oferlevy Posted May 27, 2014 Share Posted May 27, 2014 Hi guys, I am a wildlife stills photographer but I would like to start working on a wildlife documentary. I own the Canon 5D3 and a good selection of Canon lenses for the job. (24-70 f2.8, 70-200 f2.8, 300 f2.8, 800 f5.6) My question is - would it be possible to shoot 1920x1080 RAW with Magic Lantern, then upscale the footage to 4K? If it is doable - do you guys think the quality of footage obtained with the GH4 will be better than the 5D3 upscaled 4K ? I have tried it with single frames and the quality looks excellent to me however I don't have enough knowledge to predict whether it will work as footage and still don't have the computer to show 4K footage. Thanks and sorry if this is a silly question. Ofer Levy http://www.wildlife-photography-school.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcs Posted May 27, 2014 Share Posted May 27, 2014 I watched 5D3 RAW upscaled to 4K vs. ARRI Alexa, Red Dragon 6K, GH4 4K, and Canon 1DC 4K, on a ~20' screen with a Christie 4K projector (Hot Rod Cameras GH4 event at Blacklist Studios in Hollywood): 5D3 RAW looked excellent. The other cameras were sharper, however the 5D3 RAW could easily be cut between them. I recently picked up the GH4 and it compares very well to 5D3 RAW and provides even better resolution than the Sony FS700 (haven't compared slomo resolution yet), which provides higher resolution than 5D3 RAW. The GH4 is more detailed, however the 5D3 14-bit RAW color is comparatively amazing, especially if processed in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). If you're shooting for the big screen, the extra work for 5D3 RAW will be worth it. It is the best value for getting Alexa-like imagery for low cost. You already have a 5D3, it's just the time to download and install ML to test for yourself. The GH4 will require really fast lenses to get the same FOV and DOF vs. the 5D3 (I picked up the Voigtlander 25mm F.95 to get the 50mm F1.9 5D3 equivalent. They also make a 35 and 85mm F1.9 full frame equivalent (17.5 and 42.5mm F.95): each are >$1k and full manual (not a big deal for video). Upscaled 5D3 2K to 4K won't look any different than 2K 5D3 RAW projected/shown at 2K. Thus GH4 4K will always be sharper and more detailed. However, the color processing capabilities of 5D3 14-bit RAW are far beyond what is possible with the GH4 4K. The GH4 4K can produce amazing footage straight from camera with little or no post-processing, which saves (a lot of) time and disk space vs. RAW. If you want to get the most color and detail from 5D3 RAW, use Adobe ACR. Resolve is a close second and if using sharp lenses and shooting outdoors, the results are very impressive: KarimNassar 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oferlevy Posted May 27, 2014 Author Share Posted May 27, 2014 WOW jcs! Thank you for such a detailed and helpful reply! I truly appreciate your generosity. Pleased to hear that the 5D3 is capable of getting great quality 4K as I don't mind the extra time and work involved. I will post some footage in here as soon as I get it. Thanks again, Ofer ;) http://www.wildlife-photography-school.com jcs 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgharding Posted May 27, 2014 Share Posted May 27, 2014 For nature, you can't beat 14-bit colour, no compression. If you have the kit to handle processing it all, fire away. You could feasibly upscale then lay 4K grain samples over the top to interpolate it nicely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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