Magic latern firmware for 5D - 74 MBps h.264 Tests & 2.0.8 Beta Firmware

I hope people realize CF card read and write speeds are different and the manufacturer will sometimes only list the faster one which is read speed. A '90Mb/s' card might only have a 30Mb/s write speed that is not specified on the specs.

Also, I think some people here are confusing Mega-BYTES with Mega-BITS. The bitrate of the codec is given in Mega-BITS so 76mb/s is actually 9.5Mb/s.
 
That's something else that I don't get. 8Mbit = 1MB... so even a "real" 30MB card would have a speed of 240Mbit which is fast enough.
Shoot photos at 5fps, an average of say 5MB per photo and you have a datarate of 25MB per second and the camera still holds up, so obviously the CPU is fast enough, the card is fast enough.

Anyways, I still can't get to the bitrate settings, having re-tried to boot the firmware over and over again... anyone?
 
tjc320 said:
I made a detailed video showing the differences between the bit rates.

http://vimeo.com/17711166

It should be pretty helpful to everyone who's interested.
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Thanks. Can you post a comparison of a quick pan of a pretty detailed frame. There were some GH13 tests which showed the image really breaking up in this kind of scenario at the default bit rate. Also, you should post comparison images in addition to the video so vimeo/youtube compression isn't as big of a factor.
 
squig said:
I've been testing a Lexar 600x 16Gb UDMA card, my research suggested that this was the fastest card on the Canon DSLRs but unfortunately it's performing about the same as the Sandisk extreme 60MB/s card. I'm still getting about 60-65Mb/s with the -14 setting. The variable bit-rate is really frustrating especially in low light. I think a constant bit-rate would work a lot better.
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I've been looking at the best card to buy to get the best bitrate
here is what I found on tom's hardware: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/compactflash-600x-memory-card,2562-8.html
if you look at the writing shart (writing speed is our only concern) the lexar and Transcend performs the best around 81. however on the minimum writing speed Sandisk is beter around 60.
I wonder if our concern should only be the minimum writing speed.
since so far (and thats a shame) its an average bitrate and cards have writing limitations maybe its wiser to get a good 600x card and run at 62mpps.
Its cool to think that we can get to 76mbps but CF cards can't yet but for shooting a movie I would go for the more stable rate.


The original mbps is around 38mbps I think , thinking that we can nearly doble the bitrate I thaught I would be more suprised by the different exemples I've seen and see more threads around.
But anyway , this is great news. Would that mean that this a great point for not swapping our 5Ds yet with the new panasonic ag-af100 since AVCHD is only a kind of package running with H.264 ?
However I heard that H.264 had a "natural" limitation of 25mbps rate , So all this would be usless and just numbers and not quality, but I can't get confirmation, I don't really understand why it should have à limitation.
 
Am I the only one who can't seem to get the new Magic Lantern to work? This is my first time trying ML and when I go to load the firmware the screen just goes black and on the display on the handle it blinks BUSY when I put pressure on the exposure button. I need to remove the battery to get the camera back working.
 
FUBARFilms said:
Am I the only one who can't seem to get the new Magic Lantern to work? This is my first time trying ML and when I go to load the firmware the screen just goes black and on the display on the handle it blinks BUSY when I put pressure on the exposure button. I need to remove the battery to get the camera back working.
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I had similar problems. Try using a different cf card or if that does not work try using a different lens
 
FUBARFilms said:
Am I the only one who can't seem to get the new Magic Lantern to work? This is my first time trying ML and when I go to load the firmware the screen just goes black and on the display on the handle it blinks BUSY when I put pressure on the exposure button. I need to remove the battery to get the camera back working.
Click to expand...

Upload the 2.0.8 canon firmware
install it
upload magic lantern firmware from here : http://ml-devel.googlegroups.com/attach/71581e7312e05a2a/magiclantern-0.1.9.zip?part=2
once you loaded the firmware a few writings comes up then it goes black wait 10 seconds. Switch on live view mode . If there is no swithching noise take the battery out and try again. Then press the profils button and you'll get it.
 
I have a few questions about magic lantern. I only really want it for the crop markings and the zebras (but mainly for the crop markings).

1. Can I install an earlier version of magic lantern that is not in beta if I have the most recent canon software?
2. Is there a way to remove Magic Lantern if I need to send my camera in to Canon?
3. What are the chances that it bricks my camera?
4. Are there instructions anywhere for how to install and how to use magic lantern?

I've never really looked into Magic Lantern before until I read that it could do the crop markings, so I am really new to this. And before anyone suggests it, I don't really want to put tape or anything on the screen for crop markings.
 
1. There is a limit to which revision of ML your current firmware supports. I'd say to avoid problems use the most recent version you can find on the site for your specific firmware, otherwise you might encounter problems (that latter MLs have fixed)
2. ML is written to the RAM, it does not flash firmware permanently. To remove it all you have to do is power your camera off then boot it back up.
3. I have used ML many times and I have not encountered any problems, nor have many other people. As long as you are sensible and follow instructions properly and use a stable, tested release (not bleeding edge nightlys) then you shouldn't encounter any problems.
4. Instructions can be found on the front page of the wiki (http://magiclantern.wikia.com/wiki/Magic_Lantern_Firmware_Wiki) in the vimeo video. It's fairly simple, however, just download the firmware files (either from the wiki or the google groups pages) extract the files somewhere on your hard drive, then copy them onto the root directory of your compact flash card. Then, boot up your camera and select firmware upgrade, it should register that the ML firmware is on the card, then begin the process of writing ML to the camera's RAM. After a few seconds the camera will become operational again and you'll be running magic lantern.
 
Calomile said:
1. There is a limit to which revision of ML your current firmware supports. I'd say to avoid problems use the most recent version you can find on the site for your specific firmware, otherwise you might encounter problems (that latter MLs have fixed)
2. ML is written to the RAM, it does not flash firmware permanently. To remove it all you have to do is power your camera off then boot it back up.
3. I have used ML many times and I have not encountered any problems, nor have many other people. As long as you are sensible and follow instructions properly and use a stable, tested release (not bleeding edge nightlys) then you shouldn't encounter any problems.
4. Instructions can be found on the front page of the wiki (http://magiclantern.wikia.com/wiki/Magic_Lantern_Firmware_Wiki) in the vimeo video. It's fairly simple, however, just download the firmware files (either from the wiki or the google groups pages) extract the files somewhere on your hard drive, then copy them onto the root directory of your compact flash card. Then, boot up your camera and select firmware upgrade, it should register that the ML firmware is on the card, then begin the process of writing ML to the camera's RAM. After a few seconds the camera will become operational again and you'll be running magic lantern.
Click to expand...

Thanks doe the answers. So if I am understanding number 2 correctly, would that mean that I have to install ML after every time I turn the camera off? Isn't that kind of a pain? Would that also mean that I would need to have ML on one of my cf cards at all times?
 
Yes, no, and yes.

It's more of a pain blowing your highlights because you don't have zebras etc...
 
Exactly, it only adds another 10 seconds to the power cycle of the camera. And having Zebras and all that other nice stuff is definitely worth 10 seconds of your time.

The only problem is if you're a fastidious reformater of cards. If you're shooting with an assistant who's manning the laptop, have them delete the footage after they've imported it.
 
Thanks for the responses. So no one has experienced some of the problems that people at cinema5d are experiencing like this:

same issue.. .black screen, and if i leave it for too long, it seems like it fries the LCD screen for 30 minutes... strange flickering problem around the edges... SCARY! any ideas?
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the responses. So no one has experienced some of the problems that people at cinema5d are experiencing like this:

same issue.. .black screen, and if i leave it for too long, it seems like it fries the LCD screen for 30 minutes... strange flickering problem around the edges... SCARY! any ideas?
Click to expand...

I did experience those problems. Scared me away from trying it again until more people tried it. Has there been any solution to this problem.
 
Unless I'm mistaken, the firmware 0.1.9 is a "beta release", so hopefully these issues us select 5D users are having will be corrected when the full release is finally out.
 
As I said, avoid betas if you don't want the headache that inevitably comes with it. The rate at which ML has taken off in the last month has been phenomenal, it wont be long before an all singing all dancing version is released.
 
i hit 173mbps for a one second clip. wow! but, i will wait for a final version as there are too many bugs.
 
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