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The Magic Lantern team has revealed RAW 24 frames per second video recording capability on the Canon 5D Mark III, after recently making the camera capable of recording 2K RAW DNG videos.
The Canon 5D Mark III is one powerful DSLR, which has managed to attract a lot of attention from cinematographers. Recently, Magic Lantern, a team of hackers who releases custom firmware for Canon cameras, has managed to make the camera record 2K RAW videos at 14 frames per second.
After 2K RAW 14fps movies, Canon 5D Mark III gets 24fps RAW video support
That firmware is still in “alpha” stage, meaning that it is not ready for prime time yet, as users could encounter some bugs. Anyway, Magic Lantern has not stopped there and it has managed to make the 5D Mark III capture HD RAW videos at 24 frames per second.
This is quite an achievement, since it means that cinematographers will no longer have to purchase professional camcorders, which are very expensive, because they can use their DSLR to create stunning films.
Magic Lantern hit the sweet spot at 1920 x 817 resolution
According to Lourenco, member of Magic Lantern, the camera can record videos above the 720p level. The hacker has managed to achieve 1928 x 850 resolution at 24fps. He then took it further, to 1928 x 902, but the results were not satisfactory, therefore lourenco has decided to keep it steady at 1928 x 850 pixels.
Anyway, the hacker says that he is planning to make use of the 2.35:1 aspect ration, meaning that he will crop the video, in order to match the 1920 x 817 resolution. After that, he will add black bars, in order to provide a full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080, making the movies look like cinematic trailers.
Test videos are available, show impressive results
The hackers have uploaded some test videos on YouTube, in order to demonstrate the capabilities of their new firmware. Each RAW frame measures 3MB, meaning that a high-speed storage card is required to store the files.
Lourenco added that he has used the Canon 5D Mark III in combination with a CF 1000x card, which gives the DNG files enough time to be copied on the card.
The difference between the videos is quite big and it makes Canon 5D Mark III users wonder when they will be able to get their hands on the hacked firmware.