Dean Terry
Hacked 5D Mark II Camera Rig with Magic Lantern and juicedLink
Testing Magic Lantern firmware and audio gear for HD video recording on the Canon 5D Mark II. The 5D has a poor built in microphone and a similarly poor microphone jack, no audio meters, and nasty auto gain (think noise). In order to move around freely with the camera and get decent audio you have to use some sort of preamp. In this case it's a juicedLink CX231. There are two microphones attached because I was testing to see which one worked better. The mics are the Sennheiser MKH-50 and ME64. (I will report back which one works better but my guess is with the low quality signal path they will be fairly similar, though the MHK-50 is normally superior.)
I'm using the Magic Lantern firmware hack for the Mark II because I needed the audio fixes (auto gain disable & audio input meters). So far it has worked as advertised. The annoying thing is also the reassuring thing with this software: It has to be reloaded from the CF card into RAM every time you turn on the camera, which means your camera reverts back to the Canon firmware every time. I'm not a fan of these kinds of hacks for expensive hardware - mostly because I cannot fix it myself should it screw up the device. More on Magic Lantern: magiclantern.wikia.com/wiki/Magic_Lantern_Firmware_Wiki
Mini review of the juicedLink CX231: (1) It is strong but crudely built, meaning it was not 'designed' externally. There are several sharp edges and it is larger than need be. (2) So far, it sounds OK but I'd have to send it into a decent A/D converter to be able to tell much. (3) No headphone jack, which is ridiculous considering the 5Dmkii has no audio meters or headphone jacks itself.
View this image larger: www.flickr.com/photos/therefore/4142918802/sizes/l/
Hacked 5D Mark II Camera Rig with Magic Lantern and juicedLink
Testing Magic Lantern firmware and audio gear for HD video recording on the Canon 5D Mark II. The 5D has a poor built in microphone and a similarly poor microphone jack, no audio meters, and nasty auto gain (think noise). In order to move around freely with the camera and get decent audio you have to use some sort of preamp. In this case it's a juicedLink CX231. There are two microphones attached because I was testing to see which one worked better. The mics are the Sennheiser MKH-50 and ME64. (I will report back which one works better but my guess is with the low quality signal path they will be fairly similar, though the MHK-50 is normally superior.)
I'm using the Magic Lantern firmware hack for the Mark II because I needed the audio fixes (auto gain disable & audio input meters). So far it has worked as advertised. The annoying thing is also the reassuring thing with this software: It has to be reloaded from the CF card into RAM every time you turn on the camera, which means your camera reverts back to the Canon firmware every time. I'm not a fan of these kinds of hacks for expensive hardware - mostly because I cannot fix it myself should it screw up the device. More on Magic Lantern: magiclantern.wikia.com/wiki/Magic_Lantern_Firmware_Wiki
Mini review of the juicedLink CX231: (1) It is strong but crudely built, meaning it was not 'designed' externally. There are several sharp edges and it is larger than need be. (2) So far, it sounds OK but I'd have to send it into a decent A/D converter to be able to tell much. (3) No headphone jack, which is ridiculous considering the 5Dmkii has no audio meters or headphone jacks itself.
View this image larger: www.flickr.com/photos/therefore/4142918802/sizes/l/