Canon EOS 5D MkII Firmware Upgrade 2.0.3

Canon today released the long awaited firmware upgrade for the EOS 5D MkII which allows 24/25 fps video shooting.

The key updates in this version are as follows:

1. Adds or changes the following movie frame rates.
NTSC:
• 1920×1080 : 30 fps (changed - actual 29.97 fps)
• 1920×1080 : 24 fps (added - actual 23.976 fps)
• 640×480 : 30 fps (changed - actual 29.97 fps)
PAL:
• 1920×1080 : 25 fps (added - actual 25.0 fps)
• 1920×1080 : 24 fps (added - actual 23.976 fps)
• 640×480 : 25 fps (added - actual 25.0 fps)
2. Adds a function for manually adjusting the sound recording level (64 levels).
3. Adds a histogram display (brightness or RGB) for shooting movies in manual exposure.
4. Adds shutter-priority AE mode (Tv) and aperture-priority AE (Av) mode to the exposure modes for shooting movies.
5. Changes the audio sampling frequency from 44.1 KHz to 48 KHz.
6. Fixes a phenomenon where communication between the camera and the attached lens is sometimes interrupted after manual sensor cleaning. (This phenomenon only affects units with Firmware Version 1.2.4.)

As I write this entry I'm attempting to download the the file but Canon's servers are overloaded and only giving me 5.6 KB/sec which means the 9.3 MB file will take at least another 20 or so minutes to download.

You can download the the 2.0.3 firmware upgrade by following this link.

Don't forget to follow the upgrade instructions implicitly - you don't want to render your camera useless and give it an unscheduled trip back to Canon!

As soon as I've had a chance to test the new firmware, I'll report back here.

TTFN

Ian