Silent picture capture with raw video format

[dmilligan]

What size raw file can it capture in silent mode? Largest?
Whats the longest exposure time in silent mode?
Will silent raw capture work with bracketing and ettr?

It's not clear if your asking about regular silent picture or full-res.

Full-res silent pics answers:
1. The full resolution of your sensor
2. 15s
3. No (fastest shutter speed is 1/10s which will confuse ETTR)

Regular silent pics answers:
1. It's the same as raw video max resolutions, so see this chart
2. 1/FPS
3. Yes

Can it damage the camera to have the mirro/shutter open for that long? Bad to point it at bright light?

No different from shooting a movie for a long time, the main concern would be dust, and permanent damage is unlikely. The camera has built in mechanisms that will shut it off automatically in case of overheating. However, that being said:

We cannot guarantee that using ML won't cause your camera to burst into flames, but if it does, you get to keep the ashes.

[ferrocium]

dmilligan,
Thank you for your quick reply.  To clarify, I am wondering if the camera can take a large enough picture in raw using silent mode to make a 4k timelapse video (3840 x 2160 pixels).  It looks like, judging from the max video resolutions chart link you gave, that regular silent mode is not enough and I would need to somehow get full-res silent mode to work on my camera to get shots large enough for 4k TL video.  From the info you gave it also looks like full-res silent mode opens up longer exposure times too 

I mainly work with night sky and landscape timelapse.  Over time I take a lot of photos and would like to extend the life of my shutter / mirror mechanism.  Also, I don't want the camera working to convert raw to DNG because it puts further drain on the battery.  I need to squeeze out all the battery time I can get for timelapse especially if I have to use live mode for the shots.
That being said, it looks like the full-res / save in raw mod would be perfect for what I need.  I just need to figure out how to get it on my camera card.

For night time timelapses using AETTR the shutter speed would never get faster than 1/10" so ETTR should work for the night shots right?  I'm wanting to transition from day (sundown time) to night stars.

[Walter Schulz]

Just for the battery thing: External batteries will solve such troubles. Adapters are available at low costs.

[ferrocium]

Yeah, I have the external battery grip, but when I'm miles out on a backpacking trip shoot it is easy to run out of battery and be out of luck.  Also don't want to carry too much weight.

[Walter Schulz]

I was not referring to battery grips. Power adapters may connect to several battery types.

[dmilligan]

How difficult would it be to enable this capability (single MLV) for silent pics taken via multiple half-presses? Any chance you could implement that?

in modules/silent/silent.c, in the save_mlv() function (line 234), replace the following code:

Code: [Select]

    if (is_intervalometer_running())
    {
        frame_number = get_interval_count();
    }
change it to this:

Code: [Select]

    static int current_frame_number = 0;
    frame_number = current_frame_number;
    current_frame_number++;

and then recompile silent.mo

[ferrocium]

So... after reading more threads on this forum and discovering how the ML community works I realize just how noob my request was to show me how to install silent full-res raw for my 60D camera.  I see that there are many noobs on here with many requests.  Forgive me, I won't be offended if nobody shows me how to implement this.

But if someone is willing to show me how and where to get the compiled file working on my camera I would do my best to provide useful feedback to help the progress of this awesome module.  I'm in the process of reading the "Want to help with the latest development but don't know how to compile?" thread.  There should be a thread titled "How to provide useful testing feedback to developers", but I couldn't find anything like that.

+1 Vote from me for getting silent/full-res/raw save working well enough to place into nightly builds ASAP.  It would be the best thing that has happened to timelapse junkies since the intervalometer!

[bookemdano]

in modules/silent/silent.c, in the save_mlv() function (line 234), replace the following code:
Code: [Select]
    if (is_intervalometer_running())
    {
        frame_number = get_interval_count();
    }
change it to this:
Code: [Select]
    static int current_frame_number = 0;
    frame_number = current_frame_number;
    current_frame_number++;

and then recompile silent.mo

Thanks dmilligan that works great. Can I trouble you again to ask if there is any way I can get more FPS out of this (remember I'm talking about Simple mode, not full-res)? Even holding the shutter button down halfway I get what looks like a little less than 2FPS. I'm trying to get at least 3FPS continuous, since that's the slowest rate my projector can go. Are there any settings you can think of in ML or the Canon menus that would speed it up? I'm already using an SanDisk Pro Extreme which is maxxing the 40MB/s SD bus on my 6D (I don't think the SD card is the bottleneck here, anyway).

Barring anything that can be done in the menus, in your opinion is there any further optimization that can be done to silent.mo to yield a slightly faster FPS? I'm just wondering if it's even possible or I'm bound here by some other constraint.

I should mention I haven't actually tried connecting this to my projector set up yet (which would be actuating the half-press actions via the wired remote port). But I figured that holding the shutter button halfway is going to show the max rate the camera is able to go.

Just wondering what my options are at this point. Any light you (or anyone else) can shed would be much appreciated.

Thanks again!

[dmilligan]

simple mode is exactly the same image data as raw video, so you could just shoot raw video, and you'll get 24 (or whatever) fps

there are also some burst modes in the silent picture menu.

[bookemdano]

Thanks dmilligan. Unfortunately those options won't work for me (without introducing other complications) because it's impossible to keep the frame rame in sync between the projector and DSLR. I have outfitted my projector with a microswitch which can signal the DSLR to capture the next frame. But without completely replacing the motor in the projector, the slowest speed it offers is ~3FPS.

I have actually played around with RAW video prior to this and had no problem getting 24FPS continuous at 1024x768 (this is 8mm film so that is plenty of resolution for it). Figured 3FPS even at the full LV resolution would be no problem (file sizes are about 4MB each so it ought to be able to do 8 or 9FPS before exceeding the speed of the SD bus).

That's why I was wondering if maybe there are any settings in the menus that might eke out more speed. Has anyone seen higher speeds also with a 5D3 or maybe even an APS-C camera (due to smaller LV resolution)?

Any ideas? Thanks again.

[ghostmanno]

Hi bookemdano,

Have had any progress on doing Telecine with your 6D? , I got a MovieStuff Workprinter XP and was thinking the same as you with the ML making it possible to take pictures without the shutter. I have EOS 30D so there is no ML on that so I was thinking a long the lines of a used 50D but I am not sure if it can keep up with the Workprinter XP running at about 6-7 fps but it would be possible to swap out the AC motor and use a DC motor and slow it down to even below 1 fps. Very slow but may worth the waiting to get the best image possible form the super 8 film.

Maybe it also would be possible to use Tethered shooting so the images goes directly to a computer over the usb but that maybe a bottleneck.

-GM