ML RAW reflections 5D3

[hateom]

Hi guys,

I have shot a first professional project last weekend using ML RAW on my 5DMK3.
2 full days of shooting, 4 KomputerBay 64GiB cards and a laptop to transfer the data immediately.
I was using MLRawViewer to preview the clips on location directly from cards.

I recorded over 1TB in total, no bad frames at all, camera didn't freeze, etc.
Seems ML is getting more and more stable.
I don't recommend using ML RAW in any commercial work, it's risky and you can lose the take that cannot be repeated.
However it seems that the probability of a failure is dropping down.
A few months back I was still getting "green/pink" frames or the camera had to be restarted by removing the battery.

All in all - the 5DMK3 is a very powerful camera when coupled with ML, and gives extremely good quality footage.
If you know the workflow downsides and they are not blocking you from using it, the quality will be rewarding.

Random frame from the project described above:
http://goo.gl/Oim7EK

Shot in 1080p 25fps.

Cheers,
Tom

[jtvision]

Do you mean it is good to use ML RAW or it isn't? I just can't seem to catch the point from above message.

[hateom]

If you are ok to take the risk and not easy workflow - definitely.
The quality you get is stunning, and to get something like that natively you need to spend a lot more than the price tag of 5d3.

[jtvision]

Which one do you think is more reliable MLV or RAW 1.0?

[hateom]

I used to use RAW 1.0, because of some issues with MLV, mostly shorter recording times, and pink frames at times, but I started testing MLV again a few weeks ago, and no problems since then. So for now the only difference I see is when I use 3x crop. Using RAW I can get significantly longer recording time than MLV. The latter gives me 10-15 seconds only while RAW can go over half a minute or more.

But for regular 1080p 25p MLV + WAV 1TB of footage was recorded with no problems at all.

[jtvision]

Thanks hateom, that was helpful!

[tomekk]

What was your workflow if you don't mind sharing?

[seattler]

Hateom, can I ask how you decided whether to shoot 24p or 25p? I had always heard that 24 was the "film look", but seems like lots of people shoot in 25 as well.

[Frank7D]

24p is NTSC, 25p is PAL.

[jas.brooks]

24p is to match a film camera, 25p is PAL, 30p (or 27.973 to be precise) is NTSC.

-jason

[Frank7D]

Yes, 24p exact is movie film rate.
23.976 is (intended for) NTSC (becomes 29.97 with pulldown).

[artyg]

hateom, what build of ML you used? My current build 25 april 2014 and 113 canon firmware seem not stable...

[hateom]

@tomekk: I am working on a detailed blog post describing the whole process with all the details, will post the link soon!

@seattler: I shot the clip in 25p because a) I live in Europe and we have PAL standard b) in case the video will be broadcasted in TV, the framerate will match without conversion. For the internet it doesn't really matter whether it is 24p or 25p.

@artyg: 30 June, try upgrading, hotfixes are applied all the time, so perhaps a latest one will work for you just fine!

[hateom]

I've just posted some more details on my blog: http://blog.tomasz.cc/2014/09/shooting-music-video-ml-raw-5d-mark-iii/

[hateom]

And for anyone interested, part II is here:
http://blog.tomasz.cc/2014/10/shooting-music-video-ml-raw-part-2/

[rainless]

Great work!

I've spent the whole week shooting and editing on the GH4 and A7S  and it's REALLY hard for me to get back into the RAW workflow now. (Especially with SLOG2 and XAVC being what they are.)

It would be very different if more NLEs just accepted the .RAW and .MLVs directly... or simply read them as CinemaDNGs.

That said the 5D3 squashes BOTH of them in terms of simply being a camera. But gets squashed in every way that counts when it comes to video.

It's painful that there is no all-purpose solution. GH4 only works well up to ISO 1600, A7S shoots photos at like 2 frames a second max, 5D3 is limited to a little more than 1080p unless you want to go into crop mode... and still the video doesn't come out as sharp as the other two.

What are your plans for the future? Waiting on the 5D4 or are you going to go with one of these other options?

[dmilligan]

or simply read them as CinemaDNGs.

Done

[rainless]

Mind... BLOWN.

[DeafEyeJedi]

Great work & read @hateom -- looking forward to your 3rd article on your blog!

[hateom]

What are your plans for the future? Waiting on the 5D4 or are you going to go with one of these other options?

That's a good question. I was lucky to get the discounted BMPCC and giving up RAW now would be hard.
The perfect option would be Sony FS7, but it's just too expensive to me.
I don't see the future in the canon gear for the video work unfortunately.
For now I will wait and stick to my 5d3 and bmpcc. I have RAW on both if I want the quality, I have relatively good ISO on 5d and ProRes on pocket.
Buying GH4 or A7s wouldn't solve all my problems so I think I'm better off with renting whatever is needed for a specific project for now.

Great work & read @hateom -- looking forward to your 3rd article on your blog!

Thanks man! Glad it was helpful for you. Hope to publish part 3 very soon.

[hmcindie]

I'm actually having completely different thoughts on the A7s vs 5d RAW. 5d RAW as an image is way better. Considerably. A7s pulls out in very lowlight and maybe 4k (if someone can record that stuff out without the little HDMI port braking) but the 5d RAW colors is just amazeballs. Amazeballs. I will be using A7s for quick turnarounds but everything that I want to look really great will be now done with the 5d III RAW.

[QuickHitRecord]

I'm actually having completely different thoughts on the A7s vs 5d RAW. 5d RAW as an image is way better.

It's not the popular consensus right now, but I wholeheartedly agree.