A few questions about ML Raw

R

randomname

Well-known member
I'm sure these have all been answered somewhere else, but I've been wading through google and these forums trying to find answers and I can't really figure it out. I've read through a few guides for shooting raw, and I'm ready to try it out as soon as my CF cards come in, but there are two things I'm having trouble with. 1. What exactly does the MLV format mean for me as a shooter? Should I be shooting on that or cinemaDNG right now? 2. Is it possible to continuously record at 2.5K without any major issues? What cards will I need? What about 3.5K?
 
randomname said:
I'm sure these have all been answered somewhere else, but I've been wading through google and these forums trying to find answers and I can't really figure it out. I've read through a few guides for shooting raw, and I'm ready to try it out as soon as my CF cards come in, but there are two things I'm having trouble with. 1. What exactly does the MLV format mean for me as a shooter? Should I be shooting on that or cinemaDNG right now? 2. Is it possible to continuously record at 2.5K without any major issues? What cards will I need? What about 3.5K?
Click to expand...

1. It means that you have to handle the raw files differently from the cr2 files…. not worse, just different. Depending on which operating system you are on. I can't speak for PC, but I like the MLV_dump.osx file that you activate through Terminal. It runs pretty smooth.
Also pretty significant for MLV is that you can also add sound, which is not available in normal raw. This sound is recorded as a .wav file which will be pulled out of the MLV file when you run it through the mlv_dump.osx. The file is a bit longer than the video part. A quick test in my case meant that the beginning of the wav syncs with the beginning of the video. The back end can be clipped (only 2 frames or so….)

1.2 You can't choose to shoot cinemaDNG. You either shoot raw or mlv. cinemaDNG is the files you get out of each of the two. These files can either be graded first ligth in ACR (effectively giving you another step to go through) or be ingested as a sequence in the free version of DaVinci Resolve (Lite)

2. Yes…. You just have to do a crop in the vertical to do it. This crop is baked in, you can't move it later. Same cards….

2.2 3.5K is burst mode only. I think it was 3 seconds or something like that? (someone correct me here). But if you have the computer power and patience, you can upscale 2.5K to 4K in ACR. BUT, man, those files will become heavy :/


Final word: If you don't need sound, if you are doing beautiful shots with a soundtrack, then stay normal raw, it really does give you less to worry about and set up.
If you are doing fiction and need sound, by all means do MLV. But manage takes…….. You'll fill up your cards fast, roughly 10-12 minuter pr. 64gb.
And those 64gb will explode once you start extracting the DNGs.
 
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Thanks! But wouldn't upscaling just be the same number of lines stretched out over a wider frame? What would the point of that be other than if you wanted to deliver in 4K?
 
randomname said:
Thanks! But wouldn't upscaling just be the same number of lines stretched out over a wider frame? What would the point of that be other than if you wanted to deliver in 4K?
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Yes that's correct… but why would you want 3.5K then? No reason in creating larger heavier files if you are going to downscale them. (at least imo)

But the 3.5K upscaled to 4k and view in Original res on youtube looks pretty good ;)
 
Maybe ask your questions on the Magic Lantern Forum? If anyone will have answers they will have them there.
 
randomname said:
One last question, how do I actually see what I'm shooting when I'm in crop mode?
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This is a copy/paste of an answer I gave in the ml forum about someone asking how to shoot in crop mode, this should also give you an idea on my suggested method.

1. Press the magnify button once to activate 3x crop mode (this is 5x zoom in canon terms) .
2. Use Auto in preview(raw video menu) to give you "proper" framing in crop mode via the rear LCD, framing is wyswyg but in grayscale and low res.
3. Once in crop mode, you can use half press of shutter to give you color preview and apparent better resolution but still low refresh rate(does not affect recording)
4. Before recording, you can use 10X zoom to confirm your focus, go back to 3x (5x zoom)crop mode to start recording.
 
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