nofilmschool » magiclantern

This is How Magic Lantern Has Made Such Amazing Progress with Canon DSLRs

Joe Marine — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:57:08 +0000

The recent developments with the Canon DSLR hack known as Magic Lantern have been downright astonishing. At one time these DSLRs were just decent H.264 video/still hybrid cameras, and now they’ve become RAW video monsters with an unbelievable increase in detail and clarity. While the Canon 5D Mark III is the only one capable of taking full 1080p advantage of these advancements, it’s likely every Canon DSLR will be able to shoot RAW video down the line. But how did we get to this point so fast? Was it some sort of Canon conspiracy? Check out the video below to get a better sense of the insane amount of work it’s taken to get to where we are now. (more…)

Easily Convert Magic Lantern RAW to CinemaDNG with RAWMagic

Joe Marine — Sat, 08 Jun 2013 11:15:47 +0000

There have been a few programs floating around to convert the .RAW files from Magic Lantern on the PC and Mac, but getting the files into a usable form takes a little bit of effort, as these programs were turning the files into DNG first, which aren’t compatible with programs like DaVinci Resolve (since DNG is a stills format). Now we have a better solution as Thomas Worth from Rarevision (who created 5DtoRGB) has created a program called RAWMagic to get After Effects and Resolve-supported CinemaDNG files straight from the .RAW camera originals. (more…)

Which Canon Cameras & Resolutions Are Currently Supported with Magic Lantern RAW Video?

Joe Marine — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 04:12:37 +0000

If you’ve been following the Magic Lantern RAW video news, you have probably seen quite a bit of material from the Canon 5D Mark II and the 5D Mark III. The hack, however, is working on many of Canon’s cameras, including the 50D (a camera that never shot video before), 60D, 6D, and more. Even if a camera is supported, that doesn’t mean you’re necessarily going to get full resolutions while recording continuously so Roman over on the Magic Lantern forum has put together a list of the Canon cameras and max burst and continuous resolutions currently supported. Check out if your camera is currently supported below. (more…)

GH2 Hacker Nick Driftwood Takes the Canon 60D with Magic Lantern RAW for a Spin

Joe Marine — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 06:00:49 +0000

Strides are being made to get more and more resolution and frames out of the lower-end Canons using the Magic Lantern RAW video hack. Right now the only way to get continuous recording is by shooting at about 960 x 540 at 24fps, but other resolutions are working for a specific number of frames. Nick Driftwood, who has done a considerable amount of work with the Panasonic GH2, has been shooting some tests with the Canon 60D, and he’s posted his first video online. We’ve also got a metered dynamic range test comparing H.264 and RAW on the 5D Mark II, as well as a fantastic example of what the Canon 5D Mark III using Magic Lantern is capable of. (more…)

RAW Video DSLR Comparison: Canon 50D vs. Canon 5D Mark II

Joe Marine — Tue, 28 May 2013 22:57:13 +0000

It is absolutely incredible how far the Magic Lantern RAW video hack has come in such a short amount of time. Not only is it getting more stable every day, but they’ve managed to get a camera that never shot video at all — the Canon 50D — giving us beautiful RAW video. If you’ve been looking for a cheaper used camera to play around with RAW video (or you happen to have one of these sitting around), the Canon 50D and the full-frame Canon 5D Mark II are both great options (and both are from 2008), but how do they compare against each other? (more…)

Non-Video Canon 50D from 2008 Hacked to Shoot RAW Video with Magic Lantern

Joe Marine — Mon, 27 May 2013 18:57:30 +0000

This is something you don’t see everyday: a camera that couldn’t even shoot video back in August 2008, is now shooting RAW video with the newer Magic Lantern hack! It seems the APS-C Canon 50D, which contains a CF card slot, is a much more capable video DSLR that it would have appeared at first glance. The tech inside the 50D looks like it borrows a lot more from its higher-end siblings, like the 5D Mark II, and it’s possible we may actually get better RAW video quality out of the 50D than we do out of any of the non-CF Canon cameras. Check out some samples below. (more…)

Luke Neumann on Canon 5D Mark III RAW Video and a Comparison with the RED EPIC

Joe Marine — Thu, 23 May 2013 22:56:06 +0000

We’ve seen a few tests putting the Canon 5D Mark III with the RAW video hack up against lower-end cameras, and only one, the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, is capable of shooting RAW as well. Now, we’ve got a comparison with another RAW camera, the RED EPIC, from Luke Neumann (who has done a few Magic Lantern tests before), as well as an interview with Big League Film School talking with Luke about how this is impacting the DSLR community. (more…)

Hacked Shootout: Panasonic GH2 vs. 5D Mark III RAW & Magic Lantern Gets Playback/Audio Working

Joe Marine — Fri, 17 May 2013 23:51:55 +0000

I don’t recall in recent memory any sort of software with this many updates in such a short period of time, but the folks over at Magic Lantern have been working around the clock, and we’re getting almost consistent updates thanks to the incredible people working on the RAW video hack. Basic capabilities from regular H.264 video are being ported over, and it looks like both playback and audio are working in at least a basic form with RAW video mode — so we should see those at some point. We’ve also got a great little comparison from Luke Neumann showing the RAW Canon 5D Mark III against the hacked Panasonic GH2. (more…)

How to Get Started with Magic Lantern RAW Video on Your Canon Camera

Joe Marine — Thu, 16 May 2013 21:00:59 +0000

If you’ve been reading these Magic Lantern RAW video posts and watching the clips, and you’d like to get in on the action, we’ve got just the tutorial for you. Luke Neumann, who has been testing the Canon 5D Mark III with Magic Lantern and recently posted a clip of his own, has put together a great video that runs through some of what you’ll need to do to get up and running. We’ve also got another great test video to whet your whistle, so head on down and check everything out below. (more…)

Will the Magic Lantern Canon DSLR RAW Video Hack Kill Your Camera's Sensor? Short Answer: No

Joe Marine — Wed, 15 May 2013 19:21:58 +0000

Long Answer: Nope. There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about what is actually happening with the new Magic Lantern hack in development that enables RAW Video output on Canon DSLRs. While it seems like some sort of magic on the surface (and it basically is), the reason this is possible is because of the RAW data stream that the camera is already outputting during normal operation. Read on for a clear explanation as well as some words from the Magic Lantern team on how this affects your camera. (more…)

BMCC vs. Canon 5D Mark III: Did Blackmagic Just Get a Full-Frame RAW Video Competitor?

Joe Marine — Tue, 14 May 2013 21:13:25 +0000

Even though Blackmagic announced two more cameras at NAB, the original 2.5K BMCC is still shipping in limited quantities. While the company has been working hard to address the situation, an unlikely competitor has come along thanks to Magic Lantern: Canon’s year-old 5D Mark III. It is now the only DSLR to shoot RAW stills and video, and even though the hack is still in the early stages, it’s becoming clear that it will be a force to be reckoned with at this budget level. The guys over at cinema5D have been working with the hack, and they’ve now posted the first test comparing RAW video from the Blackmagic Cinema Camera and the Canon 5D Mark III. The results are interesting, to say the least. (more…)

These RAW Video Clips Will Make You Want a Canon 5D Mark III (Unless You Already Own One)

Joe Marine — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:45:27 +0000

The Canon 5D Mark III has become a true cinema camera. That’s a bold statement, but some of the footage that is currently being shot with the new 14-bit RAW Magic Lantern hack is absolutely night and day when compared to 8-bit H.264 footage recorded in-camera, and there is no doubt it rivals much more expensive cameras just in sheer image quality. We’ve got some impressive samples from cinema5D, Luke Neumann, as well as a few others below. Click through for the head-exploding videos. (more…)

1080P RAW Video Now Possible on Canon 5D Mark III & Real Anamorphic Shooting with the New Hack

Joe Marine — Sun, 12 May 2013 22:36:53 +0000

Not only do we have news that RAW video at 24fps is possible on the Canon 5D Mark III, but we now know it’s possible to get a full 1920 x 1080 image with 1000x speed cards. The first samples were possible by cropping the image to 1920 x 820, but g3gg0 from Magic Lantern has unlocked a way to get the entire image — the full 1920 x 1080. This makes the Mark III the first full-frame (36mm x 24mm) camera to shoot RAW video at 1080p. Also, now that we’re capable of getting really high-quality custom resolutions, a whole new world has potentially opened up for anamorphic shooting with the camera. (more…)

Canon 5D Mark III is Now Shooting RAW Video at 24FPS

Joe Marine — Sun, 12 May 2013 06:38:38 +0000

The team at Magic Lantern has been able to do some amazing things with Canon’s cameras. Late last month, we learned it was possible to get a burst of RAW still images from the camera without the shutter moving at reduced resolutions — which yielded more resolution and dynamic range. Some people working with ML were confident we could get RAW video at usable frame rates (since they were only getting 5-15fps at best) with these images at some point as long as the cards were fast enough, and now that has become a reality: the Canon 5D Mark III is a RAW-shooting video camera. Click through for the first video samples. (more…)

Canon Finally Releases Firmware V1.2.1, Enabling Clean HDMI on the 5D Mark III

Joe Marine — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 17:25:27 +0000

With everything going on with the 5D cameras over the last few days, you’d think the clean HDMI firmware had already been released — but today Canon finally took the wraps off the firmware update they announced all the way back in October. While the headline feature is definitely the clean/uncompressed HDMI, they have introduced a number of other fixes as well. Click through for more from Canon about the update. (more…)

Canon 5D Mark III Clean HDMI Firmware Leaks, Plus More from Magic Lantern Regarding RAW Video

Joe Marine — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 04:25:32 +0000

It seems like it’s been all about the Canon DSLRs over the last day or so, but we assure you there are plenty of other things happening. Even though it’s not set to be released for another few days, it looks like an official firmware update for clean HDMI on the Canon 5D Mark III has leaked to the internet, version 1.21. We wanted to make sure this was the real deal and wouldn’t brick any cameras, but it definitely looks like this is an official update — but whether this will be the final release is unclear. We also have some more information about the RAW video hack that the guys are working on over at Magic Lantern. (more…)

First RAW Video Sample DNGs from the Canon 5D Mark III with New Magic Lantern Firmware

Joe Marine — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 04:26:41 +0000

We just told you about what Magic Lantern is doing with the RAW liveview image, and now we’ve got some of the first samples for you to play around with. Luke Neumann has been testing the new firmware with A1ex over at Magic Lantern, and he has produced a spectacular sample that really gives you an idea of what this firmware is capable of. First, here is a video from Luke walking you through the process he went through to get these samples: (more…)

Magic Lantern Unlocks RAW Video on the Canon 5D Mark II and Mark III

Joe Marine — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 23:43:59 +0000

Every day it seems things get more and more interesting with what these Canon cameras are actually capable of. It would be interesting to know if Canon is actually aware of what their cameras can do, or if some of these are happy accidents for the team over at Magic Lantern. They have made significant discoveries trying to enable full uncompressed HDMI, and not only do we have RAW still images from the liveview video stream, but they’ve actually managed to get RAW video working on Mark III. (more…)

Canon May 'Bring the Might of Its Legal Team' if You Modify 1D X or 1D C Firmware

Joe Marine — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 18:12:58 +0000

That sounds promising for a potential firmware hack, right? We discussed not too long ago that the Canon 1D X and the Canon 1D C were not exactly the same camera, but that the 1D C had some internal hardware changes — at the very least a new heatsink, and probably some additions to the firmware to allow 4K recording. At the moment it’s still not clear how much the two cameras share in common, but with a quote like above, there is no doubt that the 1D X is probably capable of a lot more internally than the company is allowing at the moment. Whether or not your camera will explode when enabling those features is another consideration entirely, but we’re starting to get more details about these internals. (more…)

Happy New Year! Magic Lantern Delivers Second Canon 7D Alpha, More Cameras on the Way

Joe Marine — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 18:37:11 +0000

As we approach midnight in most places around the world (with some already celebrating the new year), the hardworking team over at Magic Lantern has delivered more updates to the trusty Canon DSLRs. We now have a second alpha for the Canon 7D — a camera that we previously thought was unhackable — and more updates are on their way with support for the Canon T4i, 6D, and 40D. Check out all of the exciting developments below. (more…)