50D Raw VS h264

[Cumulus]

I made a comparison video to show the difference between raw and h.264 on the 50D. I wanted to see how far both formats could be pushed. I started by grading the raw, then graded the h264 to match. I was surprised by some of the results!

Workflow:
Raw clips turned to .dng sequences with RAWanizer, then imported into After Effects (which prompts Adobe Camera Raw. Interpret footage: 24p. (Note: if you want to retune raw, Interpret Footage, More Options to relaunch ACR.)
Sequences dropped into AE comp, exported to QT Uncompressed 10 bit 422. (This took 2 hours for an 11 minute sequence, but edited smoothly in Premiere.)
Then edit in Premiere, where the h.264 clips were graded to match. Shadow/Highlight is causing most of the breakup you'll see. A very twitchy effect sometimes.

h.264:
1920X1080
Profile: Faithful
Graded with Premiere CS6:
-Three Way Color
-Shadow/Highlight
-Sharpen
No noise reduction
Cropped to 2.35:1

RAW:
1440x612 (2.35:1)
Graded in
Adobe Camera Raw
with Noise Reduction
Upscaled in Premiere

Note: I was limited to 1440x612 in Raw mode (which is 2.35:1, 35MB/s at 24p) because of the limitations of my CF card- a Lexar 32GB 800x. I now have a Komputerbay 64GB 1000x card which is capable of handling the 50D's current maximum resolution in RAW: 1592x896 (16:9, 57MB/s at 24p).

VIDEO HERE

Thank you again, everyone! I'm so grateful for this new format! And I love this forum. So many good people and great information!