Shooting Full HD video is now possible on the Canon 50d

Introduction About Magic Lantern

Magic Lantern is an open source development environment for the Canon 5D Mark II / 500d / 550D / 600D / 60D / 50D digital mirror. In fact, this is not a cracked or modified firmware, but an add-on that starts up with the original firmware, booting from the memory card each time the camera is turned on. The executable file is written to the flash card and automatically loaded into memory when the camera is turned on. The only change to the original firmware is the ability to download this very add-on from the memory card. Basically, the firmware is sharpened for shooting video (after installing it, Mark II gets the functionality comparable to professional video cameras RED ONE and Phantom 65, which are in completely different price categories), but there are quite a few new features for photos:

• Bracketing - up to 9 frames with a shift from 0.5 to 5 EV / Ie. reportable HDR can be done without thinking at all.
• Intervalometer - automatic shooting with a specified time interval.
• Spotmeter - estimates the brightness of a microscopic object in the center of the frame.
• LCD Remote Shot - replacement of the remote control. You close and open the sensor under the viewfinder - the camera takes a shot. And no shaking at high shutter speeds because you touched the shutter button with your hands. Because of this, I always pull the remote control with me, and if I forget, I use the descent delay.
• Audio RemoteShot - the same thing, just by the sound (click of a finger, clap, etc.)
• Trap Focus - release the shutter when something sharp appears in the focus area. Convenient when shooting animals, birds, butterflies. Developers write that you can shoot even a zipper.
• Magic Zoom - automatic zoom in the window for the central part of the frame. It can be activated, for example, by rotating the focus ring. Those. exactly when it is necessary. No need to press any buttons.
• Bulb timer - manual shutter speed from 1 second to 8 hours
• Stack focus - focusing bracketing, you can infinitely increase the depth of field.
• Displays the current focusing distance and the GRIP calculator - shows the hyperfocal (for the currently selected aperture) and the depth of field depth (for the selected aperture and focusing distance).
• White balance in Kelvin
• Performance test flash drives, showing the number of actuations of the shutter and much more.

The remaining features can be found in the official manual .

Installing firmware

Consider the process of installing the Magic Lantern firmware using the example of a Canon 50D camera. The function of shooting video was present in it initially, but was not available. Although implemented previously using image capture through the use of LiveView. The parameter for LiveView has three values: 0 - off, 1 - on, 2 - on. with the video. The standard menu allows you to change the parameter from 0 to 1 and vice versa, ML also switches between 1 and 2. It also removes the limit on recording time.
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Attention! The manufacturer of the firmware disclaims responsibility for any glitches and KILLING of your camera. We put at your own risk.

1. The first thing we need to do is make sure that the battery is fully charged.

2. Check that the latest official Canon firmware version 1.0.8 is installed on the camera. You can find out by turning on the camera in M ​​or P mode by pressing the menu and And going to the tab with the image of a key and three points. There we see something like the following:

• If you already have version 1.0.8, you can skip to step 3;
• If the firmware version on the camera is lower than 1.0.8, for example 1.0.7 or 1.0.6, then you need to go to the official update page and download it;
• Turn on the camera in M ​​mode, go to the penultimate tab, and update the firmware;
• Now that we have firmware version 1.0.8 installed, we can proceed to the installation procedure for Magic Lantern

3. Format the memory card in the camera;

4. Download the firmware file ;

5. Download the current version of the file autoexec.bin (from 10.25.2011);

Check for updates in the Magic Lantern porting forum at 50d

6. Unpack the archive into a separate folder on the hard disk and replace the autoexec.bin file with a more current version;

7. Copy the contents of the folder to the root of the memory card;

8. Now we need to make the memory card bootable. For this we need the program EOScard . Insert the card into the card reader, run the program and select the following check boxes:



Click "Save" and close the program.

9. Insert the memory card into the camera and update the software;



10. Reboot the camera

The Magic Lantern settings menu is triggered by pressing the “Picture Style” button under the screen, where you can find the inclusion of the video shooting function. To start and stop recording, use the SET button or you can press the shutter button halfway.

Conclusion

The maximum duration of one video with a standard bitrate is up to 14 minutes. When bitrate below the standard - up to 29 minutes 59 seconds.

As you know, in 50d there is no sound recording capability. But you can use an external recording device ( Zoom H1 , H2 or H4n ) and subsequently synchronize the audio track with the video.

If you decide to remove Magic Lantern, do the following:
- In the ML settings, disable video shooting
- Uncheck the boxes in EOScard
- Format the memory card

By the way, if you do not turn off the video recording function, then even after removing Magic Lantern and flashing, the ability to record video will remain with you.

If any errors occur, simply remove and reinsert the battery.

Congratulations! You have updated your camera and breathed a second life into it, thus discovering new horizons for creativity! I wish you success in sampling the pen with shooting video.
The official site where you can always download the latest firmware version

UPD : Today it became known that the first alpha version of Magic Lantern for Canon 500d was released

UPD 2 : here is the translation of almost all ML functions into Russian. Rack FOCUS configuration video in Magic Lantern firmware