Canon 50D. Is Magic Lantern Worth The try?

Hello All,

I just bought a 50D with really low shutter count like new. I've been reading that some people install ML on it. I mainly shot Motor Sports Drift Events. Mostly at day but some at night. Is there any benefit in ML base on my shooting style? I'm mainly interested in the Dual ISO.

I will appreciate any feedback from previous ML users. Thanks in advance!

Get it on there, it's great. I would not be without ML on my 50D. There are not many ISO improvements, that is not really possible. It does offer DualISO which will expand the DR by up to three stops. That can be very useful if you are shooting subjects where you need to maintain detail in both the shadows and highlights. I use it quite a bit for backlit aviation subjects, where I want details on both the top and bottom side of the aircraft, and also the sky.

The other thing that I really is being able to lock an exposure value in manual mode, and then be able to change the shutter speed or aperture and have the camera adjust the other so that the exposure remains constant. With aircraft you really want to keep the shutter speed slow for propellor driven aircraft. I usually stay at or below 1/160. While for jets you want as fast as possible. The EV lock allows you to make those changes quickly, without affecting the brightness of the exposure.

Oh and of course it allows you to record 1080P video at up to 30 fps. The only thing is you will need a separate audio recorder.

Alan

I found just the opposite, I actually tried twice with my 50D but didn't get on with it all.
The menu was too small and fiddly, I just never found that it gave me any real advantage, it seemed too biased to video shooting which I don't use.

Having said that, it obviously suits some people and you have nothing to lose by trying it, easy to get rid of, you just reformat the card.

Ramon-uk wrote in post #18350728
I found just the opposite, I actually tried twice with my 50D but didn't get on with it all.
The menu was too small and fiddly, I just never found that it gave me any real advantage, it seemed too biased to video shooting which I don't use.

Having said that, it obviously suits some people and you have nothing to lose by trying it, easy to get rid of, you just reformat the card.

I've never found the normal ML menu to be that hard to read, then sometimes I think the Canon menus are a little on the chunky size. The show everything on one screen in little boxes view though, that is just about useless. I forget now button you use to swap between them.

Alan

Ramon-uk wrote in post #18350728
I found just the opposite, I actually tried twice with my 50D but didn't get on with it all.
The menu was too small and fiddly, I just never found that it gave me any real advantage, it seemed too biased to video shooting which I don't use.

Having said that, it obviously suits some people and you have nothing to lose by trying it, easy to get rid of, you just reformat the card.

Agree... the user interface (ease and simplicity) is more important. Seems like using Unix OS vs Mac.. notwithstanding the features-- which most of it is not that useful in my case on regular shooting. Hey but I shoot usually on M setting or A, using sunny 16 rule.