Magic Lantern EOS 5D Mark II firmware tweaks video mode, adds more manual controls

It's hacky and requires some fiddling, but EOS 5D Mark II owners interested in maxing out their video abilities will want to check out the new Magic Lantern firmware developed by Trammell Hudson. The new code adds a tons of features, including on-screen audio meters, audio and video gain control with the option to disable the auto settings, zebra stripe masking of overexposed areas, and on-screen aspect ratio overlays -- and what's more, it's billed as an "open platform," so there should be many more plugins and tweaks forthcoming. Caveats apply with this early release, though: you need to reload the firmware if the camera so much as goes to sleep, and battery drain appears to be an unresolved issue. Still, we're certain these problems will be fixed over time, since we're guessing there's gonna be tons of interest in this -- if Canon would just throw us some autofocus in addition to those new manual exposure controls, we'd be all set.

[Via Wired]

[DanielT @ Jun 24th 2009 2:20PM]

Brendon Fraiser is being photographed.

[MONKEY @ Jun 24th 2009 2:20PM]

Let's see some Nikon love

[balls @ Jun 24th 2009 11:16PM]

Bendover. Nikon Style!

[Sisyphus @ Jun 24th 2009 2:25PM]

"audio... gain control"

Really? That is a huge development.

[Muddy @ Jun 24th 2009 2:35PM]

For a DSLR, yes!

[Eugenia Loli-Queru @ Jun 24th 2009 2:44PM]

What we need is additional 24p support (and 25p for the Europeans)! Either from Canon or from this custom firmware (although from Canon is preferable). Gimme some zebra and 24p on the official firmware and I'd buy one immediately. But not without such features.

[Mitch @ Jun 24th 2009 3:41PM]

I believe there is a very limited beta with 24p included - don't know about 25p... hopefully it will be released by Canon.

[Information Central @ Jun 24th 2009 4:28PM]

Exactly. The lack of 24 & 25p is just inexcusable.

Canon has long been clueless about frame rates and progressive shooting in general, though. While Panasonic was cleaning up with the 24P DVX100s, Canon kept troweling out lame interlaced cameras, some with fake 24 "frame" modes.

These cameras should shoot any frame rate up to 30, with an option to use the full data rate at all times to increase quality as you select lower frame rates.

[Solid Gray Fox @ Jun 24th 2009 6:20PM]

...broken record, much?

[why not the LS2LS7? @ Jun 24th 2009 2:49PM]

I'm pretty sure the 5d2 has AF during video but it's just too noisy to use.

[va jj @ Jun 24th 2009 2:57PM]

tell whoever's talking to shut up.

[kam @ Jun 24th 2009 4:27PM]

In live view mode yes, but not recording.

[why not the LS2LS7? @ Jun 24th 2009 4:35PM]

No, it has it.

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/712501

Press AF lock button to refocus.

[sean @ Jun 24th 2009 7:54PM]

Continuous autofocus during recording is impossible without using the slow and unreliable contrast detection method. The mirror is up when recording video, thus the main AF Sensor cannot be used. Of course this does leave room for software improvement in the contrast focus system as my Powershot seems to focus faster than my 5DII in contrast mode.

[steve @ Jun 24th 2009 3:49PM]

Can Someone tell me how to control the manual gain settings?

[Jim @ Jun 24th 2009 4:45PM]

I suspect they are working on a lens that would specifically support the video mode.
Right now if the microphone is on the body or near a DSLR camera it can pick up the sounds the lens makes. If you force the DLSR to auto-focus in video mode the sound is overwhelming. The only solution is use an external microphone that is a sufficient distance from the lens.

This has the added bonus of another revenue stream - video supported lenses that would have to be virtually silent.

[Luke @ Jun 24th 2009 4:56PM]

wow this guys should have put up the test to read next to the camera or something, i guess not all hackers can be good at presentation

[balls @ Jun 24th 2009 11:17PM]

Is the reloading firmware on sleep hyperbole?

[ChaoZ @ Jun 25th 2009 10:52AM]

Does this mean with hacked firmware, they may be able to wring a couple of more fps from the T1i? 24p?