Canon 60D – can AGC be turned off?

[Micah Mcdowell]

Well, since the 60D has manual audio gain controls, that would imply that they aren’t automatic gain controls. The two are mutually exclusive.

Personally, I’ve got a T2i and love it (I’m using the Magic Lantern firmware hack to disable AGC on it, but I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone since it’s rather hard to set up). However, the 60D seems to have all of the features of the T2i, plus a few more, with Canon firmware that requires no fiddling, for not a ton more money. It’d be my choice.

[Michael Sacci]

Totally agree, I have a T2i and love it, but I would spend the couple hundred bucks extra for the 60D. The Screen, HD Video out, audio controls, dual dials make it a no brainer.

If fact I think I’m going to sell my T2i to get the 60D.

[Jim Ray]

Thanks, Michael! Good summary of “extras over the T2i. I assume that by mentioing HD out you are implying that the 60D will out put HD during record? I thought all the low-end Canons switched to 480p when recording. I would LOVE it if Canon had corrected this, since I plan to use an external monitor when shooting.
Best,
Jim

Director/Producer/Videographer/Editor

[Jim Ray]

Micah,
Thanks for the feedback and encouragement around the 60D. I’m NOT anxious to spend more $$, but the “time is money” rule is important to weigh in these capital decisions.
I don’t think your assumption around ‘input controls meaning there won’t be AGC’ is necessarily correct. Some pro/pro-sumer camcorders and edit systems allow both to operate together – thus making the AGC more of a limiter for extreme levels changes. Even then, though, silent passages raise hell by draging the noise floor up…so I’m hoping that you are correct!
Thanks again,
Jim

Director/Producer/Videographer/Editor

[Michael Sacci]

[Jim Ray] “HD during record”
I believe the 7D is sending true HD out also. But there is no way to remove the info on the screen, You can turn off most of the stuff but the red dot will always be on.

[Peter Bos]

Micah,
Are you having luck with the Magic Lantern option? I am running it but it doesn’t seem to work properly in that the autoexec file I have also turns off the playback speaker and disables audio recording via the built in mic. I saw that there possibly is an updated autoexec file for these issues but the one linked to just points to the same version that is in rc1. Do you have the updated autoexec file? Does it work? If so could you forward it? If this option works I would love to use my T2i. I am just about to buy a 60d just to get clean audio because I couldn’t get this to work.
Thanks!
Peter

[Kevin Taylor]

Where did you get the firmware? I heard they havent released the AGC hack yet

[Micah Mcdowell]

The firmware is available at https://magiclantern.wikia.com/wiki/550D.

And in reply to Peter, the firmware does indeed disable the internal mic and playback speaker. However, I have not needed to use either since I installed the hack. The standard internal mics are useless in my opinion so I use lapels or external on-camera mics exclusively. You can also hear audio playback through the headphones, so I don’t use the internal speaker.

[Kevin Taylor]

the wiki says it only gives lens info and audio meters, no AGC disabling, anything I need to do with it?

[Rusty Shackleford]

how did u use magic lantern on the T2i? it doesnt have the AGC disable yet.

Brandon Morris
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Canon T2i
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