ML RAW direct to ProRes 422 HQ

[jcs]

http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=9560.0

This tool uses the AMaZE algorithm to deBayer- looks great so far compared to ACR (which apparently uses a modified AHD algorithm). While there is no option to sharpen/denoise during deBayer, the results looks very clean compared to ACR, especially on high-contrast edges. Being able to view clips in real-time and going straight from MLV to ProRes HQ is very cool.

[thekreative]

pretty neat, just playing with it. I like to watch what I've shot.

[jcs]

Yeah, real-time playback with audio is sweet. There are some issues with audio and >4GB files (using exFat formatting and >4GB option). The fully extracted audio file is OK, so there is a workaround (the ProRes and live playback audio is cut short).

Tools are getting closer and closer to making the 5D3 a (useful) baby Alexa

[thekreative]

ya, I still can't get over how good the raw is.

[Celluloid Dream]

jcs, could you help me get going with encoding directly with mlrawviewer on Windows 7 x64? I am kind of lost.

It looks like this program has no GUI, has dependencies on other programs ffmpeg?, and can encode only by command line interface. Is that correct?

So far all I can do is view raw files by dragging and dropping on the mlrawviewer.

From my limited understanding, I will need to download ffmpeg and put it in the same folder with mlrawviewer or ??? Trying to get this working is confusing as hell. Really need some step by step type guidance for installation of all the dependencies and command line examples for encoding.

[yoclay]

I am on Mac 10.6.8
Will this work on earlier builds than 10.7?

[Celluloid Dream]

All this talk about the "amazing" AMaZE algorithm, got me wondering. So you know, I had to try it out. I've just done a comparison of the AMaZE algorithm in RAW Therapee vs Adobe Camera RAW on full size 5D3 raw files. I gotta tell you, I don't think AMaZE is an automatic home run. This was at mid-ISO, 1250, and I really think at the pixel peeper level (100% or more), the combination of ACR denoise and debayer is probably better. It's close. I don't know, maybe a perfectly clean low ISO file would be better in AMaZE, but what I saw was just more artifacts.

I don't know what if any highlight recovery is possible with mlrawviewer, but RAW Therapee is no match for ACR's highlight recovery, that is not even close, not even in the same league. So, bottom line, I'm not sure anything will ever match ACR for overall raw quality. It would be nice to have some different algorithms like AMaZE to choose from in ACR. ACR NR, ACR highlight recovery, plus AMaZE might be the ultimate.

Oh and BTW, how do you correct white balance in mlrawviewer?

[Samuel H]

The biggest question for me is: how well does this preserve the DR from the sensor? ACR lets you pull a lot of information back from the highlights and shadows, if you can bypass the flicker issues. If the log mode in this is applying a profile that preserves all that highlight and shadow info, I could think of bearing the limited WB options (1=WhiteFluoro,2=Daylight,3=Cloudy,0=None, 4/7=Red down/up, 5/8=Green down/up, 6/9=Blue down/up).

(I don't even have a camera with RAW video yet, but I knew the tools would be developed so that RAW wouldn't be a workflow nightmare by the time I make the switch)

[jcs]

Celluloid Dream- I haven't tested on Windows- I'll post here when I've done so (you could also ask on the ML forum). Regarding AMaZE vs ACR: I processed clips with both, then A/B compared via track toggling. In terms of detail/sharpness, they are very close (even with ACR default 25 sharpen). Highlight recovery in ACR is good, however it can do funky things with color and skin tones (same for boosting shadows... doing both can add a strange pink cast to skin (similar issue with some HDR methods)). There's currently no way to change/set WB for this tool (beyond the 4 presets), however I was able to somewhat match the WB'd ACR version by tweaking RGB curves. That said, by default ACR produced more natural colors, whereas this tool defaulted to an almost sepia look (had to boost saturation quite a bit to come close to ACR default). Minimally this tool provides a means to preview MLV clips in real-time.

Testing mlv_dump and the batch script for OSX (outputting DNGs): when I processed this test clip with ACR+AE on this 4-core laptop, the processing time to output ProRes HQ was about the same as this tool (AE set to process multiple frames at once (set to use 8 cores (4 real + 4 virtual)).

yoclay- I'm using 10.9.1; don't know about earlier versions. It's a small download: you can copy the tool somewhere and drag and drop an MLV file onto it & see if it runs (same is true for Windows).

I also tested the FS700 with a SpeedBooster and the same lenses (Canon 50mm 1.4 (T1.0 with SB) and 24-105 F4L (T2.8 with SB)). The FS700 recorded to 24Mbit H.264. After minor color correction, I was impressed how well the FS700+SB looked compared to 5D3 RAW in this case (indoors, tungsten: low-light). The FS700+SB provides more detail even after extreme compression vs 5D3 RAW: I used Gaussian blur to soften it to be closer to 5D3 (sharpened!). One aspect of the film look is absolutely no digital artifacts or hard edges: softening the FS700+SB footage helped match the 5D3 (which looks more filmic by default).