Can firmware fix moire or aliasing?

Only engineers who are experienced with the hardware can tell.
And, I don't think Canon will address this. I think it will be different with new hardware though (Dicic V? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIGIC)

E.g you might read every sensor line in software to avoid moire, but this might 'overload' the CPU, who knows. There's a reason why every second line is read (causing the moire).

Or perhaps an engineer comes up with a new approach.
Who knows!
 
I would not think you can fix it with a firmware update.
It is more to do with fitting a high megapixel chip into a small HD video file.
You throw so much away, that the result is moire.
Pixel shifting (not pixel skipping) might help, but that is changing the process, which would not be something firmware would do.

Pixel skipping take rows and removes them, leaving a hole. As the lines are recomposed, the holes create the morie.
Pixel shifting makes color/resolution from intersecting data, kind of like impressionism in a painting.
 
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Pixel Skipping is the Cause of Moire, but rolling Shutter is still Going to Be an Issue. Just as long as the camera does not Skip lines while recording.. just Like Trammel said When you do Digital zoom and the Morie is gone BC the camera does not Skip Lines , Try it for yourself, But Rolling Shutter is still an Issue, Which I think Can be resolved by a Faster Processor not Firmware
 
speedjunkie said:
.. just Like Trammel said When you do Digital zoom and the Morie is gone BC the camera does not Skip Lines…
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I heard when he mentioned this also. It makes sense. I think he said something about it using a certain part of the sensor to accomplish this. That’s cool to know because then there should be something in the firmware telling it to read every line. If he could find and manipulate that code then it should be possible for it to be hacked to read the whole sensor in video mode. It might end up causing other issues if it could be done…but up until he mentioned it I didn’t think that it would be a possibility (still might not be…but Trammel will find out).
 
Well, I hope that whatever is possible is pursued. It is good to know that Canon is "dedicated" to bringing the 5D up to speed in terms of 24p and stuff, albeit slowly. Perhaps its a sign they'll also try to implement stuff to improve some of these video issues on the 7D. I just shot some 60p stuff and it was so aliased, it wasn't even worth keeping. It looked like up-rezzed standard crap from a point and shoot. However, other stuff I've shot at 60p before looked great...

...really just depends on the subject matter every time I guess.
 
Ian-T said:
I heard when he mentioned this also. It makes sense. I think he said something about it using a certain part of the sensor to accomplish this.
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Right, it's called "windowing". Red does the same thing to get their 2K. Reading a smaller portion of the sensor is one way to let you read it at a faster frame rate.

The line-skipping moire thing is another way to read less of the sensor, which lets you read at a faster frame rate.

If he could find and manipulate that code then it should be possible for it to be hacked to read the whole sensor in video mode.
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Nope. Not the whole sensor. The silicon can only be read at about 8fps or so, nothing Tramm can do about that. The solutions are to only read a little bit of it (either windowing, or skipping a whole bunch of lines).

He could maybe make it read in "digital zoom" mode, reading out that window, moire-free -- but if doing so, you'll end up with a little window and the field of view more like a 1/3" or 1/2" video camera. Say bye-bye to your shallow-DOF look.

Of course, that might be just fine anyway -- the moire is at its absolute nightmare worst on wide-angle shots, and do you really need shallow-DOF on a landscape? So it might be a good reasonable compromise anyway.
 
Thanks for the explanation Barry. It would be cool to at least have the option to "window" some shots where the moire is bad and DOF isn't a necessity.
 
Barry_Green said:
He could maybe make it read in "digital zoom" mode, reading out that window, moire-free -- but if doing so, you'll end up with a little window and the field of view more like a 1/3" or 1/2" video camera. Say bye-bye to your shallow-DOF look.

Of course, that might be just fine anyway -- the moire is at its absolute nightmare worst on wide-angle shots, and do you really need shallow-DOF on a landscape? So it might be a good reasonable compromise anyway.
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You know...that's not a bad idea right there. That would at least leave us with a choice on what mode to shoot at for a given scene. Everything wide would be shot in this mode while closeups (or anything to do with shallow DOF) shot in "normal" mode. He did however mention increased noise when doing this...which is typical with any kind of digital zoom.
 
Does anyone have update on this or maybe the next DIGIC 5? I'm really hating the moiré at 60p that makes the camera unusable :(
 
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