5DII HDMI output

[Alex Stroud]

Hi guys,

I've been using ML for a long time now but haven't currently gone to RAW; mostly due to computer and HD constraints. The most annoying thing for me currently though is that the 5DII outputs through the HDMI at 480 resolution. I was told once that using the RAW ML makes the 5DII output at full 1080. I just wanted to confirm this... If it's true, I will probably make the switch over finally to RAW shooting. I'm fed up of pulling focus on my SmallHD AC7 in 480 res!

Also, for people used to the workflow, will I be OK using a current gen Mac Book Pro Retina (16GB RAM at 1600mhz, 2.3 quad core i7 and 1GB nvidia 650M graphics)? I appreciate it's not ideal but is it usable? I'm not sure how large the files still are after they've been converted after shooting.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[Midphase]

Your laptop should be fast enough to handle raw files in Resolve or similar, you'll need a lot of hard drive space so you might consider getting a 2Tb Thunderbolt external drive or similar.

As far as the increase in resolution...I dunno, seems a bit strange that all of a sudden ML can output at a higher resolution, but it could be possible. Here's what I do know...if your external monitor resolution is inferior to 1080p, then you're limited by the resolution of the monitor. For instance I own a Lilliput 663 and the max resolution on it is 1280x800, so even though I can get full 1080p from my 5D3, on the monitor it will downrezzed.

[reddeercity]

No, the hdmi out is a 422 8bit 60i 1080 but the real size is 1650x1080
I capture the hdmi to my Atomos Ninja for backup of Raw recording .
hdmi signal dose not down convert when recording raw
I have my Zacuto Evf from cam then pass thought to recorder.
Used the Ninja also as a field monitor. made a short video about it
here the link.
http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=6284.msg77726#msg77726

[Alex Stroud]

Just a quick update and a question.

I eventually decided to just make the jump to raw properly. I've upgraded to the mark III, spent a depressing amount of money on cards, and spent an even more depressing amount of money on some LaCie 2big thunderbolt hard-drives.

I have some interesting projects coming up (an independent feature length film and a supplementary video that will be playing throughout the whole duration of a Jesus Christ Superstar musical - kind of a dual platform experience) so I wanted to have raw sorted before I started them. Hopefully I can start contributing a little feedback to this forum after a while.

On to my question. I was reading the EOSHD guide (by Andrew Reid). I've installed the basic 5D3 ML. The next step was to get the nightly build sorted. He wrote that you should get the 5D3-113-bootflag.fir file along with the "ML" folder and "autoexec.bin"file. I didn't get the boot flag file though in the nightly build download. Has this been removed for now (I know that currently, once you get the 5D3 bootable, it's not fully reversible(you have to keep the 2 sec boot time))....or something else?

Cheers guys

[Alex Stroud]

Actually ignore my question. I found the answers eventually. I'll try a few shoots and see how annoying it is to reload the firmware everytime I change a card (every 15 minutes I suppose).

[Midphase]

Congrats on upgrading to the mmIII, IMHO it's really the camera to go if you want a (relatively) no compromise ML raw experience.

[Alex Stroud]

Another quick question for you guys.

The card I see mentioned a lot on this forum for raw recording is the Lexar 1000 cards. Does anyone anticipate there being a noticeable performance increase with the new Sandisk Extreme Pro 160 mb/s cards?

They're quoted as being similar speed cards but with the Lexar supporting VPG-20 and the Sandisk supporting VPG-65. I ask because the Sandisk cards will cost double the Lexar cards (for £600 I can either get 4 Lexar 64 GB cards or just 2 Sandisk cards).

[Midphase]

I think if you're trying to save money on cards, the obvious choice is Komputerbay. They work for the most part, and they have a pretty generous return policy. For the price of 1 64gb Lexar you can purchase at least 2 Komputerbay 64gb cards and have the luxury of having one fail during production and still being able to keep on truckin'.

[Alex Stroud]

I'm not particularly trying to save money. I will defo buy Lexar at least because they are meant to be less touch-and-go when it comes to speed. I'll pay extra for the new Extreme Pro cards if there is an improvement in speed and stability, but equally I don't want to spend pointless money.

I'm interested in the difference (maybe theoretical for now, because I know these cards are new) between vpg20 and vpg65. Will this make a perticular difference?

[Midphase]

Well, any new advances in speed performance have to be backwards compatible with the CF controller that Canon put into the camera. For instance I know that CFast 2.0 isn't recognized by any of the existing Canon DSLR's.

If the VPG-65 is simply an internal "seal of quality" from SanDisk, then all they're saying is that the cards have been verified to have a sustained write speed of whatever they're advertising (allegedly). When it comes to CF cards for ML raw, faster is always better, unless it's not (see the Komputerbay 256Gb 1200X thread in Hardware).

Really the only way to know for sure is to jump in and try these new cards. If they don't offer any significant advantage in speed you can always return them.

The other consideration is that there is an upper limit to the 5D CF controller speed (I think 105Mb/sec), and I don't think anyone has been able to get it up even close to that speed. Also, I think the max required write speed for 24p shooting at 1920x1288 is something like 87Mb/sec, so unless you're shooting in crop mode, anything much faster than that might be overkill.

[Midphase]

Found this on Amazon:

"Video Performance Guarantee- 65 (VPG-65) specification allowing Full HD video and 4K cinema quality video1 performance with minimum sustained write speed of 65MB/sec"

That's not very good for raw.

[Alex Stroud]

That's what I get a little confused about. The same thing is said for the Lexar cards. vpg20 for sustained write speeds of 20mb/s... (and that's for the 1000x cards that is often recommended)

[Alex Stroud]

I think I may buy just the one Sandisk card, post the benchmark tests here, and depending on the results, either buy a second or get two Lexar cards in addition.

I think a benchmark for these cards would be useful for this forum to have.