Movie Restart in RAW Video

[Adamdes]

I am using RAW Video with a low FPS (ex. 0.2 fps) on a 600D (T3i) and would LOVE to be able to record RAW Video for over 30 minutes.

A1ex confirmed that although Movie Restart was not meant for raw video, it can be refactored to work with it.

p.s.: What I am looking for is a way to do timelapses for over 30 minutes without shutter actuations. There are instability issues with RAW Silent Pics on the 600D that rule this option out, so Movie Restart with RAW Video would be a good workaround.

p.s.2: I am not a programmer, but if someone is able to code+compile this, I would be happy to test it on my 600D.

[a1ex]

I gave you the solution in the other thread. Why are you opening another one on the same subject?

[Adamdes]

I just re-read your post, and you wrote yourself that "it could be refactored to work with it", so I understood that I needed to ask for this in the Feature Requests section.

The link you posted is a solution for continuous recording, but IMO a bad alternative for timelapse. An external recorder makes it possible to record video for over 30 minutes but has many downsides: extra hardware/cables/batteries($$$), lower resolution (than RAW Video or intervalometer+stills), quite heavy workflow (because it records video instead of single images). Far from ideal for timelapse. I guess it is an alternative, but not one that appeals to me.

Altough I use RAW Video for timelapses, I believe other people would also benefit of Movie Restart to record continuous RAW for over 30 minutes, especially people using faster cameras (5DII 5DIII) who can record at 24p/30p at a decent resolution (however I'm not sure how much memory 30+ minutes of RAW recording would require). I read of people shooting weddings, opera and such, I don't see why they would not be happy to be able to do it in RAW (again if they have enough memory available to do so).

That being said, all I am asking is if Movie Restart can keep working now that it is possible to record video in RAW format. To me Movie Restart was originally a great feature in "basic" video when it was introduced. Now that Magic Lantern introduced RAW video recording, it would be great to keep that feature working while recording video in RAW.

If I should not ask for this in the Feature Requests section, then how should I?

[a1ex]

Canon powersave is kicking in; use sticky half-shutter as an workaround.

http://wiki.magiclantern.fm/faq#how_do_i_record_for_more_than_12_minutes

I did not suggest using an external recorder. Also, "movie restart", from its very name, is not a solution for continuous recording (it was a workaround for H.264). With RAW, you can do continuous recording for 50 hours if you have a power supply (and if your sensor won't get burned).

Why don't you try the solution from the other thread?

[Adamdes]

I tried the sticky half-shutter and had an error after about 31 minutes the first time I tried it. The crash generated COREDUMP.DAT and CRASH00.LOG files on my memory card. I can send you those files but I am unsure how to do so.

The info on that page says

To record continuously for more than 30 minutes, you need to use a HDMI recorder.[...]

, and that info was also quoted by the user who asked the question in the link you refered to, that's why I believed you were suggesting using a HDMI recorder...

[Adamdes]

Here is the CRASH00.LOG:

Code Select Expand

[2] raw_rec_task: NULL PTR (0,e1a00000)
pc=ff07e654 lr=ff07e654 stack=162160+0x1000
entry=bd35a8(0)
e1a00000   330014 bc262612  100209a
d88b4b00 e1a00000 e59ff010 e59ff010


Magic Lantern version : Nightly.2014May13.600D102
Mercurial changeset   : 1d36eb38522b (unified) tip
Built on 2014-05-13 01:00:35 UTC by [email protected].
Free Memory  : 250K + 1003K


I have put the Coredump.dat file in my dropbox, but I don't have a public folder in my dropbox account so I believe I need an email address/dropbox account to share it with someone.

[a1ex]

On 600D, this error may appear after you stop recording, and seems to be a Canon bug: http://magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=10913

Are you sure sticky half-shutter was engaged?

[Adamdes]

Recording stopped (but not by me!) when the error was generated, I was looking at the display when it happenned (because it was the first time I was able to go over 30 minutes in RAW Video so I was almost crying of happiness ).

I don't think the crash was caused by memory card speed as I was using 0.2 fps and each resulting DNG is just over 1.5M. Also the only times (only a handful) I have had recording stopping on me it happenned one or two seconds after starting the recording.

Yes, sticky half-shutter was engaged. There was an indication HS in red on the display to confirm that it was pressed too.

I tried it again twice after that and both times I was able to record for much longer and only got the crash message when I manually stopped recording.

I am seeing this as the alternative to silent pictures, which is a hit and miss with pink frames on the 600D. I hope it is not the same situation with RAW Rec + sticky HS.

[a1ex]

Do you know why it stopped? (buffer full or something else - you can find more info if you enable some debug screens).

Was it RAW or MLV? Tried with/without small hacks (or extra hacks)? Worth trying all combinations, maybe one of them should get rid of that null pointer error. However, I think the error appears after stopping (so it's not that error that's causing the stopping).

Silent pictures use the same raw backend, so the captured data should be identical.

[Adamdes]

I don't know why it stopped. I have now done 4 more test runs and did not have the issue again.

It was RAW_REC.mo, not MLV. The only changes from default (visible in the delta section of ML in the camera) were:
- Full RAW Histogram
- FPS Override set to 0.2/Exact FPS
- RAW Video
- REC/STBY notify: Red Crossout
- Sticky HS.

Not sure what you mean by small hacks/extra hacks, but I will do a few more tests before I go out and use this to capture a timelapse scene I don't want to miss, but if I can not reproduce the issue I will not worry about it.

I do not remember ever haing a pink frame with RAW Video, but have had pink frames many times with silent pictures. I can not explain why that is, but because of this I cannot trust silent pictures and will keep using RAW Video for daytime timelapses. I will probably stick to regular intervalometer+shutter when longer exposure times are required. Unless it becomes possible to slow down FPS Override even more to user shutter speeds down to 20 or 30sec.

I apologize again for mis-understanding your solution of using sticky half-shutter and thank you for the great work of development and support of Magic Lantern.