Hi Guys. A few observations if you can confirm them:
It seems that on all cameras/card combinations frame skipping is an issue including the 5d3. I have the 5d3 with 128GB 1000x KomputerBay CF card. I start skipping frames about 10 seconds in at 1920x1080. I also skip frames at: 1920x960, 1920x840. I do not skip frames at 1920x720. I'm still wondering how others are reporting that they are recording 1920x1080 video on the 5d3. I'm thinking the announcements around the internet are premature about 1080p RAW on the 5d3 being a reality.
The encoding of RAW into a finalized usable clip is very slow and tedious. While the workflow may improve, I don't see the encoding time improving drastically when working with large amounts of footage.
Is the development process showing signs of cracking these issues? Are we even sure that we're not bumping into limitations of the camera controller on the 5d3 causing frame skipping? I guessuntil someone gets the 1066 card we will not know...
I've been holding back on the c100 until I hear where this is going, but this does not yet seem quite the holy grail that Cinema5d and nofilmschool are putting out on the street...
I just ordered and received the same CF card as you... the KomputerBay 128gb 1000x CF card and have been running tests with each of the various Raw builds over the last 3 days. The latest build for 5D3 someone just posted from today seems to be the best in terms of speed... see
http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=5413.25 (Reply #30). This includes some small memory tweaks that definitely helped me get a little bit longer runtimes as well as moved me up to the next resolution without dropped frames.
Here has been my experience with the KomputerBay 128 GB 1000x CF card...
For my tests, I tried Global draw turned ON and OFF and there was no significant difference except maybe a second or two extra of recording time but the extra time was not consistent. So I decided to leave Global Draw = ON (with just
peaking and
crop marks enabled).
My tests using the ML benchmark utility shows read speeds that range anywhere from 52MB/s to 72MB/s. Using CrystalDiskMark and ATTO Disk Benchmark, I get similar write speeds so my particular card seems to have a write speed that varies a bit. I would say the average write speed that I get most of the time is about 65MB/s which is completely in line with the ML benchmarks and the listed speed needed by each resolution listed under the RAW video section of ML. So I would trust the ML benchmarks and recommended write speeds for each resolution. I have also confirmed that at least one other person is getting similar write speed using this card.
That said, the buffer/memory tweak Alex made today did have a significant impact when using my card.
Here are my tests Before today's build...
1920 x 720 or less resolution (no skipped frames for complete 4gb file)
1920 x 840 (no skipped frames for complete 4 gb file)...
before today's build, this was the best I could do.1920 x 900 (no skipped frames for complete 4 gb file)...
tweaks added to today's build allowed me to use resolution for first time1920 x 960 (maybe 10 seconds before frame skipping begins.. unusable beyond that)
1920 x 1080 (maybe 1-2 seconds before frame skipping begins... unusabe beyond that)
After using today's build...
1920 x 900 (no skipped frames for complete 4 gb file)
before today's build, I could not use this resolution1920 x 960 (went from 10 seconds to 20 seconds before frame skipping begins.. unusable beyond that)
1920 x 1080 (went from 1-2 seconds to 5 seconds before frame skipping begins... unusabe beyond that)
So the tweaks made by Alex today have definitely helped so I encourage further memory/buffer optimizations... they are making a difference.
I don't know how EOSHD, Nuemann Films, and Cinema 5D are getting 1080P and greater without dropped frames. They say they are using the same card. Maybe some of these cards are getting faster write times. Or maybe they are just getting that resolution for a limited time but a bit longer than me before frame skipping appears. If any of them can chime in here to clarify, it would helpful for those considering the Komputerbay cards. This card is by far the most realistic in terms of pricing for the vast majority of people who want to take advantage of this RAW update and plan on using it beyond test videos and personal work. None of the other cards comes close in terms of price/gb. The other solutions by Lexar and Toshiba (soon) are more like $650 for 128gb vs $178 or KomputerBay. I'm sure this will eventually change, but that could take a year or longer before cheaper alternatives are available. But there is no getting around the fact that the less than ideal write speed of these cards may prevent continuous 1080p for some (depending on their particular card?). But continued memory optimization and other techniques by the ML team may be able to extend 1080p recording from 5 seconds to 30 seconds or possibly more when using this card. If that can be attained, the vast majority of folks will be able use this resolution in many shooting scenarios, short of documentary or event work. I do realize that smaller resolutions can be scaled up in post nicely, but I tend to avoid that as do many others I'm sure.
Lastly, on the topic of workflow mentioned above... it's completely worth the time as far as I'm concerned. The difference is night and day. There are a lot of test videos coming out now, some of which don't fully capture the quality improvement gained here. EOSHD, Nuemann Films, and Cinema 5D did great job of showing what's possible. Just wait until some shorts and features by other skillful DOPs start to appear online. While I don't love the added work required in post, I find it impossible to go back to H.264 after getting used to the look of my footage now...it's improved that much.
Thank you Alex and team for this... also to g3gg0 who apparently had a huge role in making this particular breakthrough happen.
