>I'd stay away from the XSi as it's too old, originally released back in 2008.
As a current owner of the XSi, I must agree.
In good lighting conditions it is a good camera even in this day, but when paired with the 18-55mm lens it requires a lot of light and I find myself having to shoot at max ISO to capture a clean image.
Additionally, It also is one of the very few older Canon DSLRs that used the dual processors and is not well supported by magiclantern.
I'd at least look to see if you can afford a slightly newer model a t3i or something similar. Even the T1i I think has video which the XSi does not.
Although, if you could increase your budget to get something like the 24 f2.8 (~$150) lens or something similar that might change my recommendation as the lens will allow in so much more light and focuses way faster. Lenses are really what drive your image quality once you go to a DSLR.
Additionally, I'm finding the Canon 60D for about $195 on Craigslist. Something to consider of course.
In short, it would be pretty hard. See the Magic Lantern project for what you're describing for a huge number of Canon cameras: https://magiclantern.fm/ <- in particular check out the forums for just how much work and skill goes into reverse engineering the firmware and hardware and reimplementing it from scratch.
I have over 10k shutter count and still going. Yes, you got a good deal. If you like to tinker and you want some added features (like turning the audio limiter off and having VU meters) go to magic lantern https://magiclantern.fm/index.html - I did and was grateful for the added features.
Worth checking to see if you can get a 5DMK3, where I live the price of both are vary close.
https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canon-eos-5d-mark-iii
The AF got a big upgrade, as well as a bunch of nice small things for general use.
The image quality is almost identical for stills.
The video quality did get an upgrade.
ML will work on both if you are interested in video.
look at the prices of battery's and how easy they are to buy, always good to pick up a few.
​
As cameras there both amazing, I use a 6DMK1 and still vary happy with the image quality but do wish I had the AF system from the 5DMK3 (I think it has the 5DMK2 AF system).
I agree with 800 ISO
I have a couple T3i and if you are willing, I recommend you take a look at Magic Lantern to flash your camera for some nice features - like a software intervelometer to automate shots and screen brightness/gain settings to better find and center targets
There is probably better options but I just want to share my experience.
​
I'm using a Canon 50D and it's doing pretty good job. By default you can't record videos even if the hardware have video recording capabilities - that's where the Magic Lantern come in.
> What is Magic Lantern?
Magic Lantern's website has a lot of information.
The very first text on their page answers your question:
> What is it?
> Magic Lantern is a free software add-on that runs from the SD/CF card and adds a host of new features to Canon EOS cameras that weren't included from the factory by Canon.
And there's an About Page with more detail.
hahaha yes, that always works... but then you'd have to deal with an external recorder for sync sound.
Magic Lantern will allow you to have a little more control over your recording settings on a Canon, but you're still limited by the size of your media.
I haven't even thought about that lol, but I saw this add on for the canon dslrs that supposedly adds a lot of functionality. What I found interesting/possibly useful was the "focus peaking" overlay. If I'm not mistaken, it displays red dots (or similar) on those spots that are being focused on. Has that for video too, and I guess a lot of other features that I haven't even seen or know what they do lol. It's something that goes onto the sd card afaik, a software add on of sorts lol. I think some newer models include that focus peaking feature out of the box
There was an EU tariff on video cameras. To avoid the tariff, which is now expired, DSLR makers implemented a limit just shy of 30 minutes of recording. Since the tariff has now lapsed you might find an updated firmware from the manufacturer that removes the limit. There are also third-party firmwares like Magic Lantern. No experience with this.
!
> I did pick up one of those cheap Cam Links as well, and a power supply, though is the 30 minute limit a hard limitation?
For H.264/MOV recording it is. Cam will stop and the only thing ML can do is providing an automatic restart. Some frames will get lost during restart. For raw/MLV there is no such limit. Any recent build covers this. But you have to live with data streams up to around 55 MByte/s. 128 GB will be filled in around 36 minutes. For unlimited HDMI streaming duration you need a so called lua_fix build. https://magiclantern.fm -> Downloads -> Experiments. Other builds will stop at 29:59. Workaround with other builds is so called "sticky half-shutter" but this affects cams usability. Canon's Webcam Utility bypasses 29:59 limit, too but - as mentioned above - EOS M won't run with it.
If it is a Canon DSLR you might be lucky enough to have a Magic Lantern compatible camera. Magic Lantern is a custom firmware which includes a lot of features including a Software Intervalometer, this way you can automatically let the camera take a photo every X seconds, and then use these photos to generate a timelapse video with some freeware or open source PC software.
You can find Magic Lantern on their Website
Beware that there are some risks of bricking your camera, but for my EOS 100D everything worked out fine.
I use Magic Lantern firmware on my T1i and it shows the current focal length when using a zoom lens.
You can check if your camera is compatible/see guides of installation on their website.
I don't think that there's a way to make this happen on the native firmware.
As long as they have an HDMI-out, yes.
My main concern with using an external recorder w/ Canon cameras could be having a clean HDMI output. Canon lists their cameras that have clean HDMI output, since it's not something all of their cameras have. A list of cameras with clean HDMI out can be found here.
If you have a camera without clean HDMI output, you might be able to work around this by using Magic Lantern. ML supported cameras are listed at the bottom here.
Basically you flash a boot image onto your memory card, and the camera boots from that instead of the usual firmware. If you want the original firmware, just boot from a clean card.
(I'm not a Canon guy and have never played with this but a lot of folks swear by it)
Maybe 4 or 5 hours I think? Most of the time was spent waiting for files to be processed, lol.
The camera shoots "MLV" raw video files using Magic Lantern (a total of 47GB for this shoot!), which are converted to DNG frames using mlv_dump. Then I use Lightroom to edit those frames, exporting them as JPEG. Finally, I used the free DaVinci Resolve to edit the video together. I went back to Lightroom to smooth out some brightness transitions where I had changed the shutter speed during a shot.
A bunch of my shots were bumpily tracked with the gear-head on my tripod (it's not designed for video), so DaVinci Resolve's stabiliser was used to simulate a locked camera position, then a synthetic pan was added to follow the original motion. This wasn't completely successful and a few bumps still made it through.
There are external hardware intervalometers that you can connect to your DSLR, but if you have a Canon DSLR which supports Magic Lantern, that'd give you an intervalometer, if your camera doesn't have one stock.
After you have a bunch of pictures, you can stack them in a program like StarStax.
Source: I've created an image almost exactly like this one using those two bits of software.
Of course, you can use Photoshop as well, but I have no idea how. Too rich for my blood, and it doesn't run on my OS anyway.
The 200D is flagged as "project started" so there may be a build you could test:
Though, 3rd party firmware is heavily cautioned at the best of times, a beta version even more so, play at your own risk.
Scheint es bei der Kamera nicht zu geben, aber such mal nach „Intervalometer“ in der Anleitung.
Du könntest dir ein externes Intervalometer kaufen (gibts schon für 10 Öre..). https://www.space.com/best-intervalometers
Eine weitere Alternative wäre Magic Lantern. https://magiclantern.fm Das ist eine (NICHT VON CANON ZUGELASSENE) Firmware, die ein paar tolle Menschen gebastelt haben, weil allen auf den Sack geht, das solche Basics bei canon nicht dabei sind.
ABER: Hier kann man auch mist bauen und die Kamera schrotten. Ausserdem droht Garantie-Verlust!!! Ich rate zu dem 10€-Intervalometer.
Magic lantern.
With that I get unlimited recording, focus peaking, zebras ...
I have a shoulder rig but 99% of what I shoot is on sticks (tripod).
A gamble would be a good idea I think.
Whilst I agree with your general points here, you are also missing the point in that Canon also has been extremely lackluster in their software/firmware department for god knows how long.
There is a reason something like MagicLantern exist and it's due to there being a big market for it. And it's not about post-processing the photos taken, it's about customization and userfriendlyness.
Budget?
You could get an older Canon DSLR and install Magic Lantern on it.
Magic Lantern has a setting that stops the recording at 30 minutes and then restarts it right away so you loke about 2 seconds of footage.
Looking on ebay you could get a fully kitted out T3i (a really old DSLR) for like 300$ Canadian for example. slap magic lantern on there and there you go.
If you want to buy new you could look for a BlackMagic Pocket cinema 6K for like 2800$ Canadian but you would still need a lens. You can get a EF or EFs lens for cheap.
A crappy 18-55 kit lens is like 250$ and the nifty fifty (50mm f1.8) is around 120$. That would get oyu started until you can afford some nicer class like a 24-105 f4 or a 24-70 f2.8 or some proper cine lenses.
i have a t5i and you can use the magic lantern software for lockup the mirror plus intervalometer, the downside its that you wont be able to use the live view while its locked and it takes more time between pics.
it doesnt leave the mirror up all the time, it moves it up, waits like around 2 sec, takes pic, mirror goes down another 2 sec, and the all over again for as many pictures as you want, you can change the times between lockup and shot.
You can look at the long list of features and see if there's anything there that would be useful for you. (Anecdotally, I've worked with the 5DMarkII as my main stills camera for ~11 years and I've never tried Magic Lantern.)
Take a look at Magic Lantern. They show work being done on a 6D mark II so you may or may not be able to use it yet, but an intervalometer is one of many basic features this software offers.
That and much more: SL1 is supported by Magic Lantern and ML comes with intervalometer and some other features able to help you managing flicker-free time-lapses: https://magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=5705.0
Be aware that photo lenses have an issue with aperture blades in automatic mode. Aperture blades actuation may vary.
> Supported cameras: 5D Mark II, 5D Mark III, 6D, 7D, 50D, 60D, 500D/T1i, 550D/T2i, 600D/T3i, 650D/T4i, 700D/T5i, 1100D/T3, EOS M.
> In progress: 70D, 100D/SL1, 1200D/T5, 450D/XSi, EOS M2, EOS M50. 5D3 1.3.4, 7D 2.0.6, 550D 1.1.0, EOS M 2.0.3. (downloads available, feedback and/or help needed)
I haven't tried without overclock yet, because the record times are under 10 seconds (according to what I've read in https://magiclantern.fm/. However, I will give it a try, and will also try with lower values of overclocking.
That's moiré artifacting, and it's a property of how your camera is reading the sensor at a reduced resolution for video.
That's a particularly bad case, I'm guessing a Canon DSLR? They're infamous for this issue as they use a very fast 'line skipping' technique to reduce the number of pixels sampled for video.
Some of the Canon DSLRs have access to a 'Movie Crop' mode (and others can have the feature added through Magic Lantern) which has significantly less moiré by getting a 1:1 pixel readout from the centre of the sensor - but will zoom your image by 3x.
MagicLantern ( https://magiclantern.fm/ ) provided some features not included in stock Canon cameras. I had an original Canon 7D and it provided clean HDMI out for that model. Not sure about the Rebel series.
MagicLatern is a firmware that runs off your SD/CF card and doesn't change the cameras factory firmware so it's very safe to play with and not worry about making a brick out of your camera if you screw something up.
I upgraded to the new 7D Mark II which now has all the features that MagicLatern provided so I'm not as familiar with it's features anymore.
https://magiclantern.fm/ But remember to watch a couple of YouTube videos for tutorials and read the guide before doing anything at all with your dslr. Bricking it can be a very small possibility if done incorrectly
> If I’m not recording directly from the camera and just using it to replace a webcam will my battery die just as quickly as if it was recording?
You will drain batter pretty quickly as this will require you to have live view enabled; so the screen will be on.
It will last a tiny bit longer if you're not recording, but really you're going to want a dummy battery AC supply.
You won't actually be able to record at the same time - the recording will stop after ~12 minutes and interupt the stream with a warning message.
> Will my capture card output a clean view to my students? (No info on the screen)
If you're going through a capture card, you'll need to use Magic Lantern to hide the overlays.
The HDMI feed will not be 16:9 aspect ratio, so unless your software can scale and crop it, you'll have black bars.
If you go through EOS Webcam Utility or Sparkocam, you'll be fine but the quality will be a little lower.
> Will I experience any overheating?
As long as your room is adequately cooled and you're not in sunlight, the 60d isn't prone to overheating.
You'd need to be working in tropical temperatures for that to be a risk.
> If I have a shotgun mic on the camera, will the audio be captured from the shotgun mic or the on-board MacBook mic?
The 60d will not send audio over HDMI or USB (if going through Webcam utility/sparkocam). You'll need to plug any microphone you're using direct into your computer.
The only time audio will play over HDMI on the 60d is if you are in playback mode.
Unfortunately there is no fix for that. The 7D outputs a 3:2 aspect ratio image showing the whole sensor scan cropped and scaled down to a 16:9 signal.
An alternative would be to use Magic Lantern.
It has a crop mark feature that you can use to overlay a transparent image on the screen to use as your markers.
You’ll still have to do the zoom on the monitor to get rid of the pillar boxes; but at least your markers will be accurate.
Oh... well...
I guess changing over to USB aqnd using a different software based switch would be a lot more work.
You might want to look into the Magic Lantern Temporary Firmware for Canon cameras then.
Give you a lot more options and flexibility out of the camera
I havent used it in a while but I know it saved my butt a few time way back when
​
​
Its nice because its TEMPORARY Firmware.
it loads off the SD card but doesnt replace the camera actual built in firmware.
also open source so if it doesnt have something you want, you can add it yourself (if you can) or ask someone more familiar with it to help you add it.
I am now bidding for Canon 60D, they start on about 250$. Nice thing is that it has display that you can pivot and Magic Lantern can be flashed on it
which gives you intervalometer feature (so you dont need physical one)
You would need some kind of third party firmware to be able to bypass it... I know magic lantern works for some canon cameras and it looks like they are looking at supporting the m50 at some point so you might be able to use it soon. https://magiclantern.fm
Regarding policy:
Don't get me wrong; I certainly don't think we should require photographers to digitally sign their photos! I just think we should stop trusting that they are accurate depictions of reality unless they are signed. (What it really amounts to is the photographer's testimony more than any technological assurance. An artist using Photoshop could sign his work the same way, but the expectation would be that he would disclose that he created it with Photoshop. Basically, the benefit is that we can detect when some third-party modifies it after-the-fact).
Regarding the technology/market:
The feature itself would be almost trivial -- just a minor software change. The trouble is that DSLR firmware is proprietary (although there is Magic Lantern for Canon DSLRs), so the manufacturers would have to be persuaded to add it.
I'm not sure you camera is bricked. If you managed to turn it on afterwards then I'm guessing the problem might be with something else.
I actually doubt you bricked it just out of the blue by using it.
I think it might be problem with the Camera itself. Look here:
You can try and fix it yourself or just go into the Canon repair and don't mention that you installed Magic Lantern.
Or if you really think that you bricked it then maybe go on the ML forum and talk to the guys there. Small Google search reveals this link -> https://magiclantern.fm/unbrick.html
Good luck.
I've gotten shots like this with a cannon rebel t3i Mod with software hack for longer exposure.
The limit is because of an EU tariff on videocameras. A camera that records no longer than 30 minutes doesn't have to pay that tariff.
I believe the tariff expired in 2018 or so but that is a shakey date so don't hold me to it. See if there is an updated firmware from Canon. Some cameras were updated and had the limit removed.
There is a 3rd party firmware called Magic Lantern. I know nothing about it except it works on some cameras and removes the limit. At your own risk.
!
Magic Lantern should be able to fix both these issues.
Use ML's power preferences to disable live view power save, and Clear Overlays to remove the focus box.
The output won't be true 1080p, it will be a cropped video with a non-16:9 aspect ratio - You'll need to scale the footage and crop it slightly to fill a 16:9 frame. You can do this in streaming software like OBS.
I love mine and I still use it. I say no.
But I'm only a hobbyist, I have a bunch of L lenses, and I loooove playing with MagicLantern. YMMV.
Any particular reason you feel you need to upgrade? If not, chances are it's just your knowledge/experience/skillz you need to work on.
I don't think that camera had live view, so no. You might have some luck with a Nikon D90 or a Nikon D300, those have HDMI output so you could use a simple capture card for that. But if you're going to buy something new you might as well look at the D3x00 or D5x00 range. As long as the camera has a HDMI output there are ways to get it to do what you want.
You might also want to look into Canon camera's if you're not too attached to the Nikon ecosystem (e.g. have a lot of lenses). They have Magic Lantern which adds a whole bunch of features to the camera.
Or get a micro four thirds system like the Xiaomi Yi M1 that also has HDMI output. There are a lot of options there.
After getting to the stage where you can upload new firmware to it, you still need to develop said firmware. That's very far from a trivial undertaking. The two projects I'm aware of are for Canon cameras. For DSLRs it's Magic Lantern and for point and shoots it's CHDK. This page also lists a few others that I didn't know of, for other manufacturers.
Magic Lantern is a firmware hack for getting past this limit. It lists your 7Dii as 'in progress.' I've heard similar hacks exists for other camera brands.
But if you are like me, you won't like the idea of flashing your main rig with some non-factory firmware. If it were me, I'd leave the 7Dii alone and let it keep making you money. (By the way, the market you are in is one I'd love to get into, but I live in a very ... non-affluent rural area and my attempts at this haven't been well received.)
You mention you want to invest in something light for travel but can also do video well. Consider a smaller sensor camera like the Panasonic GH5, which is well-regarded for video and has no recording limit.
Regarde un vieux canon qui supporte Magic Lantern peut être; tu dois pouvoir trouver des boitiers genre 600D pour pas cher.
Ce que tu peux faire c'est de le louer pour quelques jours histoire de tester sur un truc comme ça:
https://www.reflex-location.fr/41-boitiers
Magic lantern: https://magiclantern.fm/features.html
Much of the quality of the iPhone images comes from the post-exposure software processing. The sensor itself is tiny compared to the Canon, but Apple does a pretty good job slicing and dicing the bits into a very decent image. However, tiny sensors are inherently less sensitive and noisier than larger sensors, so I suspect the Canon low-light-level performance is going to be much better than the iPhone (unless the Apple software does virtual miracles in suppressing the noise while boosting the signal). As well, the T3i has more versatility when it comes to the interchangeable lenses and ability to connect to flash units.
​
There is some add-on firmware for the Canon (Magic Lantern home page) which I have used on my old T1i to get an extended feature set. It's quite impressive. If you capture the image in RAW format, you can use the Canon software to work with it, or you can use the free software (RAW Therapee home page) to extract the maximum amount of detail.
Focusing is the easy part.
I use vintage manual lenses (no autofocus) that are made of metal, rock solid, have very long mechanical throw on the focus ring, and very accurately reproducible by dialing to the same spot on the focus ring. They are often also pre-calibrated for infinity focus so you can just turn the ring until it stops, and even often re-calibrate the stops with screws if they aren't accurate.
With autofocusing lenses, it's much harder to manual focus them because the focus throws are short and since the 90s they make consumer lens housings out of cheap plastic components which induces a lot of play and backlash. But it's still doable.
The best way to focus for stars is to point your camera at a bright star or planet, open Live View, zoom in 10X on the star, nail the focus, and then use some gaffer's tape to tape the focus ring down for the rest of the night.
For your shutter trigger question -- even for 30" you don't want to touch the button, as you'd shake the camera. For a 30 second exposure alone you can use either a remote trigger OR the self timer mode so that you're not touching the camera when it starts to shoot. For longer than 30", modify your firmware (Magic Lantern for Canon) or just a long series a lot of 30" exposures back to back and add them up. I usually prefer the back-to-back method as it allows me to throw away sub-frames in which cars/planes/idiots with flashlights appeared in the shot.
Old Canon dRebel model that can use magic lantern. Used T1i (500D) go for around $100. But you'll only be able to use focus peaking with liveview on the back LCD. You did say cheapest, not most convenient. :)
Mirrorless would probably be a lot more convenient. The nature of a dSLR is that the viewfinder can't do liveview-type digital manipulation of what you're seeing. Everything is optical and done with mirrors, so the image you see can't really be manipulated other than with an LCD overlay (grid lines, levels, etc.) Manipulating the image data has to be done in concert with displaying the sensor data.
So if you want liveview in the viewfinder, it has to be an electronic one, not an optical one. And only mirrorless and Sony SLTs do EVFs (electronic viewfinders).
Also, I would say, consider micro four-thirds if you really are on the quest for low cost gear. Because MFT is the oldest mirrorless system and is made by Olympus and Panasonic, the used market is wider and deeper than for all the other mirrorless makes, body style selection is wider, depreciation is faster, and the better used market extends to the lenses as well as the bodies. 4/3"-format is 2x crop and smaller than APS-C, but it's still big enough to deliver well and has been for quite some time.
> That being said, is there a canon body that lasts around 1u20 min of recording and can use magic lantern to auto restart? Also dual pixel autofocus would be great
If you want to use ML you'll have to go on the website and use the compatibility list to figure out what one to get.
Either way you're gonna need some sort of external power solution, whether that's through a battery grip or through a battery bank and dummy battery
Unfortunately ML is not supported on any camera with DPAF. Ports are in progress but they could take months/years before they're released in a stable(ish) state.
>move the focus point a little farther and then farther again until you have several or more than several shots at different focus planes. then import them in to photoshop as a stack
it's not the better way to do this, but it's ok. there is a custom firmware (Magic Lantern) for Canon cameras that allows you to do this automatically. you set the closet focus point, then the farthest IIRC, set how big the AF step is and shoot.
Yes, works with both internal and external microphones. Trigger level is adjustable from 0 to 20 dB above background.
Here is an incomplete feature list.
I highly suggest you check it out. The only permanent (but reversible) change to the camera is setting a boot flag. The actual mod is loaded from the SD card every time you start the camera. If you want to use your camera without ML, just insert a blank SD card.
There is also a scripting module to run your own scripts. I haven't used it, but i think it could be used to automatically trigger several pre-defined exposures by either sound or light.
I personally haven't found a use for the auto-triggers, but I love the intervalometer, time lapse replay, the bulb timer, Auto-ETTR mode, quick delete, RAW histogram display and many other tweaks.
There is an unofficial firmware for Canon, its called Magic Lantern https://magiclantern.fm/ . Installs and runs off of SD card and it has tons of great features. It makes your Canon camera a super duper camera. One of the feature is that it uses change in light as trigger to take pictures. Great for capturing lightning thunders like this one
I think there are going to be a number of challenges.
Firstly, unlike phones, most DSLRs don’t come with SDKs and their operating systems aren’t open source.
If you are working with Canon, it may be worth looking at Magic Lantern. I’ve never looked at it but there may be an interface you can work with there...
Secondly, hardware needs to be licensed with Apple to work with iOS via the MFI program. I don’t know if any of the camera manufacturers are part of this program. Even if they are, I don’t see a category in the program for video input.
TLDR - I don’t think it’s possible due to closed camera software and Apple’s restrictive hardware licensing.
I used to shoot lots of timelapses with a buddy who eventually went to photography school. See if you can find a canon EOS a couple of years old (ebay has Rebel T3i's for around $150). From there, you can load up a custom firmware called Magic Lantern. It has lots of great features, including a specific timelapse mode, and a silent shutter mode - great for not distracting your players, as /u/atxlapser mentioned.
It's also 100% necessary to connect to a computer over USB while you're shooting, and to save directly to the computer - NOT to the SD card. For a 5-minute long video at 60fps, you're talking about 18,000 frames (at 12 hours, that means taking a photo roughly every 2.5 seconds). If you're taking 15MP photos, you can expect somewhere around 25MB per image (if you're shooting RAW). That's 450 GB of images. Obviously that number can be lower if you shoot at lower quality, or only plan to export at 30fps, but you can't add more images or detail later. Shoot at a higher resolution, and pull out your frame a little bit. That way you can go back and crop if you like, or if you want to get fancy, add a pan. Or maybe you can fast-forward through boring bits, and slow down when there's action or tense moments. The point is that by overdoing it in the photography, you get options later.
I've read it's due to tax reasons. Apparently, certain governments (the European Union) classify a video camera as being able to record 30 minutes or more of video, and they have an import tax on video cameras that is higher than the levy on stills cameras.
So DSLR manufacturers get around this by limiting video recording times to 29 minutes and 59 seconds. Hence they're still stills cameras rather than video cameras.
To the best of my knowledge, it's not just a limitation for Canon cameras.
If you want to record more than 29:59 with a Canon DSLR, you would be looking at the EOS-1D C - which sits between the EOS DSLR cameras and the Cinema EOS range of interchangeable lens video cameras. And they're distinctly not cheap.
EDIT: The alternative is to install Magic Lantern firmware on your Canon DSLR, which does away with this limitation, amongst other things. Though technically it shouldn't cause any problems, the software is offered without any warranty (use it at your own risk) and they say that Canon may not honour your warranty if it's proven that any problems you have are caused by use of third-party firmware.
EDIT 2: I've never used ML, I don't shoot video, but I've seen references to ML being used to bypass the 30 minute recording restriction - though the added advice is that you would generally be better off using an actual video camera for recording video continuously for longer than 30 minutes (i.e. recording football matches, concerts, theatrical productions). DSLRs are fine for events where you can record video in smaller chunks and then join them together in post, i.e. vlogging, holiday videos, etc.
It's third party software that gets side-loaded alongside the Canon firmware. Does all kinds of things like improvements to live view, sounds level and clip indicators for video+audio recording, plus about a million other features like trap focus (pre-focus on an area and automatically take a photo every time something comes into focus) or intervalometer or automatic exposure bracketing or… the list goes on. If you ever used CHDK on a PowerShot or something then Magic Lantern is the DSLR version.
Ok, well, you need to match both your cameras as best you can if you plan on using both.
If you're only going to use one camera, go for the Canon, and stick Magic Lantern on it. That'll let you enable live-view zebras which will really help you manage your exposure - set them to 70%, and expose so that zebras are just starting to appear on caucasian skin and that way your exposure is spot on.
Some Nikon cameras including the D7000 have a bit of design weirdness where the aperture motor pulls double-duty and also is responsible for holding up the mirror while shooting video, so you can't change aperture while filming - basically making it impractical as a camera to shoot video in changing lighting conditions. Canon lenses have the aperture motor built in so they don't have that issue!
Don't forget audio either... the built in mic on both cameras really, really sucks... Stick a little recorder like a Zoom H1 or similar at the front of the stage on a little tripod and you'll get decent sound.