Ultimate 2 cam rig

[Sanjin Jukic]

Already there is

User Guide: Canon EOS 7D HDMI capture Version 1.0

by

Syndicate Entertainment AB www.syndicate.se

and they did it with brand new

Matrox MXO2 Mini.

"Introduction

The Canon EOS 7D is a great camera to film full HD material with. However,
the material you get on the Compact Flash memory card is compressed using H.264
at a bitrate that might be to low for certain scenarios and with 4:2:0 chroma encoding,
sometimes resulting in somewhat blocky primary colors.
To the rescue is the HDMI output of the camera. The HDMI signal is a uncompressed 1080i
signal at 60 Hz with 4:2:2 chroma encoding, giving a superior picture quality to the compact flash material.
However, to extract the real 25p or 24p image from the HDMI stream requires some special software.
This guide describes the process of capturing input footage so it is ready to process by the Syndicate 7D Tool.

What you'll get

Due to the nature of the HDMI output of the 7D the actual usable resolution of the uncompressed footage
will be 1620 x 910 at 24p or 25p with a reconstructed 4:4:4 chroma and a red dot in the corner.
The red dot can be replaced with the corresponding pixels in the compact flash recorded material in post production.
Future versions of the firmware modification Magic Lantern might support 7D and allow for removal of the red dot or perhaps even 1080p uncompressed.
The final output file will be a QuickTime with each frame stored with lossless compression, which means huge files.

What you need

To follow this guide to capture video from the Canon EOS 7D you need the following:
• Canon EOS 7D (duh!)
• Matrox MXO2 Mini
• A computer running Mac OS X 1.0.5 or later. Must be one of the following.
◦ MacBook Pro 15” / 17” with 2.66 Mhz minimum (faster recommended) and ExpressCard slot
◦ Mac Pro with free PCIe slot
• Final Cut Pro 6 or later
• A computer running Windows XP/Vista/7 with QuickTime 7.6 or later installed
• Syndicate 7D Tool Software (demo version available)
• Something to film"

 

[Sanjin Jukic]

Or you can go AJA KiPRO portable and rugged capture solution

"Post-production redefined...during production

Everyone from broadcasters to indie filmmakers can probably agree on one thing: the possible choices for image acquisition are daunting.
Different cameras, different formats, different recording media and different compression schemes. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a way
to simplify acquisition so that virtually any camera, digital or analog, could record the same format and resolution? Enter the AJA Ki Pro.

The AJA Ki Pro is a tapeless video recording device that records high-quality Apple ProRes 422 QuickTime files onto computer-friendly media.
Because it features SD/HD-SDI, HDMI, and analog inputs, you can interface with virtually any type of camera you might own or rent.
Enjoy monitoring flexibility through Ki Pro's numerous simultaneous outputs, connecting to both professional and consumer monitors.

Ki Pro is portable and rugged; designed for real production environments. With the optional exo-skeleton it can sit below your camera-out of
the way of your battery adapters, wireless mics and other accessories. Integration with your other production gear is seamless.

Ki Pro is intuitive to operate. Alongside the camera, the familiar VTR-like buttons provide immediate controls for basic operation.
From a distance, use a web browser via ethernet or WiFi to control operations from a laptop or iPhone."

AJA Ki Pro connectors

LINK>>>

 

[Jerry W]

Sanjin, is it only only the 7D that puts out 1080i uncompressed from its mini HDMI output while recording or does the 5DII do it as well? I could be wrong but I thought the 5DII outputs only 480 while in record mode.

Very nice test by the way. Thanks for posting.

 

[Sarah C.]

Sanjin and Steve, your rigs surely do rock. :coolgleamA:

 

[Sanjin Jukic]

Sanjin, is it only only the 7D that puts out 1080i uncompressed from its mini HDMI output while recording or does the 5DII do it as well? I could be wrong but I thought the 5DII outputs only 480 while in record mode.

Very nice test by the way. Thanks for posting.

Jerry,

more about 5DMK2 and 7D knowledge (daily) you could get @ 5DCinema Forum>>>

 

[Sanjin Jukic]

The latest news from Syndicate about HDMI capture from 7D:

"The 1620x910 resolution is not due to a deinterlace or such, it is Canons HDMI output
that puts both a pillar box and gray letterbox around the image before the 1920x1080 60i HDMI output.
When a new firmware is released the gray letterbox will be possible to clear and the accessible frame
will then be 1620x1080. But for now we have a 16:9 frame at 1620x910. The HDMI output is always set
to 60i on current firmware no mather what framerate is set on the camera. We developed a software
that analyse the source footage and recovers the correct frames out of the 60i HDMI stream.
The software analyze the clips, sorts out the correct frames, crops of the letter and pillar box
and reconstruct the images to 4:4:4 from the 4:2:2 source.
This work flow have given us the cleanest source so far.


...

We wish the HDMI stream was as the framerate recorded.
But according to what we recive it's not the case.
We get the recorded framerate packed into a 60i container from the camera,
then we unstuff the correct source out of the 60i stream. A quite odd process
since there is no repeating pattern, the solution is a script that analyze each frame
and extract what is needed to recreate the clean source out of duplicated frames
and frame material spread out over field 2 on one frame and field 1 on the following and so on.
If somebody have a solution to make the camera output HDMI at recorded frame rate that would be a huge helper.
It might be somthing that the magic lantern people can sort out.
But so far we have this work around solution with 60i coming from the camera.
We do not loose any data but we need to render our clips trough our script before we can use it.


...

We will have the script for 4:2:2 on this page shortly.
Fredrik will upload a demo version soon with a tutorial. even though it's a no brainer to run it.
You need a matrox hdmi box, there are the MXO2 mini and then there are some other boxes that works aswell.
We capture on a mac and run the scrip on a pc, fredrik will probably make the script so it runs on mac aswell.
but we hope the strange framerate output can be sorted with the magic lantern for 7D then all you need is the matrox box."

LINK>>>

 

[Sanjin Jukic]

We just read today at CML that RED GOES HOLLYWOOD.

Great news.

Let them go to LA and try out to take over Hollywood Hills... :w00t:

and as I suggested long ago here at the forum maybe the road to top of Hollywood Hills would require

to go over Woodland Hills to get there first from another side of the famous HOLLYWOOD letters... :sifone:

But that's a little bit about RED strategy and now go back to my recent test R1 vs 7D.

Actually nothing new there.

R1 still beats 7D (important info for all R1 & 7D fun boys or fun boy "haters") :laugh:.

I did HDMI capture via BM Intensity Pro to figure out how about 7D picture quality from that point and please have a look:

Shot on 7D with Canon 50mm EF f/1.4 @ f/2.2, ISO 320, 5200K and via HDMI Intensity Pro captured at FCP timeline.

Shot on 7D with Canon 50mm EF f/1.4 @ f/2.2, ISO 320, 5200K and via HDMI Intensity Pro captured at FCP timeline (center detail of 100% image magnification).

7D HDMI out with a full menu detail and then you go to M manual mode and get rid of them ready to capture (except red dot).

Shot on R1 with Leica R Summilux 50mm f/1.4 @ f/2.4, ISO 320. Rec709, B21 Color Science White Balance 4807 K (-12.98 Tint) and H proxy QT dopped at FCP timeline.

Shot on R1 with Leica R Summilux 50mm f/1.4 @ f/2.4, ISO 320, Rec709, B21 Color Science White Balance 4807 K (-12.98 Tint) and H proxy QT dopped at FCP timeline (center detail of 100% image magnification).

Shot on R1 with Leica R Summilux 50mm f/1.4 @ f/2.4, ISO 320. Rec709, B21 Color Science White Balance 4807 K (-12.98 Tint) in RED Alert.

This is 7D still photo acquisition during a video shot.

Download original 7D 5K full size jpg here>>>

This is R1 original image resized from 4K tiff to 1K jpg.

Download original R1 4K jpg here>>>

R1 and 7D side by side: The Ultimate 2 cam rig was used for this comparison test.

The test stage: (left) Gretagmacbeth ColorChecker Chart on Eames Plastic Side Chair,
(middle) star-chart-bars on Ant Chair by Arne Jacobsen and (right) 3cP Cinematographer's Chart 709-2 on Verner Panton Chair by Vitra.
(Far right) LED light 500W with Lastolite Professional white light reflexive defuser.

LED light 500W was dimmed at a half.

This quick and dirty test footage consists the following:

R1 + 7D via HDMI capture + original 7D H264

Download 1080p Q&D test footage 107 MB>>>double click right button to save>>>

 

[Augusto Alves da Silva]

We just read today at CML that RED GOES HOLLYWOOD.

Great news.

Let them go to LA and try out to take over Hollywood Hills... :w00t:

and as I suggested long ago here at the forum maybe the road to top of Hollywood Hills would require

to go over Woodland Hills to get there first from another side of the famous HOLLYWOOD letters... :sifone:

But that's a little bit about RED strategy and now go back to my recent test R1 vs 7D.

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Sanjin:

Really you are the greatest...keep them coming...I think RED should call you to work for them... )

 

[Sanjin Jukic]

Sanjin:

Really you are the greatest...keep them coming...I think RED should call you to work for them... )

Augusto,

maybe it's a pretty good idea...:thumbup: