5D3 = ML RAW vs H.264 vs?

[samplestars]

Hi folks,

Hope someone can point me in the right direction here..

I've a background in professional still photography and have been looking into shooting some creative video, with a view towards advertising or short features.

Right now I've a couple of Canon cameras (5d3/60D/T3i), lenses etc.

From what I can tell, my options are to shoot with the h.264 compressed video, or use Magic Lantern to shoot RAW, which introduces rather a lot of new headaches and post production requirements.

As important as image quality is, I love the convenience of shooting compressed.

It feels like my options are either a Fiat Punto or a Ferrari, when I would really just like a Ford Focus.

Is it worth going to the extra trouble of shooting RAW? Are there other options worth exploring, even another system with a compression format that doesn't sacrifice quality so much?

Hope I'm not opening a can of worms. Thanks for any thoughts on this.

 

[runnah]

All depends on what you are shooting and what you plan on doing with it.

A kids dance recital or soccer game? Shoot compressed.

A small documentary?
Compressed

A big budget commercial or short film?
Raw could help.

Again think of it as a photo. If you can get it close enough in camera and only need minor tweaks than compressed is fine. You are shooting in tricky situations or have a very specific look than raw might work.

But like you mentioned you will need a lot more backend computing power and software.

Also it would be wise to really plan your shots. If shooting raw video you really want your shot lengths to be very short to help with the editing process. For example this documentary I just shot most of my shots were no longer than 20 seconds and most averaged 10. The longest clips were the interviews and I shot those compressed.

 

[samplestars]

Thanks for the tips. No idea why but I hadn't even considered mixing RAW with compressed. I guess with some decent color grading etc, it would be seamless enough to most casual viewers.

 

[weepete]

Shoot raw if you want to process the image yourself or if you want the extra headroom for shadow/highlight recovery.

Shoot jpeg if you don't.

simples