Canon EOS M / 2.5K Magic Lantern SD Card Hack Test

J

jsb23

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Has anyone tried the Magic Lantern SD card interface overclock hack which allows you to increase the camera's write speed?
Here's a test I've done with the EOS M, shooting at 2520x1080 resolution, 12-bit lossless raw continuously, in 5x magnification mode. Before this hack it was only possible to shoot 3 seconds of footage at this resolution in 10 bit lossless, so that's quite a major step forward for Magic Lantern:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IuzyaBOfqY

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jsb23 said:
Here's a test I've done with the EOS M, shooting at 2520x1080 resolution, 12-bit lossless raw continuously, in 5x magnification mode.
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In shot above, 1'30" in video, there is quite a lot of noise in shadow area, probably due the 5x magnification mode.

What settings did you use for that particular shot?
 
This was ISO 100 - during the same clip I was also filming out the window just above the plant, so was exposing for the bright sunlight outside (I cut that from the video). That does mean that the shadows were very dark here and I had to push them up a lot in post to compensate. At ISO 100, the EOS M has particularly noisy shadows. 5x magnification definitely emphasizes this.

Generally if footage is properly exposed, you start to get a bit of noise at ISO 400, and quite a lot at ISO 800. At ISO 1600 it's not great at all. Pushing up the resolution to 2.5k does make the noise finer, but it's still there.
 
Thanks for quick reply, did you try to record with a lens cap on at each ISO setting and then push the image in post to test the noise levels?

Is only 1:1 recording available and what crop factors do you get?
 
I haven't tried that - I'm not that bothered about testing noise levels as I'm well aware how awful the EOS M is in low light and the crazy amount of noise you get. Personally I'm happy with the noise at this resolution. To me it's fine up to ISO 800 in crop mode. I think it looks slightly more pleasant / filmic than the noise I used to get on the BMPCC at high ISOs for example... even if the BMPCC is much better in low light! On top of that the dynamic range on the EOS M is poor, with harsh highlight clipping which can be hard to control in post - you have to really protect the highlights and expose darker if needed. Still, I don't mind that - the camera only cost me $100.

In raw video format there's 1:1 crop recording (choice between "5x magnification" mode for resolution up to 2520x1080 (3.33x crop from 35mm full frame) or "movie crop mode" for more accurate liveview preview framing, resolution up to 1800x1030 (4.66x crop from 35mm full frame). Apart from that, these two crop modes are exactly the same. In crop mode you can actually select any resolution you like up to the max quoted above. The lower the resolution, the more noticeable the grain is since you're using a smaller portion of the sensor.

Then there's regular full aps-c sensor (non crop) recording. In raw mode you can shoot in 3x5 line skipping mode, with resolution up to 1728x694. However the amount of aliasing and moire is catastrophic, so this mode isn't of much use. You can also shoot with 3x3 line skipping at that same 1728x694 resolution with the crop_rec build, that produces slightly less moire (i.e. the same as most other Canon DSLRs)... but that max vertical resolution remains low.

Finally, if you shoot mp4 with the bitrate hack - you can shoot either full aps-c sensor (non crop) at 1920x1080, or in movie crop mode 1920x1080 (around 4.5x crop).
 
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Interesting. I have a few of these cameras that I mostly use for timelapse for video. I stopped paying attention to the ML work awhile ago despite having it loaded on the camera. I noticed on the video that a speedbooster for the M series is mentioned. Do you have more info on that?
 
Very cool jsb23. I love the EOS-M. At this point, the bang for the buck makes it one of my favorite cameras to use. Even has PAL framerates. One thing I'm wondering is can you adjust the the interval of the photos when using the ML hack for timelapse? I seem to be set at 1 frame every 11 seconds and can't alter.
 
I feel like ML has slowed down a bit as new cameras keep pushing their specifications. If I had millions, I'd pay them to extensively research the 5D Mark IV and 1DX Mark II and see what else those cameras could do.
 
NorBro said:
I feel like ML has slowed down a bit as new cameras keep pushing their specifications. If I had millions, I'd pay them to extensively research the 5D Mark IV and 1DX Mark II and see what else those cameras could do.
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they stop accepting donation some times ago.
if ML ever port to 5D4 it will be a miracle, it will not be any ML on any of the 1D or C line cameras. :(
 
There could have been ML on the 1DC back when it was around, but they might have been afraid of getting sued based on some information that was floating around, and now there's no point...but having it on the 5D Mark IV would be awesome.
 
@cpreston yes I wrote to Viltrox and they told me they were planning to make an EF-M to EF mount speedbooster to be released in around 3 months. Haven't seen it publicly announced yet though. Viltrox already make a speedbooster for M4/3 which works well.

@Movies by Matt I haven't tried the timelapse feature unfortunately. It does sometimes take a lot patience playing around with ML menu functions to discover how something works!

@NorBro ML on the 5D4 would be amazing. I'm wondering what the upcoming release of the BMPCC4k will do to the amount of work being put into ML in general on the high end EOS cameras (at least for video functions), since it would be cheaper and more convenient just to use the Blackmagic to achieve similar results? With the EOS M and other lower end cameras it might be different since nothing compares to them at their price point for raw video - the original BMPCC is still quite a bit more expensive than the EOS M.
 
It looks that Canon 11-24mm f/4L would still be too narrow, so it's line skipping for wide shoots?

You had AF whole time on?
 
laverdir said:
It looks that Canon 11-24mm f/4L would still be too narrow, so it's line skipping for wide shoots?

You had AF whole time on?
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With a speed booster an 11mm lens would be 26mm (35mm full frame equivalent) which is pretty wide? I've bought a cheap Canon 10-18mm IS lens, and with the speedbooster that'll be 24mm equivalent. Just have to wait for Viltrox to release the speedbooster now, which they told me they would in a few months.

I never use AF as it's rubbish for video on the EOS M (and particularly bad in crop mode filming), that's all manual focus. I do use lens image stabilisation though.
 
jsb23 said:
@cpreston yes I wrote to Viltrox and they told me they were planning to make an EF-M to EF mount speedbooster to be released in around 3 months. Haven't seen it publicly announced yet though. Viltrox already make a speedbooster for M4/3 which works well.

@Movies by Matt I haven't tried the timelapse feature unfortunately. It does sometimes take a lot patience playing around with ML menu functions to discover how something works!

@NorBro ML on the 5D4 would be amazing. I'm wondering what the upcoming release of the BMPCC4k will do to the amount of work being put into ML in general on the high end EOS cameras (at least for video functions), since it would be cheaper and more convenient just to use the Blackmagic to achieve similar results? With the EOS M and other lower end cameras it might be different since nothing compares to them at their price point for raw video - the original BMPCC is still quite a bit more expensive than the EOS M.
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Any canon stills sensor is still probably gonna be miles ahead of a BM sensor, just for stuff like IR filtration and CFA quality.
 
IanTheM said:
Any canon stills sensor is still probably gonna be miles ahead of a BM sensor, just for stuff like IR filtration and CFA quality.
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That's probably true, though dynamic range is pretty poor on the eos m sensor, and in crop mode the low light performance is worse than the bmpcc by quite a big margin. However I don't mind these limitations and prefer the image I'm getting out of the eos m.
 
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