It’s here, finally! Magic Lantern announced previously that they found a CineDNG RAW Live View output on the Canon 5D Mk II and Mk III. However, they couldn’t record it for more than 10-12 frames per second at 1080p because the buffer was too large. They recently announced though that they figured out a way to do it at 1920 x 820–which is 2.35:1 aka anamorphic native on the 5D Mk III. Of course though, it helps to have a CF card at 1000x speed. Apparently from the post, 720p HD video is no real issue at all–but 1080p is. They can achieve 1928×902 recording for up to 700 frames before it stops; which equates to around just under 30 seconds of footage.
And from the samples that they’ve shown off, they really do seem to have that RED and Black Magic look to them. Unfortunately, after reading through their forums, it doesn’t seem like there is a solution for the Mk II yet. Take a look at two comparison videos after the jump.
Timelapses are some wonderful things as we discovered earlier on from Google today, but this recent one put together by Lake Superior Photo is quite a beautiful take on the sights of Michigan. We not only see the Northern Lights, but planets, stars, and meteor showers.
Photographer Shawn Malone put it together by using Canon 5D, Mk II, and Mk III bodies. Over on the Vimeo page he talks about seeing sparring moose and howling wolves while trying to document everything. More importantly though, Shawn’s galleries are breathtaking.
Take a look at this timelapse, but you may be also be interested in this one about the change of seasons.
At long last, it is here: the long awaited Canon 5D Mk III firmware update to allow uncompressed HD video recording has been released and is available for download. But there is also more as the previous product notice that stated the the camera didn’t focus so well with Speedlites has also been fixed. Additionally, the camera will autofocus with a lens extender combo when the maximum aperture is f8.
Alright Canon fans–time to breathe…everything will be okay. Planet 5D found a report from DxOMark stating that when it comes to pure sharpness, the Canon 5D Mk III and Nikon D800 aren’t so far off from one another. To come to their findings, they test each camera with loads of lenses and when good glass was paired with the 5D Mk III, there was almost no difference between this camera and the its Nikon competitor. In fact, they go so far as to say that sometimes Canons’ 5D Mk III outdid the D800–and once again with good lenses.
But what about the D800E? That is the camera that was designed to take full advantage of the resolution. According to the report, “In future tests, it will be interesting to see if the Sony sourced sensor in the Nikon D800E variant with its altered (zero strength) OLPF (Optical Low-Pass Filter) is significantly more efficient at resolving detail or if it’s as a result of the differences in fill-factor (affected by RGB filter transmission, micro-lens design and circuitry) between the Canon and Nikon sensors.” So we’ll just have to wait and see.
What does this mean in real life? Well, it confirms that if you’re purchasing these cameras, you really should be springing for the better glass. When I first bought my Canon 5D Mk II, I purchased the nifty 50 with it–and in looking back I really shouldn’t have. Sure, it’s a nice starter lens, but in the end if you really want to take the full advantage of your camera’s capabilities you should go for higher end glass. If you’re sending your images to the web, who the heck cares? Most people can’t tell the difference. If you’re printing large or shooting for NASA though, then you might want to consider the findings.
We’re still following the story and it is continuing to develop. Earlier on we reported on Magic Lantern finding RAW DNG video output via Live View with the Canon 5D Mk II and Mk III. The only thing is that they can record maybe around 10-12 frames for only a very short time. But according to Planet 5D, Neumann films has been experimenting with the files in editing software and clearly shows off just how much better they are. Originally, Canon users always needed to shoot a totally flat video with the Technicolor profile and then edit from there. But there wasn’t much dynamic range or room for error so they always needed to get everything totally right in the camera. With the new DNG files though, the Neumann is saying that the dynamic range is almost like that of the RED Epic and Black Magic Cinema Camera.
This is super exciting news, and if Magic Lantern can figure out a way to make this a better option for filmmakers then it will probably rock the industry a bit more by giving more life to older cameras. We’re personally wondering how it is against a Nikon D800E still though. Check out Neumann’s findings after the jump.
Years ago, the Canon 5D Mk II revolutionized the cinema industry with its full frame sensor and HD video output at 30p. Then a firmware was added to allow 24p. Afterwards, the Canon 5D Mk III offerred more improvements over video and at the end of this month, an uncompressed video option will be coming via a firmware update.
But the Magic Lantern team has announced via their Facebook page today that while going through the firmwares on the cameras that they discovered a 2K RAW DNG function Live View Output that was previously not known about–but it cannot be recorded. The team is currently researching more into it, but both cameras are capable of recording a 2040 x 1428 DNG stream. And at this point, we’re really wondering why it wasn’t allowed natively on the camera.
Further, they’re saying that the image quality is very good. If the team can figure out a way for it to be recorded, this will be some extremely exciting news. As it is, DSLR footage isn’t as versatile as actual camcorders.
