5D Mark II Firmware 2.0.3 Available.

i have saw some people saying they only spent 3 minutes to get it done. going to upgrade mine now…

Ahh. 13 kilobytes per second. Reminds me of the old times :)

done! just updated and tested. 24fps looks nice and smooth.

first.

Yea, noticed that right away, but i’m not whining.

most likely because the fps are now actually the respective “30 fps (29.97 fps) & 24 fps (23.976 fps). Idk. Im a still guy. Its a guess. looks fine to me though. haha

This means a 5DMkIII release date is at least a year away…

:(

Shame 720p60 wasn’t included. I love being able to shoot 60p on my 7D. Would be nice to see the audio functions come in a 7D firmware update.

when are the extra features coming to the 7D as well?

Wow, I just updated, and now all of my footage in 24p magically looks so much more cinematic than before! It’s like night and day! This 24p option was EXACTLY what I needed! WOW!

Hmmm I thought we were gonna get audio levels on live view as well?

I paid net less than $2,000 for mine brand new from Adorama after cashbacks and other rebates.

shut up

For the manual adjustments to audio levels to be truly useful they should have made the levels viewable in live view. Not sure why they would leave that off of live view.

I thought you might like to see this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paragraph

The file at same resolution and higher frame rate would be bigger in size, unless the camera uses a different compression level.

So if you want to know for sure if a video recorded with version 1.1.0 is bigger than one recorded with 2.0.3, so far you should shoot the same (or most similar possible) scene and compare. Taking in account that with 2.0.3 the actual frame rate is now 29.97 and the Audio is recorded at 48Khz instead of 44Khz (that could make some influence in the file size too)

It seems the H.264 Codec managed by these DSLRs could be set to different compression levels (although not really confirmed so far), that means different data rates and file sizes too (and of course different quality).

But the lack of official documentation on this topic is somewhat frustrating. You can just test and compare…

Let’s hope we will have soon improvements in photograpic feautures also…
http://www.petitiononline.com/Canon5D/

Right…

Canon paused all production just for this firmware update!

Jealous of your 12kbps. I am getting 300bps. It might have downloaded by the time i get home from work tonight!

Are there any mirrors anywhere? The download has failed for me both at home and at work and I want it *NOW!* Seems bonkers there is only one source half a planet away.

Is everybody happy now? I’m so so, how about you?

I wrote this following copy a week or so ago and still they don’t inform us completely.

Why no 60 fps?

It was before there, yes it is very desirable to have this, they know this very well.

Is it not time to at least inform us about that?

Or do we have to buy then a 7D again, so just shamelessly ‘marketing’?

1. Onno Nugteren Says:

February 25th, 2010 at 3:50 pm

Is everybody happy now?

I truly think it is all a little bid very late: nearly 1,5 years now.

I think this is not so much to be pleased with, although never too late to deliver.

But still I think here is some ignorance still present with the Japanese engineers, marketers and other responsible people.

Could not they inform us better? Is it not time to be more open to people? Have as any modern firma normal contact possibilities like telephone and e-mail?

Did they have to do everything in so much secrecy?

Wasn’t this the!! Chance to be for the first time a real modern firm to make firmware as so many asked, shows they really listened? I think yes.

Onno Nugteren, Dutch photographer and filmer with this new technology.

Reply

5D Mark II TEAM Reply:

February 25th, 2010 at 11:32 pm

We really understand what you say.

Just try to get in contact with any employee at Canon Japan, and you’ll see how hard or impossible it is…

There is not even an open channel for direct feedbacks nor real contact (the online support is really insufficient and many times even not good). That gives you an idea of the huge efforts we all have done.

Despite some people may think “this is” only thanks to Spielberg, Lucas, Tarantino or whoever they want to mention, the REAL thing is that THAT is only 1 variable in the whole equation and NOT the only and big reason of why we are getting firmware updates, with even more than it was announced in October of 2009.

Some people still didn’t understand how important was and is the customers voice when joined in thousands.

Onno Nugteren Reply:

February 26th, 2010 at 5:19 am

Yes I know, thank you for your commend, on the other hand your website thrives thanks to this misery.

The only thing is what bothers me a little bid is that many many people, even and I emphasize even here on this website, the majority of people are more concerned about when the new 2.8 24-70 M 2 comes instead of asking is this really the lens we need now or is it at all such a good or better lens than the existing?

I guess: yes it will be better and this lens is for me the lens to have, yes.

But what about the new direction technology has brought us?

Why don’t I see this new lens also specialized for filming?

Can’t be done so quickly?

Not the right timing, more to earn from this half way new technology than radical bring a new lens technology with quiet image stabilization and made ready for also autofocus while filming?

The Chance again for Canon to be modern and communicate about this issue?

Why again not campaigning in this new direction?

Why again do I hear this question so little times asked?

Can we be happy about this?

Perhaps yes!

Would it not be nice to give chances to Nikon, to Red to….??

Would it not better to have more companies in the running?

Off course! I would say, still I see so much ignorance, sticking to old ways everywhere.

Funny, this appears to be also so much true for the most ‘modern’ company at this moment: Canon.

New Technology comes by coincidence?

Or are there just too many people and money involved?

Thanks for reading, Onno Nugteren Dutch photographer and filmer with this new technology

Still no AutoISO in manual mode for stills, still no upper/lower limit on ISO, shutter speed or aperture = usability still behind even the low end models e.g. from Pentax.

you’re not Canon then yeah. SHUT UP

720 60p mode was removed from the firmware because it will be a strong reason to buy a 5D mark III.

Sayonara!

Got it now. Used GetRight to handle the server timeouts I was getting. All upgraded and smashing.

Very excited to have Aperture Priority now.

I really think Canon should set up a mirror for the Firmware server. It definitely takes too long to download here in Europe. Stops due to time out :-(

I’ll wait a few days – not for caution but for speed – it looks like Canon’s server is getting hammered this morning. Great to see this, actually. It shows how enthusiastic the 5D mark II owners are for new updates. :)

Well i’ve been trying for hours now and the most i’ve managed to grab is 1.5 MB before it times-out on the server – Come on Canon, you’ve had ages to prepare for this – just pop a few mirrors up or, best still, bittorent it.

Since there’s not 60fps, couldn’t you just make video slo-motion in post processing?

I think it might be time to upgrade that 300baud modem.

Tell them to upgrade the firmware for you. Though i’m sure they will.

＼(＾▽＾*) Finally it’s here (*＾▽＾)／

To the 5D MARK II TEAM:

Continue to put the pressure on Canon for:

– Shutter 1/48 for 180° in 24p video.
– 720@60p for great slow motion.
– TIME-LAPSE features in video, this is so easy to implement ! For now I use my Canon remote to do time-lapse photography, but it is not good for the mechanic shutter to take hundred of photo like for example 1 every 3 seconds during 5 hours.
Almost all professional video cameras have time-lapse features for video, with an easy menu where we can select how many frame to shoot every so many seconds during so many time.
This will be a great feature to have in the 5D Mark II, because it will use the electronic shutter instead of the mechanic shutter, and it will be recorded directly to video instead of photography.
This is a feature that requires no particular hardware modification. So easy for Canon to implement if they want to.

Canon just shows it has NO intention to do the simplest thing in firmware for still photographer other than bug fixing. I am truly disappointed.

… Am I just imagining this – Some quick tests are showing a lot of promise in “gradability” improvement.

+1, there’s plenty of room for them above the 16:9 image….

Why would they add a time-lapse movie feature when they can just as easily sell you a replacement shutter?!?!?

It’s probably mostly Canon who’s been working.

Thank you so much for that link! took 1 second to download and worked, instead of 30 minutes and a corrupt file from canon..

Thanks for sharing! Tried all day without succes.

agreed.

Agrred, many many thanks for that link. There must be lots of 5D mkII owners all sucking the bandwidth !

The fix re. the lens error is appreciated. And I like that Canon is listening.

But, as a photographer, won’t really use it.

Nevertheless thanks for listening to your serious customers, Canon.

Like? And when you are at it please contrast and compare Canon to other companies who add extra features ALL the time.

Do you think a photographer can be a photographer just because he takes shot only in manual mode without any “help” from your camera?
I believe a photographer is someone who can takes nice pictures, no matters if in manual or in auto mode… There are some features that can help to concentrate more on pictures than technics… I keep on wondering why some photographers are so afraid by auto ISO!

Kam, I explain you why… I am in AV program, conditions are not very good, not so much light, I use a 35mm lens and I put auto ISO to have less ISO as possible to get less noise as possible. I care about only aperture and about composition and instant, the camera cares about ISO and all the rest. So far so good, except that 5D mark II choses for me a shutter time of 1/35 s (following the well known rule 1/f to avoid hand shaking): it is a time too big for me, if people are moving only a bit I get phantoms! So I would like to choose for example a shutter time at least equal to 1/125s and forget about the rest.

Can you get how much would be comfortable? And do you know it is a copy&paste job for a baby Canon programmer since this function is already present somewhere else? We are talking about 5 lines of code for people who write software for exposure, focus, video and so on…

We are only asking some easy photographic features, so easy to implement.

Far from me to feed the war all_manual vs all_auto, I hope you understand our needs and also Canon, since we paid a big amount of money for a camera.

http://www.petitiononline.com/Canon5D/

The next most important feature is full 10bit 4:2:2 hdmi output without that stupid white box which is impossible to remove with manual lenses like leicas. Also remove the black transparent letter boxing at the top and bottom of the image.

Then we can capture directly into a matrxo mx02 mini or blackmagic card.

Also a cool feature would be the ability to use a gradient b/w image to control exposure kinda of like the manual white balance.

But the ultimate goal would be to open the firmware to developers. Then canon would have to be bothered.

24fps looks nice and smooth.

Doesn’t that defeat the purpose?

Agreed.

It’s funny that “pro” has come to mean “doing everything that the camera would probably do better” as opposed to “getting the best possible photo”!

I have not been able to download this firmware. After a glacial download speed from the Canon site, it craps out at about 50%.

If there is another mirror site, that would be great.

So now that there is the firmware update I’m left so confused as to what to buy. I’m a filmmaker who makes short films (and wants to take pics of his baby boy), and I’m debating between buying the 7D or the 5DII. I plan on buying a juicelink for the sound. What I need to know is, what is going to give me the best image and longevity? Does the full senor really make that much of a difference?

I wish there was Magic Lantern for 7D then my decision would be easy, but since there isn’t and who knows if there will, at least I know that ML works for the 5DII, but of course it doesn’t work with the new update. I like the fact that ML gets rid of the ACG and makes the v/a out on the camera a headphone jack. So whether I make waiting for ML to work with the 7D or with the new 5D update, I’m still screwed. Is it me or why is taking so long for ML to work on the 7D? I and a bunch of people I know have made donations but there hasn’t been updates on the progress since Nov. it feels like.

I need to make a decision this week, I want to take advantage of the Canon rebates and the fact that Samy’s is having no tax this week!

HELP!

I would argue pro means you make a majority of your money in photography.

I sort of see your point, but I think what’s missing is that a lot of people just don’t thoroughly understand their camera’s. I personally shoot manual about 85% of the time… simply because I’m shooting with manual flash or in lighting situations where no metering mode will be as accurate as my hand held meter.

People should how ever, not avoid semi auto modes just because they’re stubborn, I mean I have actually met people who refuse to shoot Tv mode when using on camera flash at an event because they think it’s “a cop out”… I think it comes down to having all the tools in your box (understanding your craft and equipment) and using the right tool for any situation, so you can focus on getting the shot as much as possible.

I mean sure you can try hammering in a nail with the back of a screw driver… but if you had a hammer in the box why would you?

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=139&modelid=17662#DownloadDetailAct

In the “Drivers / Software Selection” section, choose your OS (for example, Mac OS X), then scroll down to the software section and look for “ImageBrowser 6.5.0a Updater (Mac OS 10.4-10.6)”

300 baud is not 300bps.

Geez. Next you’ll tell me you don’t remember the difference between v.42bis and mnp-5

Or a 386sx and a 486sx

The canon USA download site was actually connecting me to the canon japan site. Extremely slow, it took several tries to get the whole file.

Thanks. That explains the 3K bits per second download. I’ll keep trying.

You would think a company the size of Canon could mirror their download servers here in the US.

Yes but my composition and paragraph structure are better now. Now stopping looking through my thinly disguised contentless drivel and respect me for the 5D MkII God that I am.

You are all pathetic, you can’t even use your own nickname, but try to imitate instead.

This site has been invaded by too many trolls or teenagers (or even worse, adults that think like teenagers).

Check the footage on your computer.

The 5D2’s LCD screen has a refresh rate that can give you a false impression.

Canon just made a lot of indy filmmakers very happy.

Modems are generally classified by the amount of data they can send in a given time, normally measured in bits per second (bit/s, or bps). They can also be classified by Baud, the number of times the modem changes its signal state per second. For example, the ITU V.21 standard used audio frequency-shift keying, aka tones, to carry 300 bit/s using 300 baud, whereas the original ITU V.22 standard allowed 1,200 bit/s with 600 baud using phase-shift keying.

Israel,
I was trying to cheer James up with a little chuckle from a reference to the past, to make the firmware download seem to go a little faster.
Obviously you had to take offence for James because you didn’t think of the line first.

+100; very well said Nico San;

“a baby Canon programmer” super!

I’m so happy about this.

I’m filming two commercials this weekend with my 5D. Screw RED. :)

I am really sorry, once created, a petition cannot be changed :-(

Is someone from Canon reading this blog/comments?

First off all, thanks for the great update. We appriciate it alot.

Questions:
1. is 50/60fps possible on the 5D? (with only one digic?)
2. Will Canon please focus on a photography firmware update?
Stuff like, more bracketing possiblities, auto iso limits, Shutterspeeds limits when shooting in AV?

Lots of low-end dslr’s even have those functions.
And lets not start about the poor focusing on the 5D. But that’s not upgradable I guess :)

Thanks.

What if I am an adult troll that thinks like a teenager?

Anyway get off your unauthoritative high horse and realise that Canon, basically, don’t give a stuff about you or the current owners of the 5D MkII, they already have your money.

They made a still camera that could shoot video (probably because Nikon did), they were blown away by the popularity of the video function, don’t forget they make good video cameras too, they realised at a corporate glacial speed that they could keep the model line fresh for a lot longer by upgrading firmware, a “feature” normally reserved for fixing errors. They will only ever “give” you the minimum they can, they make no money on firmware upgrading but do end up selling new bodies for longer because they have improved features that keep them current and competitive. They really, really want you to buy a 5D MkIII, and if you can a 7D and a 1D/Ds MkIV, that is what this division of the company does, it sells cameras, principally still cameras with ever increasing video functions.

They will not “give” you anything they don’t need to to keep the MkII competitive for new sales, they will hold back anything and everything they can. They have some very smart software engineers who can, and almost certainly have, pushed the 5D MkII to unbelievably advanced levels that we will never see.

You seem to know precisely nothing more, and often less, than any of the rumours sites and they relay their gossip with a lot more humour and self deprecating good nature than you. You might think you are on a crusade, but you are not a crusader, and even if you were history has shown they were just a bunch of murdering christian zealots.

Relax, enjoy the fact that corporate Canon policy is in tune with your desire for increased functionality on the current body. Be realistic, your opinion and efforts are not having any effect on Canon. They do what they want when they want,they live and die by new sales, not upgrading old sales.

True. Except that, in fact, in this case we are not considering Digic4 alone, but the chipset, the group of IC – including Digic4 – which, as you say, is basically the same, yet not exactly the same. In addition, this is true only for the 5D2-T2i comparison, since both 7D and 1D4 are dual Digic4. It may be that since processing a 21MP image is a heavier load than processing a 18MP one to produce the same video output, this can’t be accomplished safely by the 5D2 chipset (overheating?).

I’m afraid we’ll never have 50/60fps on the 5D2, but, of course, I hope I’m wrong. On the other hand, I’m pretty sure we’ll see some further upgrade in functions for stills in a future firmware release. 5D2 is a GREAT camera.

The Firmware 2.0.3 is really great.

BUT it has a PROBLEM: It doesn’t register correctly the new Audio feature in Customs modes C1, C2 or C3.

BEWARE: You might film and get footage WITH NO SOUND!!

http://5dmark2.wordpress.com/2010/03/17/bugs-issues-on-firmware-2-0-3/

We encourage ALL customers to REPORT THIS PROBLEM TO CANON. IT’S EASY TO FIX.

Custom modes are essential for daily use of most serious Amateurs and Professionals.

It could be a BIG HEADACHE if you cannot register all your settings and use them reliably…

i just brought a new 5D mk ii the picture is great and comparing the picture to the sony EX1 that i just sold. its much clearer… i’m still a little baffled why Canon would use the MOV format for recording… i have Mac and PC using quad cores with 8 gig of ram, and i have tried the footage in Adobe as well as Sony vegas, but it absolutely will not run in either. i have been converting everything to MXF format and it runs quite well.. why didn’t canon just opt for this format in the first place. it runs like a dream. the only other issue is i like to use a field monitor. in video mode it is at 1080i until you hit the record button, then it jumps down to 480i.. thats not good for referencing video footage??? cheers, Chris from Abyss… 8)..

You need a medical check…

Yes, sensor are different too, some electronic parts as well (call them chipset)

We have seen many respectable reps. and people we appreciate telling inaccurate things. The reason? We don’t know.

Some of them have only commercial relationships with Canon, so we would take their words with caution.

So far the only comment we got about why the 5D2 has not 720p60 is due overheating (not specified on which component), and that’s a very real possibility, that of course include the chipset and or sensor cannot handle the task in a reliable way.

But the fact is that it was present in unofficial versions.

Thanks, I will do it.

firmware version 2.0.4 is already out… Canon doesn’t waste any time … 8)