5D Mark II Magic Lantern Firmware
June 22nd, 2009 Posted in Canon 5D Mark II
From our pak Hudson
Hudson has released his first firmware for the 5D Mark II.
Features include:
- Onscreen audio meters
- Zebra stripes
- Crop marks
- Manual audio level controls
- Lower noise than stock firmware
For more info: magiclantern.wikia.com/
cr
June 22nd, 2009 at 5:03 pm
id apreciate some enhanced still image functions
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SO so bene? Reply:
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:20 pm
you’re not apreciated.
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regular Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 5:36 am
+1,
you are not alone.
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Stark-Arts Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:57 pm
what enhanced features do you want?
I keep hearing “all the firmware is for the video” – that is because the video was crippled. I don’t really shoot it but it’s better as far as I can tell. As for the “still image functions” the camera works great. i wish it has a faster in low light AF system but that is not firmware…
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Zac Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 12:09 am
+1
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June 22nd, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Nice! Now we need 25fps mode so we can use this camera in PAL countries too!
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afrank99 Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 3:11 am
No, we can easily use 24, 24.99532 and 30fps in PAL countries.
PAL is 50 Hz interlaced, and not 25 frames progressive, by the way.
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Anonymous Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 8:50 am
How can people talk with mounth full things that they do not know about?
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fade Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:14 am
afrank99, don’t talk abou things you have no idea.
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fred Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 10:34 am
afrank99 is correct.
which part do you think is not correct in his reply?
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Ed Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 11:38 am
From what I’ve heard, the 30 FPS is hardware based. Canon might come up with some sort of a firmware work-around, but it would probably not be as good as you could do with external software.
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David Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Most all the video chips are native 30p/60i and use code to downsample them to 25p/50i or 24p. Most 24p video is achieved by algorithm not because it records in true 24p, that’s why Sony has CineFrame Mode to create a 24p look and Canon has its own version of that in their camcorders. They’re not making 25p chips, they are all 30p made to record 25p via code. It’s only a matter of time before the DSLR’s have the same frequency/frame rate ability as camcorders.
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Jonathan Reply:
June 25th, 2009 at 12:26 am
No offence to Canon, but that’s a really dumb way. Downsampling in software is dead slow. As a hardware engineer, I can say that the easy way is to change the clock of the video capture unit.
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June 22nd, 2009 at 6:14 pm
This is an amazing milestone and such incredible work! I’d definitely be willing to pay $5 or $10 for each significant firmware release and I hope others are too. That will show Canon how serious we are about getting this camera to do what we want it to.
I have no idea what it takes to add these features, but I hope adding a 720p option is possible. Most of my videos go on the web so 1080p is a waste, and the smaller file size would let me shoot much longer clips before hitting the 4GB limit.
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David Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:17 am
He’s got “4 GB file limit” on the to-do list. Not sure what he’s planning to do about that as I thought the limit was due to FAT32 on the CF cards…is he going to create a way to format NTFS or something?
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M Welinder Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:21 pm
All that’s needed is to roll over from one file to the next.
Canon’s people could do that in a few hours.
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David Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:54 pm
Yes that’s right! I have a HDV recording drive that does that with .MTS files, breaks it up into 4 gig files but you can record until the 160 gig drive is full. When I put them on the timeline for editing they are continuous. Canon should or someone should definately do that for the 5D2.
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pierlux Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:37 pm
I was told another limit, apart from the other things, is due to the fact that a photographic camera cannot take videos longer than 29min 59sec. The ability to take longer videos implies that the manifacturer has to pay an additional tax since the product can no longer be considered simply a photo camera, but a cine camera. Therefore its price would be higher. But I’m not sure this is true. Does anybody know?
Sorry for my poor English…
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David Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 3:54 pm
That does not sound correct. Video cameras take still photos, the HF S10 and others take 8 MP stills and have only storage space limiting video length, so that logic makes no sense to me. Canon says on their 5D2 page the 4 gig limit is from the Compact Flash card’s FAT32 files system.
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Carl Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:24 pm
What I’ve heard is that the truth. It’s regarding some regulations saying that if a camera can record longer than 29min 59sec it’s classified as a videocamera and not a photocamera.. and then a whole other tax- & fee-charges are brought into the deal… but about the more details I don’t know.
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David Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:56 pm
Still not buying that. Makes no sense at all.
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Martin Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 3:18 am
That’s the eu to you. :)
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Carl Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 7:54 am
I don’t know if it is connected to the EU-laws… but it might well be so.
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fred Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 10:42 am
“EU to hit some digital cameras with import duty”
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKL1777271820070717
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Ed Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Could be that is why the new Canon 500D does 20 fps HD video, it falls below the 23 fps tax rule.
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David Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 11:57 am
That is just silly. You people are saying Canon is going to keep video crippled because of EU taxes? First it’s because they can’t go over 29 minutes of record time and now its FPS?
Canon states very clearly on their site the only reason for the 4 Gig limit is because of FAT32 files size limitations. Has nothing to do with taxes at all.
The 500D is 20 fps because the sensor/chips were not up to full HD but Canon made the marketing decision to get the 1080p logo over Nikon’s 720P D5000.
All this talk about taxes making Canon do this or that is just silly. The consumer pays for it anyway. If the camera costs a bit more from some tax in the EU people will simply pay the extra cost to get the features they want. End of story. This taxes/feature link idea is nonsense.
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Enjott Reply:
July 6th, 2009 at 7:14 am
“The consumer pays for it anyway” – oh, so if there was a 100% tax, the consumer would just pay it and the manufacturer would not notice any drop in sales? Ever heard about basics of product pricing?
Of course the tax is a problem, and EU devices have been crippled for a long time for this reason (no digital out on camcorders to avoid the VCR taxes/author fees).
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random Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:55 pm
Why do people say “Sorry for my poor Englsh…” when they obviously write far better English than native speakers do online?
Trust me – you write English well. Stop apologizing for something you don’t have a deficiency in.
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pierlux Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 10:08 am
Thanks random! I’ll avoid apologizing in the future. But, when I write in English, I’m never sure what I have written means exactly what I intended to say. It has happened in the past that I wrote ridiculous things because of a single inappropriate word. Now I revise much more carefully before posting, but I’m NEVER 100% confident of what I write or say in English, hence the “forewarning” apologies.
BTW, I received confirmation that the 29min 59sec video limit actually exists, at leat in the EU, for a video to be considered a “videoclip” (laws are quite odd sometimes). I’m not a videographer (though I’m so happy about my 5d2 video capability that I purchased a Rode stereo videomic), but it seems to me this limit is not an issue: apart from scientific purposes, who would be interested in being able to capture video shot longer than half an hour?
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David Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
According to Canon’s website the limit is because of FAT32 file size limitations (thanks to Microsoft who didnt imagine anyone ever needing more at the time). Canon says nothing about limits from the EU. But hey, if it’s true, that really sucks for people in the EU because you’ll never get more than 29 min 59 seconds of video in a clip! So much for weddings if the ceremony goes long, or a theater play, or any event that goes over a half hour if you’re from the EU. lol
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Zac Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
since this does appear to be true I would appreciate it if Canon made EU specific firmware to limit that. This will be similar to the WFT-E2A and E3A and E4A. A standing for Americas. since the FCC has stricter regulations than everywhere else, and the ‘A’ version has like two fewer channels and is otherwise the same.
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David Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
Zac, so far I’ve seen nothing to indicate any truth to the idea that they are limiting the time of recording to conform to some EU requirements other than some people on this blog saying it. Where is there anything from an official source saying this? Canon isn’t saying that are they? I’d really like to see it if it exists. Wireless frequencies are heavily regulated so of course the wireless transmitter can have variations. But the length of recording a video to under 30 minutes? LOL please, where is a source for that idea?
It’s just a FAT32 file size limit that will be remedied by splitting the video every 4 gigs.
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Peter T. Reply:
June 26th, 2009 at 10:06 am
I’m not sure that it would be useful to spend the effort to increase the length of the clips that can be recorded. From the manual (page 126 in my copy):
“When you shoot continuously with Live View function for a long period, the camera’s internal temperature may increase and it can degrade image quality.”
I do vaguely remember reading something on the intertubes where it was a good idea to shoot no more than 10 minutes or so (depending on the ambient temperature), and then let the 5D2 cool off for another 10 minutes before shooting again.
That said, I don’t know just how bad the image degradation will be – if it’s slight, and you’re not producing a “video masterpiece”, then it would be nice to have “unlimited” clip length (probably auto-switching to another file is probably the best solution to overcome the FAT 4GB limitation).
Then again, if the image degradation is fairly high once the camera heats up, longer clip length would probably never be used. Of course, one could rig up a crazy liquid cooling attachment for the 5D2 to avoid the heat build-up… :-)
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June 22nd, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Wow.
Wow.
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June 22nd, 2009 at 7:02 pm
Why couldn’t Canon do this?
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regular Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 5:41 am
From what I heard most of Digic is designed by Texas Instruments, and most of the firmware is designed by an outsourcing company in India.
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Ed Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 11:42 am
Although companies in India commonly code software, someone else usually does the overall design. There is a big difference between coding and designing.
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David Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
That’s right on. Someone at Canon has to tell the coders, where ever they are, we want it to do this or that per their engineering design. Of course for all we know they are hiring engineers for design in India too, lol.
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Jeff Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 11:00 am
They could. They just didn’t want to or just wanted to solve other issues first. Nobody made a petition to make sound a priority (yet), it was all about getting manual video.
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June 22nd, 2009 at 7:05 pm
So…what it doesn’t seem to say is if this firmware update takes away the manual control of aperature, shutter and ISO??? Audio bars are cool, but not if we lose the manual controls Canon just gave us.
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SO so bene? Reply:
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:19 pm
argh! Hudson KNOWS WHAT HE’S DOING! He cracked teh camera for god sakes, of coarse hes not going to take away features. What would be the point of that?? Hes been working on this long before the update from canon was even announced and he transfered all of his code to the new firmware
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David Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:43 am
If his crack is based on the previous firmware version it may not have the added manual controls, and his site says nothing about which version he cracked or if has the new manual controls. Show me where he says it has them?
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Mark Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 6:02 am
Click the Frequent Questions link on the top left of the site. They ported it to work on 1.1.0.
“The current code is very tightly integrated with the 1.1.0 firmware image”
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David Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:07 am
Oh good! He should put that on front page so it’s clear.
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June 22nd, 2009 at 11:55 pm
I’m glad to hear that he is making progress. Since he says it isn’t ready for use yet, this is more of a demo as to what can be done.
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June 22nd, 2009 at 11:55 pm
Lower noise for stills too or just when shooting videos?
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regular Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 5:38 am
lower audio noise.
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June 23rd, 2009 at 1:15 am
Canon will have no choice but release these functions and more to better it in their nest firmware.
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random Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 2:57 am
Sure they will. And they won’t. Why should they? Look at CHDK – just because it adds RAW support to a broad line of Canon cameras, does that mean Canon _HAS_ to release updates for them to support RAW as well? What about all the other very useful features of the firmware?
Canon will either ignore this, or C&D this. Don’t expect this functionality in upcoming 5D mark II firmware.
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June 23rd, 2009 at 1:18 am
I am glad to know the support we are receiving from such individuals. Sure to keep myself updated on his website.
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June 23rd, 2009 at 4:23 am
I hope the todo-list will be completed as I see here:
http://magiclantern.wikia.com/wiki/Todo_list
I think this camera will become the best camera ever ever!!!
I will donate paypal
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June 23rd, 2009 at 5:17 am
Noise in this case, I think it’s mean Audio Noise tho.
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June 23rd, 2009 at 5:23 am
crop marks?
i wish someone, maybe canon themselves, add a crop factor to the video mode, that only the middle 1920×1080 pixels are used, not like every 4th pixel……
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David Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:11 am
It does say 720p is on the to-do list which is a downsample not really a crop, not sure what you mean by crop, but you can crop video in FCP or Premiere too if you’re wanting to chop off the top/bottom/sides as a crop.
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Mark Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 2:38 pm
I think he means have a mode that only records using the central 1920×1080 pixels rather than record using the whole sensor and then downsize to 1080. Imagine it a bit like a virtual crop mode as if the sensor were smaller. I think it would be really handy to have as you could get a wider dof for a given field of view and aperture.
I’ve shot some paralympic swimmers on the 5D and while its great for wide angle shots and static shots that they swim through, its just really hard to manually track focus on them as they swim towards you so i ended up using Z1’s who’s footage looks horrid in comparison. With a dynamic crop the wider dof for a given aperture would make it a lot easier and possibly make af possible in upcoming cameras for at some sport action.
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David Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Interesting. Would that also magnify the image like the 1.6 APS-C sensors do?
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Mark Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 3:46 pm
Pretty much yeah. I was thinking in terms of using a shorter lens to get the same fov and hence wider dof. But that would be another side effect. It would be pretty good to be able to shoot full sensor to get minimal dof for say an interview and cut away footage. Then switch to the central crop to get either a wider dof or extra reach for action stuff.
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David Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Cool! Maybe that could translate into a dynamic crop for stills too?
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random Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:57 pm
The sensor isn’t built to do this. This is a physical limitation and can’t be done with this sensor.
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Mark Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 5:26 am
We were more talking about future cameras. Although the result would be a video equivalent of the Nikon DX dynamic crop mode in the D3 which would strike me as a firmware issue not a physical limitation. But then again i’m no sensor designer :)
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Mark Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 9:26 am
Thinking about it further this should be reasonably doable in the next gen cameras (if Canon choose to of course).
Instead of reading the whole sensor and downscaling to 1080p the camera would have to read the sensor and then crop everything outside of the central 1920×1080 pixels. And the camera is already doing exactly such a crop in video mode as it takes the sensors 3×2 output and crops it to 16×9 video.
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random Reply:
June 25th, 2009 at 2:31 am
Except the 5D Mark II does not read the whole sensor and downscale; rather, it reads every fourth line. Future sensors will very likely work this way similarly as well. (Until we get to the SHV/UHD stuff, anyway…)
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Mark Reply:
June 26th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
I see elsewhere its every third line although only Canon themselves know what’s really going on….so if you want to share something with us ;)
Though that still leaves the fact they’re rescaling horizontally. Future cameras being faster may be able to rescale the whole frame.
Anyway i still don’t see why this is a physical limitation of the sensor and not firmware. I don’t see why its not possible to read the central 1080 lines instead of every third line, resize and then crop. The 5D has a 640×480 mode so it can already crop the output and i’m assuming they’re reading less than every third line there so they can obviously control what lines get read somehow.
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theskunk Reply:
June 27th, 2009 at 3:06 am
yes, it doesn’t appear to have the speed to read everything and has to read as you say when it treats video at a 35mm sensor size, BUT do you really know for a fact once can’t just read the centermost 2MP out of it? If all it is is a data throughput limit externally then it shouldn’t be a problem. No it is possible that there is some problem that would make it impossible but do you really know this for a fact??
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Mark Reply:
June 27th, 2009 at 6:50 am
Do you see the bit where i said ‘only Canon themselves know what’s really going on’ …there’s probably a hint there.
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theskunk Reply:
June 27th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
do you see the bit where I was actually responding to “random”? ;)
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Mark Reply:
June 27th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Lol…too many boxes encircling boxes…its all too confusing for me!
Sorry :)
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David Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Says who?
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June 23rd, 2009 at 10:12 am
How much time it will take, that any manufacturer out there annouches a real Open Source firmware (with some public domain licence) camera?
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Jeff Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 2:02 pm
I would predict never. There’s too much concern for protecting their source code from other manufacturers and concern about people who would want a camera mod and then complain when things go awry.
Someone smaller, like Sony or Pentax, is going to have to make the first move and see if a huge number of people switch. Canon or Nikon aren’t going to make the first move on this out of fear.
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random Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:01 pm
One of the issues with open source firmwares is that manufacturers usually do not 100% own the code in the firmware. Important pieces are often licensed from other companies.
While Canon (or any other manufacturer) may be able to open some parts of the firmware, it still won’t do you any good without all the pieces. That, and it isn’t in the company’s interest to open the software up for a camera. It’s a camera – it’s supposed to take pictures, not be a general purpose computing device, nor is it supposed to replicate or surpass higher end lines (as much as we all would love it to).
Projects like this, hosted and started outside of the USA, are often the only way you’ll get more than what the manufacturer intends to give you from end-user equipment.
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June 23rd, 2009 at 10:23 am
[...] Canon Rumors Magic Lantern Firmware Wiki AKPC_IDS += "617,"; Categories: Noticias Tags: canon 5d mkII, [...]
June 23rd, 2009 at 1:51 pm
i need 25p as soon as possible please!!!!help us!!!!
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fade Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 2:32 pm
The world needs it! PAL and SECAM zones (=pretty much the whole world minus north america) are using 50Hz electric current and all of them need 25p to use this camera!
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David Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:03 pm
I’m sure the EU will sue Canon, Nikon and all the other companies in the name of antitrust violations for not following along with their PAL system and drive the price of all our cameras up even higher…then they can get more in taxes for the cameras, especially if they can shoot longer than 29 minutes they can then charge a dual use tax for video and still, and a bigger file size tax, and a middle finger tax because all the German camera companies are now owned by the Japanese…nice.
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don Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 4:58 am
yup- every proffesional ive spoken to in uk says they’re waiting for 25p version!!! everything edited for tv here is at 25 fps – 30p to 25p conversion is too problematic…I cant believe all the posts saying we dont need 25p!!!!!!
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EvertJan Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 5:24 am
In Holland there are a few waiting as well…
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gim_09pl Reply:
June 25th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
In Austria there are a few waiting as well …
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der_baum Reply:
September 6th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
In Austria there are more than a few waiting as well …
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June 24th, 2009 at 6:51 am
25p would be great, if this camera shot 25p I would buy one tomorrow.
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der_baum Reply:
September 6th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
why nobody from canon realizes, what mistake they´re doing ????????
“are you blind, guys ???? the half world would buy your camera … “
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June 24th, 2009 at 7:14 am
The author of this firmware said this: “To be honest, I’m not even looking that seriously into the frame rate question right now. It may be possible, or it may not.”
So I think he’s living in NTSC country and he doesn’t want to bother himself with features he personally doesn’t need. So don’t think that 25p is coming in near future with this firmware.
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June 24th, 2009 at 11:53 am
I hope Canon really is working on 24fps. There are so many people on the fence, held back by this one fault. If it’s not possible, the 5D mark II memories of disappointment will haunt Canon for a long time.
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David Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Mark, are you kidding? The 5D2 has changed the camera world forever. Sure it will be outdated soon enough, but how on earth can a camera which has brought unparalleled and previsouly unavailable ability to the world be considered a disappointment? To this day it blows the competition away. Nikon doesn’t even have a 1080p DSLR yet, and Pentax, Olympus and Panasonic don’t have the lens selections to compete.
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pierlux Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
I agree!
Moreover, Nikon’s videoclip lenghth is limited primarily by its Sony sensor overheating which brings about unacceptable noise…
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Mark Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Can i just point out this comment is by a different Mark to the one discussing dynamic crops above :)
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David Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
lol good to know
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June 25th, 2009 at 2:36 am
Why people are talking mostly about video option of 5DMKII?… I have this camera and never used it, It doesn’t mind for my because I like to shot photos only, so I hope people will discuss more on photography than video options…
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fade Reply:
June 25th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
PHOTOS with this camera are what they are, great. You can’t change megapixels or quality of the images with firmware updates. VIDEO with this camera is crippled. It’s only usable in North America. And that can be changed with firmware update. That’s why the video is #1 topic with this camera.
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theskunk Reply:
June 27th, 2009 at 3:07 am
you could add the working autoiso mode to stills….
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June 25th, 2009 at 9:17 am
Just think of video as photograhy at 30 fps ;)
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July 2nd, 2009 at 11:09 am
I would really like to have the ability to shoot in 60p mode with the 5DM2, even if it’s for much shorter-length clips. For videos of action like skiing or skateboarding it would be fantastic, since the camera’s size makes it much more versatile than any other decent HD camcorder. Probably not very high on Canon’s to-do list, though.
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Zac Reply:
July 2nd, 2009 at 12:28 pm
I don’t think the Digic IV processor can handle that. just a rough estimate, 21 MP @ 4 fps is roughly 84MP/s. HD video is 2MP @ 30 fps, which is 60 MP/s, but at 60p its 120 MP/s. I’m sure there arfe other factors too, but I think you’ll need to wait for either dual digic IV’s or digic V to get to 60p.
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fade Reply:
July 4th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
60p mode would be possible with 720p.
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Zac Reply:
July 5th, 2009 at 12:09 am
true.
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DP Reply:
July 22nd, 2009 at 10:53 pm
Let’s go on another firmware update campaign!
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September 6th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖
giiiiiveeeeee meeeeee that 24fps; PLEEEEAAAASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
this is very VERY very important …
please somebody start a petition or read the s**t out of the CMOS, maaaan!!!!!!
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE
✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖
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