5D mk3 new firmware now available!

[Thomas Wong]

Canon U.S.A. : EOS 5D Mark III Firmware Update

[Josh Dahlberg]

HDMI output options in Pal mode: 24p / 50i

Hopefully that's 25p in a 50i signal

[Nigel Barker]

It was leaked a few days ago but from the discussions that I have seen the response of users has been pretty underwhelming. Part of the problem is that Canon announced this six months ago & several other interesting cameras have shipped since & the interest in recording from clean HDMI on the 5D3 has waned.

I will of course upgrade & try it out but sadly there appear to be no other features of interest for 5D3 video. Canon didn't magically improve sharpness or resolution. It could be of interest to use it with a HyperDeck Shuttle & record direct to ProRes on an SSD plus dual recording on CF/SD for backup. I am assuming that the HDMI output is live all the time for monitoring so it would mean the end of the 29'59" recording limit (but without dual recording to card). One other feature is apparently that the 5X/10X zoom mode is passed out through HDMI so could be used as an extra crop mode like the 3X on the GH2/GH3

[Chris Norman]

It seems to work well with the Ninja 2. Camera record start/stop will trigger record mode in the Ninja with the appropriate camera settings. Set on auto or 50i signal to get 25p in Ninja 2. There were a few quirks to setting up correctly with Ninja 2 but assume Atomos have this info on their website.
Unfortunately there is no audio through HDMI. The 1Dc has this issue also.
Seems odd Canon chose not implement this.

[Simon Wood]

Ugh. No audio. Typical Canon!

I always use dual audio, but I need a some audio on the video as a scratch track to synch with.

The Nanoflash has a 3.5mm audio jack In, so presumably I could just get a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable to run audio directly from the earphones out to the mic in? Or just connect a videomic directly to the nanoflash?

I have also heard that early video clips are not too promising, but I'm going to run some tests today; I know I have a mini HDMI cable around here somewhere!

[Chris Norman]

No miracles with HDMI out picture quality compared to internal but 422 does have more chroma information.
Probably only noticeable with grading or transcoding to other codecs for web use etc.

[Julian Frost]

Seriously? No audio on the HDMI output? What were they thinking? That's really disappointing,.

[Jim Newberry]

What are the external recording options (other than the Ninja2) for the 5DM3 now that it's possible? Recording can't be done directly to a laptop, can it/

[Julian Frost]

Maybe a laptop running Adobe On Location... and an HDMI to Firewire converter?

[Thomas Wong]

blackmagic has a mini recorder with thunderbolt connection. I think it will do the job

Blackmagic Design: UltraStudio Thunderbolt?

[Thierry Humeau]

Originally Posted by Julian Frost

Seriously? No audio on the HDMI output? What were they thinking? That's really disappointing,.

One of my teamates did some tests yesterday and audio was coming through using an AJA HDMI to HD-SDI converter.

[Zach Love]

Originally Posted by Julian Frost

Maybe a laptop running Adobe On Location... and an HDMI to Firewire converter?

I think when it comes to video cameras, firewire is all but dead. In the days of digital tape, firewire was a raw stream of the video codec the camera recorded. There was no difference between the firewire signal & the video recorded to the camera.

Today, a good HDMI output is going to be pre-codec, pre-compression, straight off of the chip. HDMI 1.3 is spec'ed at a data rate of up to 10.2Gbps, 25x faster than FW400, which caps at 400Mbps.

Though firewire is plenty fast enough to send a ProRes HQ signal, which is a great improvement over the compressed h264 codecs that DSLRs record to. So in theory you could have a device that encodes the HDMI signal to ProRes & then transfer to a laptop over firewire to record the data.

But in all seriousness, there are so many self contained recorders, I don't see why anyone would use a laptop over a Atomos Ninja, Sound Devices Pix, Convergent Design Nano Flash, etc. etc.

[Julian Frost]

Originally Posted by Thierry Humeau

One of my teamates did some tests yesterday and audio was coming through using an AJA HDMI to HD-SDI converter.

Interesting. I just hooked up my 5D mk III via HDMI to my TV, and there is no audio being passed to the TV during preview, or record. Playing back the video (captured on the CF card) results in audio going to the TV.

It seems that in my case, at least, no audio is indeed NOT being passed through the HDMI cable when recording or previewing, just on playback (of CF card recorded video).

[John Carroll]

Originally Posted by Julian Frost

Interesting. I just hooked up my 5D mk III via HDMI to my TV, and there is no audio being passed to the TV during preview, or record. Playing back the video (captured on the CF card) results in audio going to the TV.

It seems that in my case, at least, no audio is indeed NOT being passed through the HDMI cable when recording or previewing, just on playback (of CF card recorded video).

I get the same thing...

[Niels Neeskens]

I updated the software and expected to get a full frame on my S-1071F 7-inch HDSDI&HDMI Waveform LCD monitor so I don't have to use the Canon DSLR scale zoom-in anymore. But I didn't get the full frame of the monitor filled, even with the clean HDMI out?

What's going on?