RAW Video Rec on Commercial Job

[shotup]

Hi everyone

I'm on a small commercial job tomorrow and I want to take the "risk" and shoot raw video with Magic Lantern. As I have enough time, I will also record every shot in normal video just in case anything goes wrong with ML raw video. I don't need to record sound.

I'm using a Canon 5D Mark III with firmware 1.2.3 and ML Nightly.2014Jul16.5D3123.

I read in the forum, that it is safer to use the old raw module raw_rec.mo (v1.0) instead of mlv_rec (v2.0). Is that still the case?

If I use raw_rec.mo (v1.0), do I have to downgrade my Canon firmware to 1.1.3 or is it safe to use it with 1.2.3?

My next question is about converting the MLV or RAW files into DNG on Mac OS.

Is there a difference in quality between using MLRawViewer (1.1.7) or RawMagic from Rarevision when converting the files into DNG?

Thank you for your help and support!

[spnsir]

Hi everyone

I'm on a small commercial job tomorrow and I want to take the "risk" and shoot raw video with Magic Lantern. As I have enough time, I will also record every shot in normal video just in case anything goes wrong with ML raw video. I don't need to record sound.

I'm using a Canon 5D Mark III with firmware 1.2.3 and ML Nightly.2014Jul16.5D3123.

I read in the forum, that it is safer to use the old raw module raw_rec.mo (v1.0) instead of mlv_rec (v2.0). Is that still the case?

I get better performance from RAW. I only use MLV when I need to record sound as well.

If I use raw_rec.mo (v1.0), do I have to downgrade my Canon firmware to 1.1.3 or is it safe to use it with 1.2.3?

Safe with either in my experience.

My next question is about converting the MLV or RAW files into DNG on Mac OS.

Is there a difference in quality between using MLRawViewer (1.1.7) or RawMagic from Rarevision when converting the files into DNG?

Not sure. I use RawMagic and have used MLVMystic. Both worked well. Occasional lock-ups. MLVMystic can only process around 50 files at once.

Thank you for your help and support!

[Kharak]

My experience with raw rec is that its 100% reliable. Only way raw rec messes up is if the user does something stupid.

Mlv works like 98% of the time.. Very rare, but sometimes, some shots are just messed up for no apparent reason

[shotup]

Thanks to both of you. I will use raw_rec.mo tomorrow.

[Midphase]

Is there a difference in quality between using MLRawViewer (1.1.7) or RawMagic from Rarevision when converting the files into DNG?

There shouldn't be any quality difference, mostly it's a workflow ease issue with some additional options available. I use MLRawViewer for on-set playback and to check the integrity of the footage, but I much prefer RAWMagic for conversion since its drag-and-drop ease and very clear cut way of displaying queued files just makes it a lot easier and faster for me to process what are sometimes hundreds of Gb of data.

RAWMagic also gives you the option to downsize to 12bit CDNG instead of upsizing to 16Bit (Canon Raw is 14bit). The difference between 14bit and 12bit is IMHO not perceptible and it does save a wee bit of disk space while making the files smoother to playback in both Resolve and Premiere. It used to be that Premiere would only display 12bit files correctly, but the latest CC version seems to have addressed this and now 16bit CDNG files appear to work properly as well.

My #1 piece of advice for you would be to have a sharp DIT who knows how to deal with ML footage. I think it's a key requirement if you're on a professional shoot. The DIT needs to know how to check data integrity, and convert the files with the best tool and to the specs agreed upon. I can not imagine surviving a professional shoot any other way.

[shotup]

Thank you very much for your explanation.

My #1 piece of advice for you would be to have a sharp DIT who knows how to deal with ML footage. I think it's a key requirement if you're on a professional shoot. The DIT needs to know how to check data integrity, and convert the files with the best tool and to the specs agreed upon. I can not imagine surviving a professional shoot any other way.

I totally agree with what you are saying. It's always much more comfortable and less stressful, when you have professionals on set who can take care of their job. But the job is not that big - it's basically a one man show and I'm shooting not that much footage tomorrow. It's only about 12 minutes and I have enough time to setup everything, offload the files from the card to my Mac and do some data integrity checks and backups after each scene. But if I could afford it, a DIT would also be my first choice in a bigger commercial production.

Honestly, I think there are not many DITs in my area, who know how to deal with ML footage. Maybe this will change as ML becomes more and more popular.