View Full Version : Magic lantern for 70D?


Erick Perdomo
October 26th, 2015, 09:14 AM
hi everyone. I purchased a 70D when it first came out and it has been a great tool for weddings and other small "cinematic" endeavours.It's not meant to replace my Canon XF300 for longer events.
But I wish it had peaking/zebras and an intervalometer built in...well...after not reading for a bit I discovered that Magic Lantern has been developed for the 70D! and I'm curious to try it..but I wonder if anyone here who has the 70D is currently using ML and what their experiences are with it.
I understand that I would install it at my own risk and that some serial numbers don't work? am I correct here? also I would have to upgrade my firmware maybe..so far my70D has worked fine and I don't want to brick it! but some additional functionalities would be nice...
any opinions from real users?
much appreciated
Erick

Seth Bloombaum
October 27th, 2015, 09:51 AM
I used ML extensively on a 60D, so was very familiar and motivated to install on the 70D when I got it just a couple weeks ago.

The 70D version is in Beta release. There are some things that don't work.

I don't recall if Intervalometer is working. I'm more enthusiastic about FPS controls to shoot video at 1 or 3 FPS instead of Intervalometer; this was after I figured out just how many exposures it takes to do longer timelapses. That's wear on the shutter, which has a limited lifespan. FPS controls don't yet work on the 70D.

Zebras is working.

USB to headphone output is not yet working - this is a big one for me.

Raw video is working, but I haven't tried it yet. This seems to be a big focus.

Of the rest of the extensive list of ML features, most are working, except none of the Audio menu.

As it's a volunteer open-source project, there are no schedules. IIRC the main developer of the port to the 70D is coming back to it after some time on another ML project. Maybe things will go faster.

As a Beta release, you have to dig into a single ML forum thread for downloads and to find out what's going on with development:
Canon 70D (Beta-1 / 22th Aug) (http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=14309.0)

There are two current releases for two range of serial numbers - Try the "A" release first, if that doesn't work, try the "B" release and it should.

The rest of the info you need is in that ML forum thread. It didn't brick my 70D; based on my previous good experience with v2.3 for 60D I was willing to load it on a new 70D. I wish they were further along... but other than some features I expected not being there, I've had no problems with it.

Use at your own risk!

Erick Perdomo
October 28th, 2015, 01:14 PM
thanks for the reassurances...I decided to install it (it actually resides on the SD card) and it definitely add some valuable features (that the GH3/GH4 already have!)...but the audio is a no go...
Since I won't be using it as my main camera-but rather as a B camera to a C100 mk2 for interviews, I'm not too concerned about the audio part...but it would be awesome!
Nice to have the intervalometer working...I always forget to bring the external intervalometer..but I won't use it too much...
I think it's awesome to see some serious reverse engineering thing going on...it's a very useful DSLR and I will use it along my C100 mk2 a lot for sure.

thanks for the extensive review
E