Magic Lantern 14 Bit RAW Video Workflow Tutorial

Check out this video if you are interested in working with RAW video in the future. There are just a few steps extra compared to regular video editing. Click here to download a few RAW image sequences right out of the camera. I have included a shot from the Blackmagic Cinema Camera as well.

A Short Q&A

Here are some questions people have asked me that I though might be good to post on my website.

Q: What lenses do you use?

A: As for lenses we are using

Canon 24mm 1.4Canon 70-200mm 2.8Canon 16-35mm 2.8Canon 50mm 1.4Canon 24-70 2.8

That is pretty much it. I haven't really used anything other than those four lenses. I would love to try out the expensive cinema prime lenses Zeiss makes...but they are expensive...

Q: What editing software do you use?

A: I use Adobe Premiere to edit all my videos. I use After Effects for special effects. For some features (like optical flow) I occasionally use Final Cut Pro X.

Q: What format and codec do you use to export your videos?

A: I export for YouTube with the following settings.

Frame size: 1920x1080

Frame Rate: 23.976 (This changes odviously because I don't shoot everything in 23.97fps)

Field Order: Progressive

Aspect: Square Pixels

TV Standard: NTSC

Profile: High

Level: 4.0

I make sure "Render at Maximum Depth" is checked

Bitrate Encoding: VBR, 2 pass

Target Bitrate (Mbps): 8 

Maximum Bitrate [Mbps]: 8

I use Adobe media encoder to do all my encoding for Youtube but MPEG Streamclip does a wonderful job as well.

Here is a sreenshot of the average video I upload to YouTube

Q: How do you clean your sensor in your camera?

A: You need to be very careful when cleaning the sensor. You don't want to blow inside your camera (even with compressed air) because it can put moisture on your sensor or sandblast the sensor from the dust in the compartment. Once I had dust on my sensor and I used a straw to suck it out. If it is really bad the best and safest way to clean it is to send it into a professional camera cleaning place.

RAW Video on 5D Mark III using Magic Lantern

It is awesome editing raw DNG files recorded from the 5D Mark III. Here is the video I created to show off the advantages of shooting RAW. 

I have provided a list of stuff you would need to install Magic Lantern with RAW support on your 5D Mark III. The installation really isn't too difficult but it has a few steps.

Pre Production List

• 5D Mark III (Firmware 1.1.3)

• Also works for 5D Mark II, 50D, 6D,  60D, 600D (Not 1080)

• CF Card formatted as ExFAT (90MB/s min)

• 23.97p 1080, 82.9MB/s
• 59.94p 720, 129.8MB/s (Haven't tested yet)
• 29.97p 1080. 103.6MB/s (Haven't tested yet)
• 16GB ≈ 3min, 32GB ≈ 6min, 64GB ≈ 12 min, 128GB ≈ 24min

• CF Card Reader (Faster the better for pulling off large files)
• CF Card Preparation Programs
• Magic Lantern Firmware
• Making card bootable (Optional but makes installation more streamlined) 
• For Mac
• Macboot
• For Windows
• EOScard

Post Production List

• CF Card Reader
• raw2dng (to unpack the .RAW file out of the camera to DNG)
• Adobe Camera RAW or Aperture (to color grade your images)
• Adobe After Effects (To render image sequence to video for editing)

Getting some new videos made

Hey everyone! I am excited to tell you that I am developing some video reviews and tutorials for the site. I will post them as soon as they are done. In the meantime let me know if there is anything you want me to do a tutorial or a review on.