No problem on a 5D Mark III or 7D but not possible on the mid-range cameras with their 40MB/s SD card controllers, no matter how fast your SD card is. (On the 70D this jumps to 10 seconds, because the buffer memory is 200MB). Raw video at this bit depth and resolution needs 60MB/s write speeds on the camera to the card. On the 100D which has a small 124MB buffer, you can get 6 seconds of 14bit RAW video at 1728 x 864, but it’s not realistic for mosts shoots to work like this. Regardless of the speed of the camera writing to the card, you can get a few seconds (usually up to 5 seconds) of raw video to into buffer memory before it fills up.Īfter it fills up, the card must keep up with the size of the recording, otherwise the camera chokes and stops. The EOS M has the smallest buffer, the 5D Mark III the largest. Maximum recording resolutions and crop factorsĬanon cameras have a 100MB to 275MB size buffer for recording raw images. Class 1 – Fast cameras (Compact Flash 1000x)Ĭlass 2 – Mid-range cameras (40MB/s SDHC class 10)Ĭlass 3 – Slow cameras (older 20MB/s SD card controller) The information on this page was put together using personal experience of owning the cameras and the superb Magic Lantern Raw Calculator to fill in the gaps in my memory. The best cheap cameras are the 700D and 100D / SL1 at approx. The 70D also has another advantage over the 5D Mark III and 7D, in that it has an articulated screen. The 7D is the best value for money at £350 used and the 70D being unique for being the only one with Dual Pixel AF, for a bargain used price of £550.

Of the current cameras the 5D Mark III is the most capable especially for uncompressed 14bit shooting, but it’s also the most expensive for upwards of £1500 used. Magic Lantern have now implemented 12bit and 10bit raw recording which decreases the date rate and acts as a form of raw compression. Raw video has a large data rate especially in 14bit, so the speed at which the cameras can write to the card is the main factor determining resolution.

Which should you use and what image quality can you expect? There are 3 performance classes of Canon camera for raw video.

Magic lantern canon eos 1100d