Mysterious 'white flash' phenomenon in multiple files, 5DMKII

[woody084]

Hi all,

In recent months Ive been experiencing a strange phenomenon; a white 'flash' that occurs in the video image while recording on the 5D MKII. It looks kind of like the ISO increases dramatically for a frame then returns to normal. Ive seen it on probably 10 occasions now at least, on different camera bodies and using different lenses, in indoor and outdoor conditions. Im just recording regular .h264, no RAW recording or HDR functions or anything. I use some overlays and tools like spotmeter, peaking, magic zoom etc.

*UPDATE*: Based on another users feedback, Im adding that Ive had this problem occur with both zoom and prime lenses, but not during the act of zooming that im aware of.

This link is to a clip where it occured during an interview on two different cameras using two different lenses within a few seconds of each other.

  Password: gordon

Lenses used in this clip were 70-200mm 2.8L Version 1 and 85mm f1.2L.

Im not completely sure which versions I was running on each camera, but the two versions I have on my CF cards are:

Nightly 2014 June 19 f9a29c7c0685 (unified)
Nightly 2014 Apr 15 52e2627ad8c5

When it first started occuring I ran deep formats on my CF cards and installed the older version (Apr 15) on some cards to see if that helped, but the issue still seems to occur.

Im not at all knowledgeable about the programming and testing of ML so sorry if this isnt enough info or not very scientific. I havent seen this issue reported before so just wondering if others have experienced it and if it is indeed firmware related or not.

[mediabaron]

I've had that happen to my videos too, I think it was with my Canon 60D, but could have been with my 7D. Usually happens when I'm zooming with my 10-22mm lens and usually indoors. It's like the aperture jumps open then back again in my case but looks the same as yours with a blip of over exposure. I figured it was the aperture trying to find it's setting, since it's a variable aperture lens, or perhaps some kind of electrical interference.

[DeafEyeJedi]

does this only occur when having ML installed in -- have you tried it w/o ML and see results?

or have you already tried that and problem still persist?

thanks for sharing @woody084!

[woody084]

That is probably the test that I havent done DeafEyeJedi, because I love ML too much and really dislike shooting without it! But i suppose I will need to bite the bullet and run some tests in vanilla Canon firmware.

[reddeercity]

What CF Card are you using ? Do you have any Auto function enabled ?
Basically what was the ML Raw setting for Capturing , How long are the takes etc...?
Can you find the frame with Flash? is there any detail .

[woody084]

Both cameras are using Sandisk Extreme CF cards (60mb/s), and the recording is just .H264 not RAW or ML RAW. I dont shoot with any auto functions at all, except perhaps Auto Int/Ext for the camera audio. All exposure and WB settings are manual. The file lengths are usually several minutes at least as the specific example ive linked was an interview situation.

I was thinking more about what DeafEyeJedi said and thought that i would add that one camera is approx. 4 years old and the other approx. 3 years old. I had shot for about 1 year on Canon firmware and had never seen this problem before. Similarly I then shot with ML for about 1.5 years before coming across this phenomenon.

By kind of eliminating a few different factors, I guess for the fault to occur on two different cameras of very different ages with different lenses attached, then other than the firmware could it possibly be the CF cards that are failing? The cards would be at least two years old by now. It just seems a freakish coincidence that two cards would be failing at the same time. The only real common element to the situation is the firmware.