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Correct.  IDE is not hot-swappable.  But CF is basically a Parallel ATA IDE interface, so we don't have much choice.  Can you hot-swap CF cards on a 5D without powering down the camera?

The hotswapping is not for CF purposes, it is for use on the SSD side.

Hey guys,

I think there is a much simpler solution to do this with off-the-shelf parts. 

There is a CF to IDE adapter manufactured by Fabia Tech in Taiwan that basically exposes a standard 40 pin IDE connector at the end of a "dummy" CF card:

http://www.rcpcomputer.com/automation/FA/CF%20Adapter%20Boards/IDE%20to%20CF/FB4658.pdf

It seems to be rebranded by ES&S Cable in Europe:

http://www.esskabel.de/upload/files/pdf/ADA-COMPACTFLASH-ATA-IDE40_DE.pdf

but I haven't found any US resellers.


You can then use a standard 40 pin cable to connect it to this SATA device to IDE host controller adapter manufactured by Lycom:

http://www.lycom.com.tw/ST106-2.htm

It's rebranded by Rosewill in the US:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119257

And seems to be also available from ES&S Cable in Europe:
http://www.esskabel.de/adapter/datasheet/ada-sata-ii-ide40-ly/1

The spec says it supports ATA UDMA mode up to 150MB/s.  The SATA side will not be a problem, as it's much much faster.

You should then be able to use any SATA SSD drive, though you'll need to supply external power to it.

I am not sure how much the CF-IDE adapter costs, but it seems to be all passive electronics - just a wire mapping.  So, I can't imagine it being too pricey.  So, without the SSD and the power supply, I am guessing it's less than $50 to try out.

Hope this helps!
Alexander

To my very limited knowledge, wouldnt the use of the IDE host eliminate the ability to hot-swap drives?

Why look into an IDE interface, with a maximum transfer speed of 163mb/s?

If we could hijack them to do some lossless (or almost-lossless RED-style) compression of the RAW data, we could be writing more net information to whatever media, within whatever IO bottlenecks there are.

I like your thinking, old boy!

Hah, would it be as simple as using the 182 extender and plugging it directly into a CF-to-SSD adapter such as this one below?
http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/581025713/SATA_to_Compact_Flash_SSD_Adapter.htm

l

This is perfect, CF Extension cable is needed (something like this: http://www.sycard.com/cfext182.html) or the CF to SATA:http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812200152CVF. All that is required is a cable (CF female connector to the camera).

http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/12-200-152CVF-01.jpg

Just noticed in your amazon CFSATA that hot swapping would not be possible, and Im assuming the same is with my alibaba model

I like your optimism, Rudi! My engineer and I are SO close to having a working CF-to-SSD solution--but that still only offers us a max of 160+/- output from the 5D3.

After we're done with the CFSSD interface, we are still going to work on adding a HDMI input to that same interface to act as a data recorder. I only hope that there is a HDMI development to follow suit!

Hey Renato - what's with the hostility?  How's any new user of MagicLantern that hasn't yet mastered the Magic gonna want to post on here with replies like yours?  Please try to lighten up so you sound less like the comic book guy from the simpsons.

While I am not taking sides with anyone, I would like to remind EVERYONE that ML is not a brick and mortar company, and there are no employees. It is an open source crowd driven development, where everyone is a customer, and everyone is a customer service representative. There are no rules or regulations aside from the forum rules, and as such users should not expect to be treated here as they would walking into a retail store.

To the point of physically altering the camera... I think you should just buy a new one that does what you want.

Software that unlocks features in one thing... hotroding a camera is another.

Will you please stop trolling and go hang out on a BMCC forum? Jesus.

Waveform is computed from jpeg YUV only. For raw video and photos, use raw histogram, raw zebras and maybe auto ETTR.

Didnt realize that, thanks for the heads up. Ive been using a smallHD monitor with WF/VS, not the GUI WFM.

OP: While what a1ex said is true about RAW video, you'd still want to use it for h264

[IMAGE]

Think of it this way:

In regards to light/color, when shooting a raw .C2R IMAGE, your picture style is not baked into the file. On the other side of the spectrum, when you shoot a .JPEG IMAGE, and you're on for example monochrome PS, then your final image will retain that black and white spectrum. Likewise, if you were to crank the contrast all the way up and the saturation all the way up on a RAW image, the effects will have no impact. But on a jpeg, you will end up with a...umm...beeeeautiful file to work with *cough cough*

Convert this to video. If you're shooting raw (comparable to .c2r in photo mode), then picture style will not effect the final output. If you're shooting h264(comparable to jpeg), then search for Technicolor Cinestyle. It is a superflat profile that will give your compressed footage a very "bland" image--and this is what you want.

[value]

From a cinematographers perspective, you should be able to dial in your shot in regards to exposure and temperature without even looking at "the monitor". ML 2.3 has a very good waveform monitor in the overlay menu, and this is where you start with exposure. A waveform is very similar to a histogram in appearance, but is not read the same.

A histogram seperates the total image into three basic categories from left to right(horizontal): low, mid, high. Generally speaking, a waveform monitor displays light value from 100%(crushed blacks) to 0%(clipped whites), and is vertical. If color correction/grading is in your planned workflow, you want to stay away from 100% and 0%, especially if you're shooting with a compressed format such as h264. With shooting compressed, your darkest of blacks should be 75% and your brightest of whites should be 12.5%. You have much more flexibility with raw, and you have freedom to completely crush your blacks(110%+) and clip the whites (-10%-).

My favorite feature with using a waveform is that while your luminosity value is shown on a vertical scale, your luminosity waveform is a representation of your image & displays horizontally, allowing you to see where the light is and what it is doing. Here's two simple visuals I mocked up for you to kind of define what I mean:




This is a basic staircase-like gradient. You can see how the values rise like a staircase on the WFM from left to right, because that is how the light is dispersed in the image.

Here's something a little more realistic, at least in terms of light:


You can see how the WFM levels are subjugated depending on the intensity of the light.

And this, my good sir, is how I recommend you expose

Is the live-view preview downsampled? 1.2.1 was a software update that increased the HDMI capabilities--my feeble mind just assumed that the same methodology could be applied to the output of the live-view feed in conjunction with the raw information.

I too would like to see proof-of-concept. Im working with a colleague that is an engineer at Makerbot on an interface, and it'd be great to see results.

I have done quite a bit of searching, but have not found a sure-fire answer. Is it known what the transfer write speeds of the HDMI interface from the 5D3 and 5D2 are? Do they surpass the CF write speed of 163/MBs?

If there could be a possibility of spitting raw data through HDMI, I already have a team of very skilled engineers I am financing to research an HDMI interface, as well as a CF-to-SATA interface with a minimum transfer rate of 500mb/s (for future cameras).

I would really like to have an official HDMI investigation started, but I am only a designer and investor, and have zero skills in development.

Is all this talk really worth it?  At the end of the day... the BMCC 4k does all that the 5D3 can do at only $400 more.

I've been testing my 5d3 raw files for a while now, and I love it.  But... without an additional processor to move the data, there will be no improvements to the write speed, and therefore nothing more than 1080p raw.

I feel you are on the wrong board, then. Everyone here is hopeful of a stable BMCC-competitive release for our individual models.

PMed you!

Rudi, i sent you a PM.

[A companies success would depend upon the vagaries of ML development.]

But doesn't the effectiveness rely on a wholly proprietary (without tm) system of data and interface? A companies success would depend upon the vagaries of ML development.

This would only be true if it were an interface designed solely for ML, but it is not.

The CF-to-SATA/HDMI concept is a HUGELY marketable product idea...We're at the event horizon of the 4k revolution, and we're going to need faster field recorders. There are already cell phones on the international market that record 2.5k video. To keep up with the competition, camera manufacturers are going to be forced to invest in a higher output for the low-cost market. I would bet my bottom dollar that pro/am HDLSR's(t2i's-7D's) will be hitting 2.5k by the end of 2014, and introducing 4k on higher end models(6D's-CXXX's).

With this, we will see a number of recording media options: Larger affordable CF/SD's, Thunderbolt/USB3.0 tethering, or CF-Tethered recording devices.

So again, there would be a large demand for some type of interface with super-speed r/w capabilities that would be compatible with current and future hardware.

The RAW video format decompiles to individual 14bit DNG files. What would be useful would be an app that could decompile the RAW2DNG and recompile to ProRes 444 or DNxHD

Would anyone by chance happen to have a complete 5D3 and/or 5D2 CAD model, or the schematics for the CF door?

I'm working closely with a software & electrical engineer on the CF-to-SATA solution, and my design includes a fitted CF port that "seals" the card slot, so the camera thinks that there is a card in the body. Whats more, the design does not physically modify the existing door/body, and there would be no need to "trick" the door slot.

I would measure and draft it out myself, but I do not have the time, and his CF-SATA interface would be complete before I could find the time.

-----------ignore. double post------------------

All those hdmi clean recorders were based on Canon' s new firmware. Seriously how many would jeopdise that relationship with the manufacturer and base their profit on an openware project? Organised by amatuers with no indemnity no less. I mean really?

I'm sorry if this sounds brash, but you're completely wrong. Of the various field recorders, none of them were made strictly for the Canon 5D3 1.3.1 firmware, it was the other way around. Field recorders, like the Ninja2 specifically, are strictly data collectors that compile the incoming video feed to ProRes or DNxHD from an HDMI source. This could be from a TV, BluRay player, DSLR or even an iPhone. And if you read my previous post, you'll see that I clearly stated the product could be marketed to the entire future DSLR market.

[CF-Tethered recording devices]

The CF-to-SATA/HDMI concept is a HUGELY marketable product idea. We dont need to tell them what it's for(a hack), we just need to tell them what our requirements are, and who our reachable demographic is. The market demographic includes any current DSLR with an HDMI output, and any future DSLR/Camera.

We're at the event horizon of the 4k revolution, and we're going to need faster field recorders. There are already cell phones on the international market that record 2.5k video. To keep up with the competition, camera manufacturers are going to be forced to invest in a higher output for the low-cost market. I would bet my bottom dollar that pro/am HDLSR's(t2i's-7D's) will be hitting 2.5k by the end of 2014, and introducing 4k on higher end models(6D's-CXXX's).

With this, we will see a number of recording media options: Larger affordable CF/SD's, Thunderbolt/USB3.0 tethering, or CF-Tethered recording devices.

If we could find a way to funnel the output through the cameras HDMI-out, I find it highly plausible that we could find a manufacturer with an HDMI interfaced ARM board to team up with.

I'm working on that.

PMed