Can we do this yet? Video length
 

One of the biggest drawbacks for me using my Canon 550d for video is no option to display total video length like I can on my Panasonic. If I need 20 minutes of video, I'm forced to mentally keep track of each clip length in my head, or go back and count them up in preview mode.
Does Magic Lantern have a setting for this? Or any suggestions?

Re: Can we do this yet? Video length
 

Magic Lantern has an auto restart after the 12 minute mark. But you loose a couple of seconds on the restart.
Others have reduced the bit rate to spin it out a bit more again I would worry that you loose a bit of quality.

Re: Can we do this yet? Video length
 

Not that, I'm looking for something to keep track of running time shot. Like on my Panasonic I hit reset to clear the counter, and when I pause or stop shooting, the timer stops, etc.

Re: Can we do this yet? Video length
 

Magic Lantern has the option to show you shot duration or remaining time till 4Gb or remaining time on the card.
I have also tried to reduce bitrate to 50% a few times and was surprised about the picture quality. (Shooting on tripod without too much motion)

Re: Can we do this yet? Video length
 

Guess it isn't an option yet. I can always buy a cheap digital timer and manually start it when I'm shooting I guess to keep track of total recorded length.

Re: Can we do this yet? Video length
 

"Guess it isn't an option yet."

Based on what? The post right above yours says that yes, it is an option.

You could just take the 1 min to google it yourself if you aren't going to read the answers to your question.

Here is the user manual. Scroll down to the section "Movie" and read topic "Time Indicator."
userguide [Magic Lantern wiki]

Re: Can we do this yet? Video length
 

Duration of the current clip is not the same as duration of all clips filmed since resetting a main timer, as you would a video camera

Re: Can we do this yet? Video length
 

Sorry for my ignorance of the 550D, but on the 60D and the MK lll & MK ll you just push the info button while recording and it displays, among other things, the clip duration as it records. Once you stop recording, it displays the amount of time you have left on the card.

Re: Can we do this yet? Video length
 

The 550D does this as well, but it only records durations of each clip, so every time you stop and start recording, the duration starts over at 0seconds, unlike a video camera that will keep adding the individual clips together, to make a total length of all clips shot.
In my business, if I need a 20 minute video, and it takes 15-30 different takes/clips if I use the Canon, I have to go through and manually add the total clip length together, instead of having the total duration of shots taken.

Re: Can we do this yet? Video length
 

Dan, you can get a fairly close estimate by memorising how much footage you can fit on a card. For example, a 16gb card holds roughly 45-50 minutes of footage. So you If you are using a 16gb card, and the camera is telling you you have 20 minutes remaining, you can estimate that you've shot roughly 25-30 minutes of footage.

Re: Can we do this yet? Video length
 

I have found myself at many weddings, having to go to the format option of the camera to work out how much of the card has been used so I can estimate how long I have left on the card. Witha 64Gb card, its only until you get to 29mins that you know how long you have left and sometimes that makes it difficult to plan.

Re: Can we do this yet? Video length
 

I too use the format screen to check how much space there is left on the card as it is the only option available as far as I know. However use with caution as I have once in the excitement of filming actually selected OK rather than cancel & formatted the card. It's not the end of the world as you can recover the files with RescuePro or similar as formatting only flips a bit to say the card is empty rather than actually deleting the files (not true of low-level format option for SD card on my 5D3 though).

I really would like a simple & foolproof way of estimating how much space there is left on a card without using the Format menu.

Re: Can we do this yet? Video length
 

Yeah, I absolutely hate going into that format option, but like you say, it's the only way we have currently. In all honesty it's great that we have the opportunity to capture footage using these cameras and these minor points are a small price to pay I suppose.