Magic Lantern Survey

G

ggrantly

Veteran
Hello Listers,

I'm thinking about loading up ML on my 5D3 and am curious how many people are using it, on 5D models or other Canon cams? I have other cams, so this would have limited use where I wanted shallow DOF, and probably not much more.

What is the future with Magic Lantern generally? Will it remain relevant given the proliferation of 4k and large sensor cams?

I have seen raw footage from the 5D3 w/ML and it seems pretty terrific, but I'm thinking there is a PITA factor involved in the workflow.

TIA,
Grant
 
Unless you shoot lots of stills and need the fastest possible startup time, there is no reason not to have ML installed on a Canon camera. ML is very useful even if you won't shoot a single raw video with the camera.
 
cpc said:
Unless you shoot lots of stills and need the fastest possible startup time, there is no reason not to have ML installed on a Canon camera. ML is very useful even if you won't shoot a single raw video with the camera.
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^--THIS--^

I even have ML installed on my old-ass T2i. I'm pretty sure it runs on nearly every Canon DSLR from the 500D all the way up.
 
ggrantly said:
What is the future with Magic Lantern generally? Will it remain relevant given the proliferation of 4k and large sensor cams?

I have seen raw footage from the 5D3 w/ML and it seems pretty terrific, but I'm thinking there is a PITA factor involved in the workflow.

TIA,
Grant
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Magic Lantern adds a TON of really great extra features to Canon DSLRs. As long as the camera still works at all it should have ML on it.

The Magic Lantern RAW workflow is no different than the workflow of any camera that shoots RAW. Yeah, you will have the extra step of "developing" your footage before you can edit it. But again - that's true of ALL cameras that shoot RAW.
And the image quality increase is HUGE so it's well worth it.
 
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starcentral said:
Does ML work in original 7D (mark i)? Everything I search only 7D mkii shows up.
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I believe it's the opposite...don't think they have a build for 7D Mark II yet....

Supported Cameras:

5D2, 5D3, 6D, 7D, 50D, 60D, 500D/T1i, 550D/T2i, 600D/T3i, 650D/T4i, 700D/T5i, 1100D/T3, EOS M
 
How stable is it? I'm sure it will get added to the list, unless no one updates the site anymore..
 
Grant, I have had ML loaded on my old T2i for a long time without issue. I had held off loading it onto my 5D MkIII due to the early boot flag issues, but they have taken care of all that and I am pleased as punch with the extras it brings to the 5D MkIII. The post workflow is also improved from the early on raw setups. Like others have said, even if you don't shoot raw video there are nice tools built-in which are very helpful. End of the day... If you don't like it, remove it and run the camera as normal. As a side... File size can be large with uncompressed raw, as a 128GB CF card will only hold around 25min of footage.

All the best!

Dave
 
DPStewart said:
Yeah, you will have the extra step of "developing" your footage before you can edit it. But again - that's true of ALL cameras that shoot RAW.
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In Premiere you can edit Red .r3d without any prior processing. You can even optionally adjust the Raw processing settings (though it's nowhere near as powerful as RedCine-X) directly within Premiere. I believe Cineform Raw - which the Kinefinity cameras can shoot - also plays nicely with NLE's.
 
Once you repack ML raw files to standard DNG raw you can import them in Premiere, then cut and color directly from the raw footage. Premiere CC 2015 is very fast when processing DNG and its Lumetri Color mimics Lightroom/ACR raw developing.

As for the size issue, shameless plug: http://www.slimraw.com/
Very fast lossless raw compression. Typically 2:1 or better compression for Canon ML sourced DNG, i.e. half the size, but keeps full original quality; output is standard and works in most video production software. /end-of-plug
 
Regarding compression, I did a test a little while ago that may be useful:

10-second clip

Original MLV: 872MB
RawMagic Compressed CDNG: 466MB (47% reduction)
Davinci Resolve ProRes4444XQ: 479.2MB (45% reduction)
Davinci Resolve ProRes4444: 316.4MB (64% reduction)
Davinci Resolve ProResHQ: 222.9MB (74% reduction)
Davinci Resolve ProRes422: 92.2MB (91% reduction)

After I've color balanced my raw DNGs and tweaked exposure, I export great looking, edit-ready ProRes422 files at a fraction of the size. It's a very manageable workflow.
 
starcentral said:
Which flavour proRes are people using for ML converted footage for more rigorous type of grading work?
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Well, the higher the bit-rate the more robust the file is. So pick what you feel your system and your patience can deal with.
Personally I don't go below ProResHQ if I am going to FINISH with those files.
 
Anything above 422HQ doesn't really make much sense, as it is in the ballpark of lossless compressed raw. Why bother with decreasing image quality without gaining space?
 
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