Picture quality comparison before and after Canon 5D2 firmware cracking | Ainongji - 上海419贵族宝贝-上海后花园1314-上海品茶网-阿拉爱上海

In the previous article about Canon 6D cracked the firmware in the article We have introduced some benefits of using the cracked SLR camera to shoot lossless RAW video, but what is the actual effect? How much improvement can it bring to the shooting effect? Next, we will tell you the actual effect of SLR shooting RAW video through actual comparison test.

The method of comparison is to shoot a non RAW video and a RAW video with the SLR, shoot the same scene, and then capture one frame of the video for comparison.

The device used is Canon 5D2, and the resolution selected when shooting RAW video is 1280X720 (because of our card speed limit, we can only use this resolution)

The following two pictures are the video screenshots we took indoors. The above picture is a single frame screenshot of a video suppressed by H264, and the following picture is a lossless RAW video screenshot taken after 5D2 cracked the firmware.

RAW video screenshot

Non RAW video screenshots

If you don't look carefully, the difference between the two video screenshots is not big, but if you zoom in and compare them, we can easily see that RAW video is very good in some details. The following figure shows the magnified part of the glass holder. We can see that the RAW video is still clear in the rusty metal part, and the image quality after H264 encoding and compression is obviously blurred. (The upper part of all photos is RAW, and the lower part is not RAW)

Through the comparison of hats, we can also see that RAW videos are more clear in the red star part. We can still see the texture of the red line. At the same time, the fluff around the red star is also better, and non RAW videos are slightly blurred.

The 14 bit RAW video also performs better in tolerance. We can see that in the presence of highlights, the overall brightness of RAW video is closer to nature, rather than a large area of darkness like non RAW video.

RAW video screenshot

Non RAW video screenshots

When we zoom in and contrast, we can see that the words "Shacha Beef Shop" are clearer, and the light and darkness at the door are more layered.

Similarly, the RAW video is more sharp on the dust on the wall and the ground after amplification, while the non RAW video is slightly blurred after compression.

The following video shot was taken at Shenzhen Happy Coast. Although the color temperature is slightly different, it does not affect our comparison of RAW format image quality. On the whole, we can see that the 14 bit RAW video is really excellent in terms of tolerance, but it is very natural to overshadow.

RAW video screenshot

Non RAW video screenshots

After zooming in on the marble beside the river, it can also be found that RAW format video retains more details and the picture is clearer.

The same is true for buildings in the distance. RAW video can still retain the texture of the stones, but RAW video is already quite sticky. In terms of tolerance performance, non RAW videos have appeared dead black in many places.

Finally, we compared a group of seaside twilight pictures. In terms of tolerance, the 5D2 RAW format is obviously much better. The buildings in the distance are still correctly exposed, and there is no large area of darkness.

RAW video screenshot

Non RAW video screenshots

The RAW video also retains more details. We can take a closer look at the white guardrail of the boat below. We can still see some fine stripes on the guardrail of the RAW video, while the non RAW video completely disappears.

In terms of picture quality, RAW video is better than non RAW video, but in general, the difference in picture quality is not the same. So if you don't have high requirements for video and don't understand post-processing, you don't have to worry about lossless format.

In addition, the 5D2 14bit RAW video really performs very well in terms of tolerance. It has an ultra wide dynamic range of 12 gears, and the differences are more obvious when the contrast between light and dark is large. This is especially useful for shooting in backlight and other high light ratio environments.

However, the bigger advantage of RAW video is actually in the later video processing. RAW video retains more original data and is full of details. We can achieve a better effect by adjusting the brightness and color of the picture in the later video. Although we can make similar adjustments to non RAW videos in the later stage, non RAW videos lose too much information in compression, so it is difficult for us to process them as easily as RAW in the later stage.

We won't talk about RAW video post processing in detail, but only about the process here.

Convert RAW video to DNG sequence with raw2dng
Import DNG sequence with After Effects and other software
Primary color toning of photos through the pop-up Camera raw

Yes, we use Camera raw in Photoshop when mixing colors, so it is very easy for people familiar with Photoshop and Lightroom to use color mixing.

Now let's take a look at the video after minor editing and post processing. The DNG image processing of 5D2 is very similar to the RAW photos we usually take with the camera. They all retain the original information of the camera. Even if you shoot at the wrong color temperature, overexposure or underexposure can be easily corrected. Of course, you can also bring your own creativity into play to bring out more attractive colors.