Canon 5D Mark III

[a1ex]

Fun stuff: the 5D3 has a headphone jack and it's possible to upload music on it and listen while taking pictures

On-topic: audio meters are working, but Canon has them too.

[nanomad]

Ouch 

[squig]

There is hope for MJPEG 422 or clean HDMI out though

MJPEG 422 would be bloody fantastic in the 150-200Mbit/s range No real need for ProRes then.

[csound]

MJPEG 422... very exciting prospect! Hope it's possible.

[agsingh]

I would love to see this new piece of hardware and processing power that the Mark 3 brings put to full use. I might be aiming too high here but bitrate and output like the GH2 hacked would be awesome! It would be great to see sharp video like that come out of the mark 3

thanks for all the work you have put in so far a1ex!

[Marsu42]

CARD_DRIVE is used in string concatenation at compile time

Well, then the easiest way would be to do two compiles (at least for ml release versions), one for the sd and one for cf card slot? Imho that would be better than to force end-users to use one specific slot.

[pascalc]

Hi all,

Thanks for your great job and really happy to hear that things are on a good way.

I used a couple of 60D in tv documentary production for one year with great results. I would never have tried that without ML. Now I would like to switch to my brand new 5D3 !

All you can do is highly appreciated but here is what is most important for my video use :

- Analog audio gain control with separated values for each channel.

- Audio graphic monitoring in the upper black part of the screen like others ML. Canon implemented one indeed but so badly located and small!

- Possibility to adjust the audio output level - essentially louden

- Same iso treatment as ML 2.3

- Expo override 1/25e

- Zebra, focus peak, histogram, magic zoom, discrete virtual horizon

- Possibility to flip the screen vertically and/or horizontally in order to use a small mirror system to compensate the lack of rotating screen.

All you can do to enhance video quality is also very welcome : higher bitrate, clean 4.2.2 on HDMI, HDR in 1080p25...

Just an idea/question : is it possible to make raid 0 using the 2 slots, with 1 sd and 1 cf of same capacities, to be able to record very high bitrate or fps?

Thanks again and hope to hear from you soon.

Pascal

[Francis]

Raid 0 seems like it would be unlikely. Raid controllers are hardware, not software. Raid software emulators are typically restricted to raid 1. Also you would have to figure out a way to mount both cards as a RAID 0 array on your computer to get the files off of the cards.  I would also imagine that the write speeds are not the same for the 2 card slots.

[planetMitch]

Hey Alex and crew!

Sad but true... I finally managed to make time this morning to load ML on my 5D2 - have been intending to check out the latest version for months but finally forced myself to make some time.

Have to say I'm incredibly impressed. Last time I tried it was about a year or so ago and it was good, but confusing to use... this latest version is absolutely amazing! I cannot believe what you guys have managed to do and now, I'm totally pissed at  Canon for their lack of foresight to implement some of these features! Geez, I mean really... why can't they at least include an intervalometer? Basic stuff.

[gjgigol]

Raid 0 seems like it would be unlikely. (...)  I would also imagine that the write speeds are not the same for the 2 card slots.

This is true. There even was a big discussion o how the SD card slows down the CF one (in specific cases) because of the throughput differences: jeffcable.blogspot.com/2012/06/why-you-should-not-put-sd-card-in-your.html?m=1

[Lcrusher]

Read your low level progress. Real time defishing is an interesting feature. Can it work on video too? Are all those features in the stock firmware and just disabled by canon or is it so we thing you write yourself?

[a1ex]

Most ML features were written from scratch; there are very few features that were present in Canon firmware but are just hidden. Movie recording on 50D and Kelvin WB on Rebel cameras are some examples of unlocked features.

Digic effects (including ML ISOs or display contrast/saturation) could also be considered unlocked features: the image processing chip (seen as a library of routines) implements them, but they are not present in the main firmware. It's not something implemented and then removed from Canon menus, but a capability of the image processor which was not fully used.

Defishing is for preview only, to help with framing.

Regarding the CPU power: I went ahead and implemented a new display mode for focus peaking, with alpha blending rather than small blinking dots, which looks very nice but it's a bit slow (LiveView runs 15-20 fps with this enabled). I didn't think DIGIC 4 is fast enough for this, but had a big surprise: on 5D2, the same code runs just as fast as on 5D3. So, either the ARM chip from DIGIC V is just as fast (or as slow) as in DIGIC IV, or there's more CPU power used by Canon tasks (and less left for ML tasks). Maybe the speed-up in DIGIC V was only for the image processing chips?

[wintix]

Do you think you can do a alpha build to enable the community to provide you with feedback or is it still a bit too early for that?

In case you do not wish to publish a done build for the 5d3, is it possible to try and build it yourself or would you recommend to not do that because it's too unsafe atm?

Your work is greatly appreciated! Only today we were filming an event with a few EOS cams and i sooo wished for some of the ML features like focus peek and zebras on the 5d3 and not only on the 550ds.

[a1ex]

It's a bit too early at this point. I've saved a ROM dump from my camera, just in case. Overall it works pretty well, but it doesn't feel as solid as it's on 5D2 (I've got some random ERR02 messages).

I'm thinking to start with a beta with few features (for example, start with zebras, peaking, histograms), have a few early testers run it for one week, and if it's rock solid, I can add some more things. Then repeat this process as many weeks as needed, until the port is complete.

There is an issue that's stopping me for publishing it: how to handle multiple cards. Right now it's hardcoded to work on CF cards only. As long as you don't use any features that access the filesystem (like movie logging, HDR post scripts or other files created by ML), you can also boot ML from a CF card and save pictures/movies on a SD card.

I could compile two binaries - one for CF cards and another for SD cards - and select one automatically. I have to find a way to detect which cards are loaded from bootloader stage. I'm afraid that letting the users manually choose the right version will create trouble.

Restoring ML after format doesn't work, so probably the best way to deploy it will be to load ML on a SD card (which will always be in the camera), and shoot on CF cards. Or viceversa (load ML on a CF cards and shoot on SD cards).

Handling multiple cards requires some major code changes, and I've already had trouble with the most basic file I/O calls ( http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=2528.0 ) .

Since my proposal of limiting it to CF cards was not welcome, I think we'll have to wait until these things are solved.

[Lcrusher]

So, either the ARM chip from DIGIC V is just as fast (or as slow) as in DIGIC IV, or there's more CPU power used by Canon tasks (and less left for ML tasks). Maybe the speed-up in DIGIC V was only for the image processing chips?

As I understand canon changed the video "resize" method for the 5d3. They used to line skip but now, considering the absence of aliasing, they use a more advanced resize method. Not sure if that's true but I think they also enabled chromatic aberration correction for photo and video as well. I guess that uses some precessing power too. No wonder you're left with only a fraction of the DIGIC5+ CPU power.

I also wonder if the 5d can do 4k video as the 1D C does.

[wintix]

A beta with only a few features once you are satisfied with their stability sounds like a sane way to proceed.

Since my proposal of limiting it to CF cards was not welcome, I think we'll have to wait until these things are solved.

Personally I like the idea of using the SD slot as ~permanent residence for ML since as above stated it is slower than the CF slot when used and hence is absolutely uninteresting to me. That approach would also likely get rid of any issues resulting from a format of the CF card.

Depending on what cam you previously had there are obviously reasons for wanting to use the SD slot as primary slot, due to e.g. a already purchased SD card army, but CF cards aren't that steep an investment compared to the price of the 5d3. You can get a reasonable fast 32GB 600x CF card for under 80€ these days and that's one with 90mb/s read and write.

Heading for the CF slot as pic/video dump might also make more sense simply due to it's speed and possibly higher bitrate video output due to that fact?

[csound]

I would be happy to have ML working with either card option - whichever works best. It will very difficult to please everyone in this regard so perhaps stability and function should be the overriding factor.

[JohnN]

I would be happy to have ML working with either card option - whichever works best. It will very difficult to please everyone in this regard so perhaps stability and function should be the overriding factor.

Agreed - given what they're getting (most likely for free) surely they can stump up for a card they can use for images too!

[squig]

Restoring ML after format doesn't work, so probably the best way to deploy it will be to load ML on a SD card (which will always be in the camera), and shoot on CF cards. Or viceversa (load ML on a CF cards and shoot on SD cards).

Handling multiple cards requires some major code changes, and I've already had trouble with the most basic file I/O calls ( http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=2528.0 ) .

Since my proposal of limiting it to CF cards was not welcome, I think we'll have to wait until these things are solved.

Loading ML from an SD card and recording to a CF card is the best option looking forward. If you can enable MJPEG 422 or push the ALL-I bit-rate then recording to CF cards makes much more sense. Media is cheap as chips these days so it's a very small investment for welcome new features. Spending days or weeks trying to get ML loading from both slots is a big waste of your time given that it doesn't improve on the MKIII's filmmaking ability one bit.

I'm up for being a bit-rate crash test dummy.

[Lcrusher]

Loading ML from an SD card and recording to a CF card is the best option looking forward. If you can enable MJPEG 422 or push the ALL-I bit-rate then recording to CF cards makes much more sense. Media is cheap as chips these days so it's a very small investment for welcome new features. Spending days or weeks trying to get ML loading from both slots is a big waste of your time given that it doesn't improve on the MKIII's filmmaking ability one bit.

I'm up for being a bit-rate crash test dummy.

I agree.

[Jason Montalvo]

I agree.

I agree as well !! Alex you're the man !!! If MJEP422 is doable, that would be huge and I think you should charge for ML on 5D3. I know I would pay for it.

[a1ex]

The port is already becoming usable, and I went ahead and recorded the first timelapse with bulb ramping on 5D Mark III.

I'm thinking to start public testing pretty soon, maybe next week. First with a minimal version, then enable new features when the old ones are confirmed to be rock solid.

MJPEG requires more research, at this point I'm not even sure if it will work, so first I'd like to have a basic version working. I'll also publish some binaries for researching bitrate settings.

[Lcrusher]

How about the clean HDMI?

[a1ex]

Before researching new things I think it's better to have the basics fully working.

[Lcrusher]

I'm just wondering if clean HDMI out on the Mark III is possible why it's not possible on the Mark II