^

Hi Coolerinc

Thank you for the suggestion.

Could you please provide more information about your workflow for DPX files?

I only have option to convert RAW to either .DNG or .TIF

Which application would help in conversion of batch files from RAW to DPX?

Also, is that application available for Ubuntu 13.04?

Until now, I have been using .TIF format to import files into Blender for grading.
(Blender --> Video Editor --> Shift + A --> Image --> Identify the folder containing .TIF files --> A (to select all) --> Open)

Please let me know if I am missing any step

Thanks so much.

Cheers,
Prabhath MP

Good question.  I used a workflow and exported to both JPG and .TIFF.  HUGE DIFFERENCE.  You can see it in the overal picture quality, really shows up in lines.  But, it alos depends on what you are going for.  If you arent shooting art, or something that requires clean/soft presentation, you can get away with JPG even at 80% quality (20% compression).

As for the color...again, using TIFF just makes everything look better, especially in low light shots.

At this point, shooting RAW on 550D is easy.  The key is obviuosly a really fast SDHC or SDXC card, and a post production setup that allows a streamlined workflow.  The only real decision to make is the frame size (1280x544, 960x540, etc).  One doesn't need continuous FPS to get good shots.  24fps at 10 seconds is 240 frames recorded.  More than enough to do get good shots, and move from subject to subject, shot to shot, etc.

In terms of "post processing", speed can be obtained by switching to an SSD drive, getting more RAM, and having minimum 2 procs, preferably 4 proc setup.

Cheers.

Yoda

Hi Yoda,

Thanks so much for the suggestion :-)

Fortunately Blender supports .TIF files.

I'll then assume that .DNG and .TIF have more or less same amount of detail except .DNG will have a little more information because it's based on Adobe DNG structure whereas TIF is more commonly used in general where access to premium applications provided by Adobe and others are either very less or no access at all :-)

Thanks once again.

Cheers,
Prabhath MP 

RESULT:

Hi NattyNick,

The video seemed to be good to me. Any idea if there will be any difference if we export images as .TIF format?

I use Blender for grading and post-production of video and unfortunately Blender does not support .DNG file format

Cheers,
Prabhath MP

Didn't try to project on to the theater screen but I think the quality of RAW 1600x680 2.35:1 will be fine. BTW people in the theater don't sit too close to the screen

Certainly agree with your point here

Was just curious to know if anyone had tried to project that on to a large screen.

I was thinking of recording in 960 X 540 (16:9 aspect ratio); Combine them with few H.264 shots (where lighting is controlled); Crop them to 2.35:1; I was just wondering how it would appear on large screen

Your posts were very helpful, however

Will try 1600 X 680 (2.35:1 Cinema aspect), but not sure if my card is capable to handling such resolution.

Cheers,
Prabhath MP

Hi Coolerinc,

Thank you so much for your reply buddy

At 1728 you'll be able to capture about 30 frames
For continuous record 960x540 is optimum
I'm using 25-Aug-2013 build
For more info check this thread

Will certainly try as suggested, probably during this weekend and will get back with an update on my results.

Also, have you tried to project video on to a large screen (like in movie theatres). On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being least and 10 being best) how would you rate about quality of RAW video processed after grading and projected on Large Screen?

I know the quality will not be anywhere close to the large sensor cameras, however, still I'm hoping/assuming that the quality will be considerably good (Please correct me if I am wrong).

Thanks so much once again.

Cheers,
Prabhath MP

Hi All,

Thank you so much for your reply.

I use a Sandisk 32GB; 20MBps; Class 10 Memory card and whenever I tried to capture RAW in higher resolutions, it stops recording after few seconds.

You've got it a bit wrong.

The max res on 550D is 1728x1156, but this is the whole sensor. So it would covers the same area as the 1920 resolution.

The 1920x1080 res is scaled up to that res in camera, it records at a smaller res and stretches it, that's why 1920 looks terrible.

So no crop is needed to get the same image, unless you shoot at a smaller raw res.

Has anyone tried to capture RAW frames in 550D full capacity? How successful has it been. I am not quite sure if my card supports such huge resolution.

Also, could anyone suggest an optimum resolution where I can get continuous record (for at least 3 to 4 minutes).

Which nightly build has been more successful on delivering best results for RAW so far? I downloaded the one that was created on 09-Oct-2013.

Thanks so much for your help on this

Cheers,
Prabhath MP

Hi Coolerinc,

Thank you for providing the details below

Here's an example of RAW lying over h.264
as you may see RAW is more detailed and sharper. Just compare the car numbers

I still have a question, however:-

According to my understanding 550D cannot record RAW frames in 1920 X 1080 resolution.

So, even if we were to compare 1080 H.264 and the RAW frame, we will have to probably crop the H.264 video frame to match the RAW (or we may have to upscale the RAW frame to match 1080).

Could you please let me know how was the result achieved in your test, below?

If the RAW frame recorded in lower resolution would give such amazing results when scaled to 1920 X 1080 then recording in RAW would certainly be awesome

Cheers,
Prabhath MP