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.

Luke has shared some sample DNGs and a .R3D file since comparing them compressed to Vimeo isn't as useful (head on over to Luke's site to download them). Top is EPIC and bottom is Mark III RAW (again, download them and try them out for yourself, there are many variables here):


Red-epic-compared-to-mark-iii

Canon-vs-red-comparison-canon

I tried to get them as close as possible, but obviously it's a bit of judgment. Keep in mind that a program like Adobe Camera RAW will add a bit of sharpening either way to the image (unless you manually set it to 0), and it's unclear how Canon is getting the full image down to 1080p. Regardless, this is very, very impressive, and the detail coming out of the Mark III RAW is just fantastic. The fact that it can keep up with the much more expensive EPIC downscaled to 1080p shows how good the sensor is on the Mark III (and all of it would not have been possible without the work being done by the people over at Magic Lantern).

Here is Aviv from Big League Film School talking with Luke (he apologized for the audio on his site):

We've shared a lot of things from Luke on this site before, and that's because he's has usually been at the forefront of the Magic Lantern testing, and he's produced some incredible results. I think his advice is fantastic, and it's exactly what I would tell people starting out: maximize the current tool you're using and always keep learning. I have no doubt every professional learns something new every time they step on set, even if it's something small.

If you missed his Mark III RAW tests, check them out below:

See more at Luke's site and at Big League Film School using the links below.

Links: