Uploaded February 2014 | Updated September 2026, 10 hours ago
This is a test of the Magic Lantern unofficial firmware for the Canon 5D Mark III camera.
ML enables more control over the camera, essentially giving the user RAW footage, custom cropping and other functions.
The firmware is not that stable and the resulting files take up enormous space, so it's not for everyday work/filming. But it's nice to see how well the camera *could* be doing, if Canon had not "dumbed" it down.
Be careful if you use it: Your camera could end up a brick.
My workflow:
1) Install ML on camera.
2) Record movie to camera (with 2.35:1 crop in my case).
3) Transfer files to computer (iMac in my case).
4) Use raw2dng app to convert raw files to individual dng files (and a generic mov file).
5) Import dng files to After Effects and change settings in Camera raw until the picture looks good.
6) Export from AE to lossless mov files.
7) Import both mov files to Premiere Pro and put them on separate layers for comparison.
8) Export to new mov file and upload that to YouTube.
As I stated in step 4 above, the raw2dng app creates both dng files *and* a generic mov file. This latter file resembles what it would normally look when filming to the camera's built-in H.264 compressed mov file, so I used that as a comparison.
You might notice that the movie files, although put over each other, doesn't always "fit". That's because I can compensate for the lens distortion when importing the dng files into AE.
NB: I used Magic Bullet Looks in Premiere Pro to create a different kind of picture style on the ML files.
Help us caption & translate this video!
amara.org/v/Fa7l
This is a test of the Magic Lantern unofficial firmware for the Canon 5D Mark III camera.
ML enables more control over the camera, essentially giving the user RAW footage, custom cropping and other functions.
The firmware is not that stable and the resulting files take up enormous space, so it's not for everyday work/filming. But it's nice to see how well the camera *could* be doing, if Canon had not "dumbed" it down.
Be careful if you use it: Your camera could end up a brick.
My workflow:
1) Install ML on camera.
2) Record movie to camera (with 2.35:1 crop in my case).
3) Transfer files to computer (iMac in my case).
4) Use raw2dng app to convert raw files to individual dng files (and a generic mov file).
5) Import dng files to After Effects and change settings in Camera raw until the picture looks good.
6) Export from AE to lossless mov files.
7) Import both mov files to Premiere Pro and put them on separate layers for comparison.
8) Export to new mov file and upload that to YouTube.
As I stated in step 4 above, the raw2dng app creates both dng files *and* a generic mov file. This latter file resembles what it would normally look when filming to the camera's built-in H.264 compressed mov file, so I used that as a comparison.
You might notice that the movie files, although put over each other, doesn't always "fit". That's because I can compensate for the lens distortion when importing the dng files into AE.
NB: I used Magic Bullet Looks in Premiere Pro to create a different kind of picture style on the ML files.
Help us caption & translate this video!
amara.org/v/Fa7l
