Friday, June 28, 2013

50D Raw ACR or Davinci Resolve ?

Which workflow is the fastest and offering the best results...

 

Some days ago my Komputerbay 64gb 1000x arrived and I was able to shoot some footage with my new 50D (it´s old but new to me) in high resolution 1580x888@24fps continuously. After that I had to bring it in a suitable format for editing. The possibilities are Adobe Camera Raw in After Effects or Davinci Resolve at the moment. I decided to try both of them and do a comparison video and check the results. 

Natural ACR grading vs. Day for Night something Davinci Resolve.
  

50D ML RAW ACR or Resolve from funky sensation on Vimeo.
 

Workflow breakdown


ACR:
Convert .raw files with RAW Magic to CinemaDNG
Import as Image Sequence to After Effects
Whitebalance adjustments and gradings
Export to Prores HQ and edit

Davinci Resolve:
Convert .raw files with RAW Magic to CinemaDNG
Import to Resolve
Choose BMD Colorspace
Purble fringing/moire workaround (see below)
Whitebalance adjustments and gradings
Export to Prores HQ and edit or edit directly in Resolve

 

Issues

ACR:
A bit more aliasing and "real" moire for my taste.

Resolve:
Noticed some weird kind of pink/magenta fringing/moire at sharp edges. After some time of research I found this tutorial: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=degEMVPLPdU It solved my problem.    
Not sure about the BMD colorspace, can´t recover the highlights like ACR does, maybe my fault (need more experiences with resolve),  waiting for an update with Canon DSLR RAW 14bit colorspace.

 

Speed

ACR:
Operates very slowly 6,5min Raw to Prores HQ took something about 3 hours export time (on my macbook i7).

Resolve:
Much faster got 2-4fps in export after heavy grading.

Lenses

12-24mm Tokina
28-300mm Sigma

 

Conclusion

For me there´s no difference in sharpness or details between ACR and Resolve. The main difference is the speed that´s why i decided to use Resolve in my next projects.








Tuesday, June 25, 2013

From 550D to 50D

A decision for resolution 



In the last couple of weeks I tested the capabilities of ML Raw on the 550D. The dynamic range is incredible and the grading possibilities are huge but the resolution is quite low. The max. possible resolution to work with is something around 1280x426@24fps at the moment (not continuously). For me that´s not enough so I decided to buy a 50D. This camera is able to record 1080p in crop mode now. In normal mode something around 1580x888. I got a cheap used one at a local photo-store for 320 Euros. At the moment I´m waiting for a fast Komputerbay 1000x 64gb CF-Card orderd at amazon. Can´t wait to do some test shot´s. So guys stay tuned I will post some footage in a couple of days .


In the meanwhile watch the most impressive 50D RAW video I found on the web by


Pigeon Point Lighthouse - Canon 50D RAW test from Kenny Frerichs on Vimeo.


Tuesday, June 18, 2013

MORE VIDEOSAMPLES 550D/T2i ML RAW

Copenhagen Magic Lantern Raw 550D

 


550d ML RAW Copenhagen from funky sensation on Vimeo.

Shot last weekend in Copenhagen Denmark. I´m very impressed moire is not visible that much. Used the ML_RAW_MemFix built. Resolution 1280x426 at 24fps. Got 240 frames continously on a Sandisk Extreme Pro 95MB/s 32GB Card. 
Lenses: Zenitar 16mm f2.8 & Sigma 28-300mm Grading was done in ACR exported a ProresHQ file edited in FCP7. 
Infos about the software: magiclantern.fm 
Downloads and infos 550D/T2i: http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=5582.0

Sunday, June 16, 2013

VIDEOSAMPLES 550D/T2i ML RAW

The Team from magiclantern.fm released a beta firmware modification for several Canon cameras. If you are an owner of a newer canon cam like 5d Mark II&III 50D 60D 6D T3i or T2i you are now able to record 14bit raw video. Resolutions and framerates are depending on camera model.
Infos at http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=6215.0

I´m very excited about the possibility to shoot raw on my good old 550D/T2i. The dynamic range is  stunning. I recognized still a bit of moire in some shots, but in my opinion it´s less then in the H264 internal recording.
Download and infos for 550D/T2i http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=5582.0

In the last couple of weeks I travelled to different City´s,
these are my results.

Istanbul Magic Lantern Raw 550D



550D ML Raw Istanbul upscaled to 720p from funky sensation on Vimeo.

Shoot on a Weekend Trip to Istanbul.
Testing the Magic Lantern Raw Module (ML_960x480_Raw_Rec from mk11174).
There is still a bit of moire and aliasing but quite less then in the intern h264. I noticed a lot of frame skipping, specially in shots with high amount of detail like the water shot at 01:46, the camera didnt tell me that see it first time in post. Iam excitet about the grading possibilities. Some shots are heavely sharpend and graded some not. All grading and sharpening was done in Adobe Raw.
Looking forward to test the newer builts from the ML Crew with higher res and hopefully no frame skipping.
Please excuse the shakiness of the handheld shots, but the crop factor is something like 3x at 960x480


Düsseldorf @ Rhein Magic Lantern Raw 550D



550D Rhein Raw from funky sensation on Vimeo.

Shoot at Rhein river in Duesseldorf. Resolution is 1280x426 and aspect ratio 3:1. I was able to record 240 frames continuously.
Lens used: Zenitar 16mm f2.8
CC and sharpening in ACR.
The shot at 01:06 is 1280x720@8fps
Tested the dolly mode in the last shot.

I will upload a video shooted in Kopenhagen Denmark in a couple of days. I´m editing right now.