View Full Version : Magic Lantern - Camera won't start!


Martin Campbell
May 28th, 2012, 11:27 AM
I've been using ML for a few weeks now - love it - really helps me in sharpness, pull focus and a few others.

However, I used it at the weekend for a wedding - and was almost a disaster. I went to start the camera up and it wouldn't start. I changed batteries and eventually discovered it was the card with ML on it that wasn't working. The same card inserted into my other camera (non-ML) worked fine. The 5DMKII just wouldn't power up - AT ALL with this card. It was a bit of a heart stopping moment but at least I had backups.

Have reformatted the card - re-installed ML and all appears to be working now. Has anyone else had experience of this happening before?

Perhaps just coincidence - but I also had a Lexar 16GB CF card containing ML, just become 'unreadable' on me last week! Very thankfully it did not have anything important on it so will be replaced. first time that has happened too!!!

Donald McPherson
May 29th, 2012, 03:16 PM
I've heard that you should format your card every now and then. Makes it more responsive with a clean install of ML.

Todd Mizomi
May 29th, 2012, 07:30 PM
I ran into this last week with ML on a Canon 60D. Was working fine with ML during some testing. Turned the camera off, then a few minutes tried powering up the camera and it was completely dead. No flashing low battery warning, nothing. Tried changing batteries, SD cards both with and without ML installed, tried taking outt he battery for an hour , nothing. The camera was completely inert.

Then when I was filling out the form to send the 60D in to CPS for repair, it suddenly started working again.


Bizarre, and I'm not sure I could trust using ML if I ran into this issue on a wedding gig.

Martin Campbell
May 30th, 2012, 08:47 AM
I've heard that you should format your card every now and then. Makes it more responsive with a clean install of ML.

I wouldn't mind doing that - but the card it failed with had only been used twice with ML, and it is a 600x CF card too so speed not an issue.


I ran into this last week with ML on a Canon 60D. Was working fine with ML during some testing. Turned the camera off, then a few minutes tried powering up the camera and it was completely dead. No flashing low battery warning, nothing. Tried changing batteries, SD cards both with and without ML installed, tried taking outt he battery for an hour , nothing. The camera was completely inert.

Then when I was filling out the form to send the 60D in to CPS for repair, it suddenly started working again.


Bizarre, and I'm not sure I could trust using ML if I ran into this issue on a wedding gig.

Yes - that is worrying. Has anyone else had the same issue? I'd be lying if I said I wasn't slightly concerned.
Has anyone ever Lost footage on a ML card? Or would that just be down to card failure?