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Magic Lantern v2.3 – User's Guide

1. MAGIC LANTERN Magic Lantern v2 3 Stable ports Canon 5D Mark II 550D 60D 600D 50D and 500D Ports in progress Canon 5D Mark III Canon 5D classic Canon 1100D T3 User s Guide www magiclantern fm July 23 2012 Magic Lantern is an open GPL framework for developing enhancements to the amazing Canon 5D Mark II and 550D T2i digital SLRs Magic Lantern is being developed by a small team helped by a very enthusiastic and respectful user community Active developers Alex main developer Arm Indy author of crypto tools and most new ports G3gg0 reverse engineering guru Coutts porting ML to 5D classic Nanomad porting ML to 1100D T3 Sztup Y author of ML USB controller and others Past developers come back guys Trammell Hudson original author and former leader of Magic Lantern project AJ developed the AJ version of Magic Lantern for 5D Mark II Code contributions piersg nandoide stefano trho deti tapani phil RoaldFre Colin Peart cpc msi robotsound maclema adijiwa kyselejsyrecek mk11174 Scrax OnePercent Raymond Lo Rob Kramer Takashi Miyake Tobias Doerffel Paul Nolan Martin M and the list is growing Card tools by Pel Zeno lichtjaar Website Team Redkite Bart Nanomad Michael Z ller Malcolm Debono CameraRick Fran cis Danforth Scrax 196 Magic Lantern logo by elJoseph Thanks to all the users who provided feedback reported bugs and supported the Magic Lantern p
2. which can only be done by examining Canon code and understanding how mode switching works Testing will not help the probability of things going wrong is very low but nonzero Why does the camera take pictures when pressing the shutter half way Trap focus may be active Why do I have to press the shutter button twice to take a picture Mirror Lockup MLU is active Why is the LED blinking every 5 seconds You have forgotten your camera on with the main display off Why did the autofocus stop working It was probably moved to back button or AF ON Check your custom functions It may happen if you take the battery out in the middle of photo shooting 54 Why picture style X does not appear in movie mode You may need to register it from Canon menu This is not related to ML but people tend to blame ML for Canon quirks My camera freezes I get ERR70 80 99 I get corrupted files Why Format your card from your camera Some of these problems are caused by filesystem corruption or cheap card readers Always use the safe removal feature before you unplug your card from your computer e If you get ERR70 you will also get a crash log on your card ML LOGS CRASHnn L0G Please send this file to developers Runthe stability tests from the Debug menu If it fails report a bug and send your config file to developers What about ERR20 when taking pictures This problem is not related to or caused by Magi
3. if this feature is enabled Zoom In while recording it does just that Magic Zoom SET in LiveView center the focus box Activating AF mode dialog when Manual Focus is active will toggle Trap Focus Magic Lantern menu Press the ERASE button to bring up the Magic Lantern menu Use arrow keys joystick or scrollwheels to navigate Use SET and PLAY to toggle values Use Q or equivalent to open a submenu with more settings Press INFO or DISP button to get help In LiveView press Zoom In to preview the image behind ML menu Press MENU to hide items that you don t use to reduce clutter For cameras without Q use this equivalent button 5D Mark II press the Picture Style button 50D press the FUNC button 500D press the LiveView button One handed menu navigation for 5D Mark II and 50D optional Open ML menu and submenus with a long press on joystick center key Navigate ML menu with joystick or scrollwheels Close submenus with a short press of joystick center key use Left and Right to adjust values Close ML menu with a short half shutter press 11 Audio Manual audio controls This menu is not available on Canon 600D T3i The 600D T3i already has manual audio control with Canon firmware but right now it s not possible to change audio settings from Magic Lantern You can only use audio meters during recording Analog Gain Gain applied to both inputs i
4. 2 FPS silent pictures without shutter ac tuation Astro and night photography bulb timer for very long exposures up to 8h Info displays focus and DOF info CMOS temperature shutter count clock For strobists flash exposure compensation range up to 10 to 3 EV depends on the camera Power saving Turn off display or reduce backlight in LiveView during idle times Handy features Quick zoom in PLAY mode key shortcuts for commonly used features customizable menus And much more Important notes After opening the card door always wait for LED confirmation or for 5 seconds be fore removing the card no such problem on 550D If you have a bootable SD card and have the BOOTDISK flag set in the camera which the installer does and you do not have an AUTOEXEC BIN file on the card the camera WILL NOT BOOT It will hang and not wake up until the battery is removed If you encounter a locked up camera quickly remove the battery When in doubt remove the battery and reboot And remember that this software can damage or destroy your camera Contents Features 2 Important notes 2 Known issues 8 Common terms 8 Movie mode iea cause t ewka nR E Da aE a a e EE NE eRe eS RE 8 TRE TT Dugi os aos HE le Ree E Re ba e ku p Ekku a a ed 8 Liveview screen layout 9 Key shortcuts 10 PLAY mode Shores A eue Ra NR Ed e SES 10 Arow key AOS cita Sachin hey ie 10 Mise a A ee a Kiih we RIT S TO 11 Magic Lant
5. Exact frame rate may be rounded to be an exact multiple of PAL NTSC frame rates PAL modes 25p 50p Rounded frame rates 33 333fps 12 5fps 11 111fps and so on NTSC modes 30p 60p 24p Rounded frame rates 29 97fps 23 976fps 11 988fps and so on For fine tuning and calibrating custom frame rates use EOSTimerGen Tip this feature also works in photo mode making LiveView usable in dark environ ments Combine it with display gain HDR video This feature allows you to shoot a high dynamic range video by alternating ISO every other frame Select the two ISO values from the submenu Possible postprocessing workflows e Interframe script user friendly version and bare bone version GingerHDR plugin for Adobe After Effects and Premiere Magic Lantern HDR Compose generator for FCP X HDR Glogger Web Service etc please help me filling the list See also the postprocessing thread on the forum Note this feature does not work on 500D Tli Image Effects Custom image effects found by investigating DIGIC registers Desaturate tip this lets you record grayscale with any picture style Negative image Swap U V red becomes blue Cartoon look for this to work set sharpness in your picture style to any nonzero value 25 Movie Record 50D Enable movie recording on 50D 1920x1080 30fps without sound To start recording go to LiveView P Tv Av M and press SET WARNING Canon 50D was NOT
6. Sensor on 550D 500D focus by placing your hand near the LCD sensor avoiding shake To use this you may need to disable LCDsensor Remote Recommended focus step settings Focus StepSize 1 or 2 Focus StepDelay small values without Wait flag e If the motion is not smooth try larger delays 100ms Quick rack focus while recording Press MENU to save current focus point this means I want to return here Use follow focus to change focus point focus somewhere else Press PLAY to go to saved focus point Press PLAY again to go back Focus StepSize Step size for one focus command as used by EOS Utility Focus StepDelay Delay between two successive focus commands with an optional waiting flag e If Wait is not active ML will only wait a for fixed delay before sending next focus com mand This will reduce stutter but may affect rack focus accuracy This setting is recom mended if you only use follow focus e If Wait is active ML will wait until each focus command is completed and then it will wait for a fixed delay as configured here This will increase rack focus accuracy but may cause stutter with certain lenses 35 Focus End Point This is end point of rack focus X focus steps from the start point i e from current focus point First you have to set the end point Focus the lens then press SET on this menu item After pressing SET ML will display Focus End Point 0 here This means the end
7. You can use a different picture style when recording toggled automagically May be useful with flat picture styles 15 Exp Override This mode bypasses Canon exposure limitations for ISO Tv Av It enables Manual video exposure controls in cameras without it 500D 50D 1100D e 1 25s in movie mode 24p 25p gt 1 3 stops better in low light e 1 8000s in movie mode useful for slow motion e ISO 12800 is allowed in movie mode on 60D and 600D Full time DOF preview in photo mode without blocking certain keys Settings OFF Canon default exposure mode ON ML overrides exposure values change them from Expo menu Auto ML enables it only when needed that s not auto exposure but automatic decision of when you need low level manual controls For 500D 50D 1100D in movie mode to enable manual exposure controls For 60D in Manual mode with a manual lens to fix the LiveView underexposure bug For 550D 60D 600D 5D2 when you select a shutter speed aperture or ISO value which is not available in standard firmware e g 1 25s or 1 8000s in movie mode Side effect in photo mode anything slower than 1 30s will be underexposed in LiveView LV Display Selects or displays LiveView display type Photo display with exposure simulation Photo display without exposure simulation for framing and for flash photography Movie display 16 Overlay Graphics overlays for LiveView or image review
8. designed to record movies Keep in mind This feature was not thoroughly tested by Canon and may be unstable even if you record without ML Always disable movie recording when you don t use it Battery will drain quickly when recording also the camera may overheat Limitations The camera will not record sound You can use an external recorder for example Zoom H1 H2 or H4n and sync the sound in post with a clapperboard You can t play back movies in the camera This setting remains active even if you start the camera with standard firmware until you clear your settings Shutter Button 50D Leave unchanged obvious Block during REC blocks the shutter and related AF buttons while recording In 50D taking pictures while recording would result in ERR99 with this option you can avoid taking pictures while recording by mistake Side effect this will disable image stabilization during recording Hold during REC IS ML will keep the shutter button pressed half way during record ing which will enable image stabilization IS Side effect you need to press the shutter button half way to turn IS off before the camera will let you stop recording Exposure Lock 50D Locks the exposure in movie mode You can also use the button you don t have to hold it pressed 26 Shoot Functions for stills shooting some of them work for movies too HDR Bracketing Exposure bracketing for HDR ima
9. focus Other parameters size position magnification Notes Zebras focus peaking and false color are disabled automatically when the zoom overlay is active Focus triggering only works with lenses that report Focus distance or when you use follow focus rack focus n some modes half pressing the shutter may temporarily hide the zoom overlay Original implementation Magic Circles by AJ Cropmarks Cropmarks or custom grids for framing and composition if x VS LY l Notes If you use custom cropmarks place them in ML CROPMKS folder on your SD card and give them short 8 3 names You can place at most 9 cropmarks on the card Get more cropmarks from the ML cropmark repository or draw your own see Crop marks Ghost image Shows a transparent overlay which can be created from any image in Play mode Usage To select the image go to Play mode and press the LiveView button Move the ghost image in LiveView with arrow keys center or hide it with SET or joystick press 19 Defishing Preview the rectified defished image from the Samyang 8mm fisheye lens using rectilinear or Panini projection This feature works best in photo mode outside LiveView Spotmeter Measure brightness from a small spot in the frame Possible measurement units Percent 0 100 Raw 8 bit levels 0 255 IRE 1 101 formula used by AJ which maps 0 255 luma levels to appr
10. for power saving Autofocus is moved temporarily to back button whenever ML has to take a picture without autofocusing This includes HDR bracketing and bulb exposures Autofocus is moved temporarily to half shutter when you use AF patterns while chang ing the AF point Sound recording is disabled temporarily when you use FPS override On 600D video mode may be changed via ML shortcut key On 50D movie recording function is changed from ML menu yes this is a persistent Canon setting but it s not present in Canon menus With few exceptions these settings can also be changed from Canon menus or controls A few settings are changed temporarily during certain operations for example autofocus for bracketed shots but these settings are saved by Canon firmware in NVRAM If you take the battery out in the middle of the operation for example in the middle of taking a picture ML won t be able to restore these settings back to your initial values and you ll have to change them back from Canon menus To the best of our knowledge all these settings are restored to default values when you run Clear camera settings and Clear custom functions from Canon menu All persistent changes can be seen in ML source code by examining the calls to prop request change Some of the changes are not persistent for example LiveView zooming and they were not included in the above list 51 Usage How do I bring u
11. mode histograms zebras focus peaking Global Draw Choose when to enable Magic Lantern overlay graphics zebra cropmarks histograms audio meters ML shooting info in LiveView only in QuickReview photo mode outside LiveView only Both modes default Disabled If you use display presets press Q on this item to switch the presets while you are in ML menu Zebras Mv 134nf16 Enable disable zebra stripes which indicate overexposed or underexposed areas Color spaces Luma zebras are computed from Y channel only RGB check overexposure for each RGB channel Clipped channels are displayed in the opposite color i e clipped red shown as cyan underexposed as white and so on You may adjust thresholds for underexposure and overexposure or you can disable zebras while recording Note when using the Technicolor CineStyle picture style luma will have values between 16 and 255 therefore you will have to set the underexposure threshold to 16 or greater 17 Focus Peak Focus assist function High contrast lines will be marked by blinking dots showing which part of the image is in focus Methods Dixy computes first image derivative on X and Y and takes the max value May work better in low light or on noisy sensors D2xy approximates second image derivative with a 3x3 Laplacian kernel May be more accurate in good light Other parameters Threshold how many pixels ar
12. or L int R ext AGC Enable disable Automatic Gain Control AGC is applied only in digital domain i e it over rides digital gains but you can still adjust analog gain Recommended setting OFF Headphone Monitoring Audio monitoring with headphones using the A V cable Disable this setting if you are using a SD monitor To use audio monitoring you need a special cable your Canon A V cable with a RCA 3 5mm jack adapter e a dedicated cable from Sescom or you may solder it yourself you will have to cut your A V cable Warning mobile phone cables will not work even if the connector looks similar it s not identical You must use the original cable which came with your camera Output volume Digital output gain for audio monitoring It does not have any effect on the built in speaker For best results you should a pair of low impedance headphones for example Audio Technica ATH M50 38 ohms With high impedance headphones you may have to use a headphone amplifier like FiiO E5 Audio Meters Display input audio level from 40dB to OdB meters become yellow at 12dB and red at 3dB Audio meters are only displayed in movie mode 13 Expo Adjusting the exposure parameters Most of these settings only work in Manual photo and video and some of them work in P Av and Tv too WhiteBalance Advanced white balance control The preferred method is Kelvin white balance range 1500 15000K Submenu opti
13. point is now assigned to current focus position At this point you will see the LiveView image and set the start point using left and right keys just like with follow focus or the main dial scrollwheel The start point will be always the current focus point which you are changing the end point will remain fixed Rack Delay Sets the number of seconds before starting a rack focus This lets you film the start point first then initialise the rack focus without touching the camera Rack Focus Triggers the rack focus operation that moves between the start and end focus points After the move is complete pressing again reverses the move e SET rack focus will start after 2 seconds e Q rack focus will start immediately PLAY ML will automatically record a short clip with the rack focus operation Outside ML menu while recording press PLAY to start rack focus Step by step 1 Pick the end point of rack focus by focusing on it manually or with AF 2 Configure focus parameters step size and delay Different lenses may require different parameters 3 Open the Focus menu go to Focus End Point and press Set to zero it out 4 Pick the start point by focusing on it with the LEFT RIGHT buttons while the Focus menu is active Make sure the number from Focus End Point is changing as you focus Fine tune the position with scrollwheel 5 Go to Rack Focus and press SET or PLAY to start rack focus 6 To return to the st
14. to downgrade firmware from new version to older version BUT they ad vised me to send it in to Canon for them to do it and test Small service charge would be involved but could be done while I wait Interestingly enough they also advised me that Magic Lantern firmware would not invalidate my Canon Warranty as it s not a hardware modification Though I m reluctant to find out for sure And another user posted this on t2iforum I contacted Canon Support Portugal about using ML the answer was the follow ing Quote the use of custom firmware or any other third party acessory with our equp ment will void the warranty of the product IF PROVEN that the malfunction of the device was caused by the use of those Canon respects the rights that their customers have to decide what accessories or firmware to use although we do not recommended their use and we are not responsible for any damage to the equipment The Magic Lantern firmware is distributed with NO WARRANTY and NO GUARANTEES are provided It might work It might not It hasn t destroyed any cameras yet but who knows 49 How will it interact with future upgrades from Canon We have updated it to work with the latest version of Canon firmware on all supported cam eras This is a manual process to find the symbols in each new version although tools like patchdiff2 Gensig Finsig and GPL Tools match py make it much easier Each new version must be statically linked a
15. values and so on Please send this file to developers These log files can be used to see how well the ramping went and to fine tune the algo rithm Bulb Timer Very long exposures with Bulb mode and ML timer This feature is useful for night shots and astrophotography Bulb timer is started by holding the shutter pressed halfway for one second or by remote triggers intervalometer Tip you can cancel the exposure earlier by half pressing the shutter button LCDsensor Remote Start stop remote shutter release mode with the LCD sensor 30 amp Near To take a picture put your hand near the LCD sensor Away Picture is taken when you get your hand away from the sensor You may combine this setting with Mirror Lockup w Wave Picture is taken after you wave your hand 3 times near the sensor You can leave it on without interfering too much with normal shooting This feature is useful for avoiding camera shake In Movie mode the Wave w setting is able to start and stop recording movies The other modes can only start recording because it s too easy to stop recording by mistake While recording the Near and Away modes can trigger the rack focus operation Audio RemoteShot Start stop remote audio trigger To take a picture or start recording a movie make some loud noise for example clap your hands or pop a balloon Tip with the audio trigger you can sync a video recorded without sound with an exte
16. 16 9 HDMI monitors 4 3 movie for 5D Mark II 500D and 50D in movie mode Bottom only layouts Under 3 2 useful for 4 3 screen cameras 500D 50D 5D Mark 2 in photo mode Under 16 9 suitable for low resolution external monitors and for 4 3 screen cameras in movie mode Image position This may make the image better visible from different angles especially on cameras without flip out screen 39 UpsideDown mode This mode is useful if you want to mount your camera upside down Auto Mirroring For cameras with flip out LCD this options prevents mirroring the display when you open it at 180 degrees Display Normal Reverse Mirror For cameras with flip out LCD you may select a different flipping mirroring option Level Indicator 60D Shows if the picture levels with the horizon Can be used while recording Kill Canon GUI For 50D only disable Canon graphics elements to avoid conflicts with ML graphics in Live View Idle Menus only enable Canon graphics when some transparent menu from LiveView is active Idle Menus Keys only enable Canon graphics when you press some keys or navigate the transparent menus from LiveView 40 Prefs Image review settings Customize the image review playback mode 1 40 4 5 42 100 1235 100 1236 SET MainDial When you hold SET pressed and turn the main dial scrollwheel ML may perform one of these functions Play 422 display silent pictures from DCI
17. Also check out the dark color schemes optimized for night shooting or try disabling exposure simulation 52 How do I shoot timelapse You have a couple of options e Intervalometer the classic way You will have to postprocess the shots in order to create the final movie With this method you also have access to advanced options like bulb and focus ramping HDR timelapse or very long exposures e FPS override simply select a low FPS value down to about 0 2 FPS and ML will record a timelapse e Silent picture timelapse Only for very advanced users I want to use my camera as quickly as possible Can ML help me Yes Check out these features Shortcut keys for commonly used functions Display presets create custom LiveView modes for example your favorite settings for checking exposure focus framing and so on Quick zoom in playback image review mode Change image review mode to PLAY after taking a picture you can press Zoom In right away and check critical focus in a split second Navigate the menu using the scrollwheels much faster than with arrow keys Hide unused menu items so you don t have to scroll through all of them press MENU Does Magic Lantern consume more power than standard Canon firmware In LiveView it draws 3 5 more power measured on 60D and 5D Mark II with zebra and focus peaking active You can do your own tests if you have a 60D Magic Lantern can reduce power consumpt
18. E io Sats Hho a MAREM Fa og ae oe Se oS 36 vri Wn DELETED 37 Focus distance and DOP iMG osse etr or Rr Re km e 37 I P rrr 38 Ul PC a a a pei se Ee PE A 38 ISAAC lr 38 e n DD C ee ete amp ete eS ik wi pee weal AA 38 Lolorscheme u 22m eue ow Aa waa Re Say de ee ix eas 38 A VERVE 2 650 BS OA oe whee eee ee a LES 39 FOCUS Box LV sues Run Oo we Se Ee e ee eo Re RR ee ae 39 E cose changed etd wa neg e mes X E Reg RR pom EU 39 Sareen layout setini sauce pa Xr eR a aa as 39 Level indicator 0D uuu pudorem he dee eh Pete cR Hr Rn 40 A CCCII 40 A uex bee xe pru eR Tee xs eg REY FE E a 41 hnagereview BOHINGB ccoo sooo ot RR ERG AE E e 41 Live Mew Zoom DEI EE lel RRA RR UE Ike pe E RA 42 HOW SET Short ei vna ee eee ev RR P vx xx SE 42 Wise key ECOS eos bo OG ah ae tUe eh AUS ego ot e qe de Aeg dg 43 Auto Burst Lali ps cd cauad ee ww moe ele x RES a ae 43 Fowersave d LOIS VIEN uoo eoa Reus e ye ox Va ee Rae Ye ASS 44 irons Mi o eret cs dedu Com arb Bae oun Digne dp M d qe 44 LS Display Tree C 44 IO PACO EDI cou ee REG e ree E eR ae eS 45 Do D att eee E te ee tat en ess lel tees ie oe Geo aye roan a 46 a 108 ou serere ee eed doe dp Ce eh ee d 46 ds 66 2548 dono cm ere der todo eee P b e Ed edes 46 c lc n ETT 46 bhowissks ceso ems naua eee eas nee Paka 9 x cue Bee eee Rees 46 mere CPU WERDE TOME uoces ku oar Ee E URS RUE asp ROS anas M e 46 lujo ssr corer AA 46 A E E 46 CMOS femperalute c
19. Flash expo compensation 10 3 EV Tip you may use 10EV to trigger an external flash without putting light on the scene coming from the onboard flash Flash No flash use this when you are not sure whether to use flash or not Odd pictures by file number will be taken with flash even pictures without flash 3rd party flash in LV a trick for enabling non Canon flashes in LiveView on Rebel cameras This trick disables LiveView temporarily on half shutter press therefore you should DISABLE this option when you don t use it EyeFi Trick visible only with an EyeFi card inserted This feature lets you transfer RAW files with a non pro EyeFi card You can rename those files from CR2 to AVI so the EyeFi card will send you raw picture to your PC as a movie file Once transfered just rename them back to CR2 on your PC To rename the files back on camera choose Rename AVI to CR2 33 Focus Trap Focus For MF users takes a picture when the subject comes into focus Modes Hold AF button you need to hold the autofocus button half shutter or AF ON de pending on your settings Continuous you don t need to hold any button ML will hold the half shutter pressed for you This will also block most buttons press the shutter halfway to unlock them for two seconds Notes Outside LiveView it only works with lenses with chip In LiveView it only works for photos and it will take a picture when the fo
20. Large Coarse gt JPG Medium Coarse Possible results 550D Transcend Class 10 your mileage may vary e RAW JPG JPG L all others JPG M e RAW RAW all others JPG M 43 Powersave in Live View Options for maximizing battery life when using LiveView Enable power saving on Standby during Recording or always Use LCD sensor you can use it to wake up from powersave wave your hand near it or to force powersave mode cover the sensor for a few seconds Dim display In LiveView if the camera is idle Magic Lantern will reduce the LCD backlight level to minimum in order to save power Turn off LCD and LV this will turn off the display and the sensor activity in LiveView Mirror will not be moved If the camera is recording or motion detection is enabled only the display will be turned off so recording will not stop Turn off GlobalDraw if the camera is idle ML overlay graphics will be disabled to reduce CPU usage Config file Magic Lantern saves its settings in a configuration file named MAGIC CFG located under ML SETTINGS directory on your card This submenu lets you customize how these settings are saved Config Autosave If enabled settings are saved automatically to MAGIC CFG when ever you change a setting in ML menu Config saving process will take place as soon as you close the menu Save config now Save ML settings to ML SETTINGS MAGIC CFG Delete config file use this to restore ML default s
21. M 100CANON low res only Exposure Fusion combine two or more images useful for previewing HDR images or multiple exposures Compare Images compare two images with a diagonal split view The current image will always end up in the top half Timelapse Play scroll through all your pictures quickly Image review QuickReview default just like in standard firmware e CanonMenu Hold PLAY if you set ImageReview Hold in Canon menu it will go to PLAY mode instead This allows you to zoom in as soon as you take the picture without having to press PLAY Credits goto Ken Rockwell for hint You have to hit PLAY Quick Zoom Faster zoom in PLAY mode for checking critical focus e OFF e ON fast zoom zooms faster than Canon firmware SinglePress gt 100 a single press of Zoom In will zoom all the way in to 100 on center point Next press will zoom out full screen image Full zoom on AF point similar but it will zoom on currently selected autofocus point Full zoom on last position similar but it will remember the last position of the zoom box 41 LV button Customize the LiveView button in PLAY mode Default enter LiveView Protect image Rate image Quick Erase Shortcut for erasing images without confirmation hold SET and press ERASE Be careful LiveView Zoom Settings Customize Canon s x5 x10 zoom in LiveView Zoom x5 x10 you can disable one of them so the first Zoom I
22. MVI_1234 LOG numbered after the movie The log file contains lens and exposure info as well as a times tamp every time any of the parameters is changed during recording Log files are placed in the same folder as the movies DCIM 100CANON 101CANON etc Tip you can rename LOG files to CSV and import them in MS Excel Movie Restart While this setting is on movie recording will restart automatically unless you stop it There will be a few seconds skipped during restarting REC STBY notify Custom notifications for recording or standby Red Crossout highly recommended if you forget to press record Message it shows STBY or REC Beeps it will beep when recording starts or stops Blue LED obvious if your camera has it Movie REC key This option enables you to start stop movie recording by half pressing the shutter button Tip with this you can use a wired remote to start stop recording Force LiveView Force LiveView in Movie mode bypass the dialog saying Press LV button to activate movie shooting Always force LiveView even if you use an unchipped lens or no lens at all Be careful you may get dust on the sensor while changing lenses Start amp CPU lenses it will force LiveView at startup regardless of the lens used After this it will only bypass the dialog when a chipped lens is attached i e it will enter LiveView as soon as you attach a chipped lens 23 Shutter Lock This opti
23. a on a tripod and the subject should be static a picture is taken in a few seconds Could be useful for focus stacking or for timelapse without increasing shutter count Silent picture setting is applied to intervalometer and remote triggers It will also go to Live View when you press the shutter half way in regular photo mode Therefore you should only enable this setting when you actually use it Images are saved in DCIM 1xxCANON after the following rules Ifintervalometer is OFF silent pics are named after last picture movie taken without this function e g 12340001 422 You are limited to 10000 silent pictures for each noisy picture e Ifintervalometer is ON silent pics have names like 12345678 422 Tip use File Numbering gt Manual Reset from Canon menu to increase folder number to sort them easier To convert a 422 image to JPEG on the PC use one of the following programs e 422 jpg py command line tool runs on all platforms you need to install Python PIL and numpy e 422toimage Windows only source code available e YUV422 Convertor Windows only closed source Mirror Lockup Mirror lockup See Canon user guide for details Timer Remote will auto enable MLU under one of the following conditions and disable it otherwise e self timer mode is on either 2 second or 10 second but not continuous e LCDsensor Remote is in Away mode 32 Flash tweaks A few tweaks for flash users
24. arting point run rack focus again Tip when LCDsensor Remote is set on Near or Away you can trigger rack focus from the LCD sensor avoiding camera shake Recommended focus step settings Focus StepSize 1 or 2 Focus StepDelay without Wait flag large delays around 100 ms gt will ignore small position errors with Wait flag small delays only lens is in very good mechanical condition 36 Stack focus This selection will shoot a series of photographs with varying focus points Itis used in macro photography to assemble sharper final images by merging photos where each has a different focus point This function can also create scripts named like named FST_1234 SH which can be used for stacking the images with enfuse See Exposure bracketing for details on how to use these scripts and the focus stacking section from Enfuse reference manual To enable or disable the post processing scripts go to HDR bracketing submenu Usage 1 Z Configure rack focus and use it to preview the focus range Select the number of focus steps to skip This will determine the number of pictures to be taken Press PLAY to start the focus sequence PLAY mode or take the first picture SNAP mode You can also combine this function with HDR bracketing and silent pictures Recommended focus step settings same as for rack focus Focus distance and DOF info These items are read only Lens info displays lens name cur
25. c Lantern You will get this error when your shutter mechanism no longer works properly Contact your Canon service center Consider entering your shutter count in the Camera Shutter Life Database Why feature X doesn t work properly Read the manual Some features may not be 100 intuitive or it may be a known issue Look in the forum If you don t find the solution ask for help Technical Does it work with CHDK We have used some of the CHDK tools to learn about Canon firmware files but this is all new code They have done an amazing job of supporting hundreds of different camera mod els across multiple architectures and operating systems CHDK is a great project for Canon s Point and Shoot cameras Without their initial effort in understanding DryOS Canon s firmware files and the boot process we wouldn t have been able to make as much progress as quickly as we did While we were able to use modern tools to analyze dump files of ROM images thanks to their efforts they got started bitbanging a UART via the status LED on a camera body That s truly hardcore What is it written in Can I get the source The firmware hack is in C with some inline assembly for boot strapping The firmware build tools are in Perl and use Makefiles for dependency tracking You need an arm linux elf build of gcc and binutils Most of the code analysis has been done with objdump strings and the IDA demo No tech support will be provided If it br
26. cus indicator has almost maximum value on the focus graph Notes for LiveView trap focus You may have to turn the lens back and forth a few times in order to let ML compute the correct focus scaling factor for the current scene If you move from a high contrast scene to a low contrast one you will also have to wait a bit until the high contrast data disappears from the focus graph e Press SET to temporarily disable automatic scaling of focus magnitude Focus Patterns Custom focus patterns which can be used either with autofocus or trap focus n n n n n n a o o o o o o o o o O o o o o Oo o o Oo o u Oo o o o o n o n n o u o a a n a O O O a O O o o o o o o o o o o n oO o n o n n oO n n n o n n n n n n n n m n a a O O a O O n oO n n n n n oO n n n a n o a n o o o o o a o n n o n o o n n n n O a n a O To change the focus pattern 34 Set your camera in photo mode non LiveView Look through the viewfinder and make sure the main display is off Change the focus pattern with the arrow keys and SET you may or may not receive visual feedback e Press the Zoom In button twice to see the current selection You can use the custom focus patterns in LiveView Quick Focus mode too but the pattern won t be displayed on the screen This feature was ported from 400plus Follow Focus Very simple follow focus like a rack focus controlled manually Arrows you will be able to focus with the arrow keys LCD
27. e color histogram waveform spotmeter and crop marks as configured from Overlay menu e SET Main Dial Scrollwheel in PLAY mode customizable function preview HDR images timelapse playback and others See SET MainDial LV create a transparent overlay from current image when Ghost Image is active You can use it for panoramas or for repeating shots LV on 60D 600D you can configure it to protect or rate images with a single button press SET Erase you can configure it to erase images without the confirmation dialog Arrow key shortcuts Arrow keys can be used to quickly adjust the following settings Audio gains and input source ISO in intermediate steps and Kelvin WB press SET for push button WB Shutter and aperture in finer steps LCD backlight saturation and display gain You can select what functions you need from Arrow SET shortcuts submenu under Prefs To enable the shortcut menu press the following key 550D the Av button optional cover the LCD sensor e 60D the Metering button near ISO 600D the DISP button 500D cover the LCD sensor e 50D the FUNC button e 5D Mark II the Picture Style button Besides the shortcuts arrow keys can also be used for focusing see Follow Focus See also our Shortcuts article 10 Misc shortcuts SET pressed at startup loads vanilla firmware does not load Magic Lantern INFO DISP in LiveView change current display preset
28. e considered in focus percentage Color either fixed color or a color coding according to focus intensity Grayscale img if enabled LiveView will displayed as grayscale but still recorded as color To see how it works check this article from Luminous Landscape Magic Zoom Displays a zoom box for focus assist Can be used while recording Trigger modes not all modes are available on all cameras HalfShutter triggered when you press the shutter button halfway Focus Ring triggered by turning the focus ring Zoom REC triggered by pressing Zoom In button while recording If your camera has a LCD sensor you may also cover it and press Zoom In FocusR HalfS triggered by turning the focus ring or by pressing shutter halfway Focus ZREC triggered by turning the focus ring or by pressing Zoom In while record ing Zoom In triggered by Zoom In button overrides Canon s default zoom modes To bypass magic zoom press both zoom buttons at the same time or cover the LCD sensor Always On no trigger key needed You can use both Canon s 5x 10x zoom and Magic Zoom When ML believes you have achieved perfect focus Magic Zoom will display a focus confir mation customizable Green Bars 18 Split Screen when the image is out of focus the zoom box looks like a split focusing screen from old film cameras Split Screen with ZeroCross will reverse the split direction whenever you achieve per fect
29. e only Negative values will reduce noise but may cause color issues in highlights pink high lights Positive values will increase noise but in very dark scenes they will also get more shadow detail at the cost of clipped highlights Consider using negative ISO when you notice noise in shadows or when you want a smooth highlight rolloff Try to use as much negative ISO gain as possible but without getting pink highlights 0 3 EV will probably work best if you use HTP you may go up to 1 EV For increased dynamic range combine negative digital ISO which reduces shadow noise with the excellent Flaat picture styles which are a very good approximation of log gamma curves Shutter Fine tune shutter speed When exposure override is enabled you can adjust it in 1 8 stop increments movie mode only In photo mode Magic Lantern displays integer shutter values without rounding them e g 1 50 will be displayed by ML as 1 48 This is not a bug In movie mode shutter values are displayed with one decimal place for example in PAL mode Canon uses 1 33 3 to avoid flicker To use shutter speeds normally not available in Canon firmware like 1 25 or 1 8000 in movie mode enable exposure override Aperture Adjust aperture When exposure override is enabled you can adjust it in 1 8 stop increments movie mode only PictureStyle Change picture style or adjust its parameters REC PicStyle
30. e the settings which are saved to a non volatile memory If Magic Lantern would set incorrect values for certain settings this may cause the camera not to boot even without ML The same risk is present if you use third party software for USB remote control These programs use the same API for changing camera settings properties and Canon code does not always check the validity of the settings before saving them to NVRAM Here s a proof Even developers of USB control software who use Canon s own SDK agree with this Imagine that your config file gets corrupted and you can t just delete it and start from scratch We consider this a design flaw in Canon software We did encounter such problems during development but we were able to recover from them For technical details see Unbricking Probably the safest way to run Magic Lantern or any third party camera control software is to use custom modes in these modes Canon code does not save user settings to NVRAM In practice we are doing our best to prevent these situations and thousands of users are enjoying it without problems However this does not represent a guarantee use it at your own risk Actually using Magic Lantern we have successfully unbricked a 5D Mark II damaged by a USB remote controller app Does it void my warranty A Magic Lantern user posted this on dpreview I ve spoken to canon Cps pro service in UK and they ve advised me that it s quite possible
31. eR eo ae Baa ae oo ee eee 23 REC STBY GHI sc 05 0 shee abe ehh eee ate Sod LEE 23 Moyie REC KEP A bia Os or Be tek t RUP ks heo ok ede ne o eleg 23 Force Live MEW 22 5 ee ee nea bs ce rom Rome poem A 23 a o a Suus C Bans Es ratus Ra Sus M eus et ross diio BESS 24 nof o PD DIT 24 HORSES ci er x RU ee Rn de Mom up RR CRUS DR e debt 25 laco o CCEPIT 25 Movie Record 50D uuu e A a ee EA 26 Shutter Buton 50D ados a e A ee ee Ba be ea ee ed 26 Expose Lock GUI su bd ic ee eee de o deed E dd Bod aS 26 ll cia a be ee a a A ee a A Oe ee 27 HDR Bracketing soc soe meo mor om eek o tesa eee eae es 27 Mo cp MEDICI ITI 27 Bull Focus Bam oi rg eoe gem ache donee doge ear Re 28 a A mur C DRE RES te i orm a RO AUS e de 30 Teer ons AA IN See ee ee 30 Audio Remolino err eee ae EEEE hee ee Eo ER RES RS 31 Motion Detect uso soror UR ea Eee a ew ge eee ee ees 31 Silent Picture 440 0454 n bee e ded POR RE RO E eed 31 Miror LOCK esu e eee A ERE ee ENE ORR BRE Cee de 32 a onc bees eee od Re Weg meque Bede eens Eke ee Ee Ru 33 EyeFi Trick visible only with an EyeFi card inserted 33 o A PH IE Rt SPORE Rec ee RAN She BEA 34 FOCUS Pathifis ous bes cmt dee dee eur edem Quse d d eee qx ERU UE ed 34 A eo hd ee a in a a ei a AEE 35 o Es gara Packing Pies PEAR Sek ae Pw ow eRe ek Peleg 35 Focus PCI aca cle sme 3 p REI Sem na RR he wales 35 Focus Rad POE cio o k lu eG REGES ELE RES e aes 36 Iq A rats ee hee need Shane a Ad 36 BOC TOCU
32. eaks you get to keep both pieces If you know what all of these terms mean and aren t scared of the possibility of breaking your camera you can download the Magic Lantern firmware source code 55 How do I get a ROMO bin firmware image We do not distribute ROM images nor IDA idb files since they are verbatim copies of Canon s copyrighted code You can generate the ROM images from your own camera by enabling CONFIG_DEBUGMSG 1 in debug c and then selecting Dump ROM from Debug menu What are all of the 0xff81beef things and funny names like EP_SetManualMovieMode These are the addresses in the official ROM firmware for different functions and names that we have given to functions If you load the ROMO bin image into IDA or use objdump you can trace through the instructions to determine how the software works If you are just using the camera they don t need to mean anything to you but they give other developers a place to look in the firmware image The function names are unlikely to be the same as the ones in Canon s source code which we have never seen We name functions based on what they seem to do or debugging diagnostic strings embedded in the function It isn t perfect but it is sufficient to locate the important things for task creation file I O and GUI operation Misc Has Canon contacted you No one at Canon has contacted us regarding Magic Lantern or software development for their DSLR cameras We are very eager
33. ee hue ras eR S R3 Ren oe RU RU Rete GALS ae S RR a ERROR RA 56 Has Canon contacted you soceri he ru RR REEL ERT 56 Known issues e First second of recorded audio may be very loud SD monitors are not completely supported magic zoom and RGB tools will not work Magic Lantern has no audio controls for Canon 600D T3i and newer cameras Luckily you can disable AGC from Canon menus Common terms Movie mode Most cameras have a dedicated movie mode on the mode dial In this case it s obvious what movie mode is However the following cameras do not have a dedicated movie mode For these cameras Magic Lantern considers the following configurations as movie mode Canon 5D Mark Il in LiveView with movie recording enabled AND LiveView display set to Movie Canon 50D in LiveView with movie recording enabled from ML menu When movie mode is active Magic Lantern will show a Mv symbol on the bottom info bar In this mode certain ML tools that normally work for stills like intervalometer or audio remote shot will change their behavior and will record movies The Q button Most cameras have a button labeled as Q A few cameras don t so you will have to use some other button e 5D Mark Il use the Picture Style button e 50D use the FUNC button e 500D use the LiveView button Liveview screen layout Magic Lantern uses the available screen space to display operational information in a clea
34. ern menu 11 n DP Dad oh oe ty ecb tay Oa 0 In ee Ben Ro ee RE le A Sa ES 12 Aa ED c hosce Pra ina Panda PR PIN eae ee s 12 L DigitalGain and R DigitalG in s cs o eR RI 12 INPUEBIMOS uolo Eom ee RR EMR OLE DES eae d ee 12 Wand Filter 2e cs edd RN TUER ee bee POR hue eve Ree 13 hus P A a eT ea ee ee ed 13 co 13 Headphone Monforte corras i rara VR Rae a EHE 13 OPES TRE uocis Ir gm eel wee One He ete hws Pee aug 13 o e e a le e oh tae fe od Re a oe MG ae EWA le 13 1r 0 o Poe LTEM 14 WhieBaldee x22 esce o xc md iR dm IRR GREE RES ee eo ew 14 IB ee em ade adh Rue EE RE wae ke ee Rae oak ERG 14 OEE IN 15 POO cos oe Bs Gia Pe oe Re rrr 15 Picturebile 2222 eae meo ewe ct need AA 15 REC Pista aro ra bee Peat eee dae BESS 15 Be los pL 16 jh APO PP Tv TCI 16 moll M PEL C LIU PLE 17 EDDIE RRA A AO 17 Foca Peak corsarios rar a aed 18 is A ek eh eR eR gk Mg Ke FR a 18 bo pios Dina Panes Para PRR PO ee ee te E 19 Duci A glans Wee ee ae a ee ae a ae a ea ws wo 19 BO ee eos aa ada ceu ed seu ides AS 20 PROMO oa erna A ee Sie ees A race a em Sm ak amp Ru 20 o A Bh ee A Ee Gom A ee he eee CREE d Re E 20 Histogram and Waverton ec coesa sted etue ha aei RE E ew eS 20 boo cns 0 be SAL Ree a SPE Rea A She AEA 21 hol oo nceauerdeaeebberebedces a A 22 MURS i ad eee ec hoe heh Rk Nek a eh ERE ESR ES ee ew EE E a 22 Foie Teak AE 22 Movie LOBO so sio eR Ru eo oe AS ee ee eRe E ae EHE E 23 iid Ioco os os oars a
35. esar ema Rx ara EERE EE Ea 46 Ambient light EO lark ID cee esse a Rem eee 46 Battery level 600D and 5D Mark I lt o coco Pare ee rn 47 48 ro P AN 48 lir Pr NN 48 Does Magic Lantern completely replace Canon firmware 48 Is Magic Lantern only for video 2 0 oe co mr RAE RA 48 iris ER PIU 48 1o Cp 49 Doesat void mirwaranby 2 21229 eura rmm mk Rue e x eos E S 49 How will it interact with future upgrades from Canon ls 50 Installation 2e Rm Pee ed Rory eRe A PSY 50 Hal m 50 What happens during installation ooo omo iss 50 Do I have to install Magic Lantern on all my cards o o o ooooo oo 50 ML saves settings on the card Can I use the same settings for all my cards 50 Can I use the same card in two compatible cameras o o o oooo ooo 51 How do TWIST sx se a e died e ed es 51 Does ML do any persistent changes to my camera o oo ooooooo oo 51 USAS orar or oe ee ee ete babe do do do A E wd 52 How do I bring up the Magic Lantern menus o oooo ooo omo o o 52 What So many options in the menu I m lost o o o oooo o o 52 How do I restore ML default settings o o ooooooooo o ee 52 How do I erase all of the images without removing ML 52 How do I record for more than 12 minutes 0 0 000000 ee 52 How do I get exposure times longer than 30 seconds 0 0 52 How do I see shutter counter CMOS temperatu
36. ettings After deleting the config file restart your camera LV Display Presets This feature lets you use up to 4 display presets for the settings in the Overlay menu On the top bar you will see DISP 0 1 2 or 3 Each of those is a preset for the settings in Overlay menu So you can for example configure DISP 0 with false colors DISP 1 with zebras and focus peaking and DISP 2 with cropmarks This menu item sets the maximum number of available display presets To disable this feature set the number of presets to 1 To change the current display preset press INFO DISP in LiveView or Q on the GlobalDraw entry in the Overlay menu 44 Crop Factor Display If enabled ML bottom bar will display the 35mm equivalent focal length including crop factor 1 6x For example a 50mm lens at f1 8 will be displayed as e 50mm f 1 8 with this option disabled e 80eq f 1 8 with this option enabled 45 Debug Functions for troubleshooting development and possibly unstable features Screenshot 10s Print screen after 10 seconds This option saves a BMP file for the overlays and a 422 file silent picture for the LiveView image The BMP does not contain transparency data You can combine the two files in GIMP or other image editing programs The card LED will blink every second until the screenshot is taken Don t click me Don t click it Stability tests This option runs various tests to make sure Ma
37. gainst addresses in the firmware ROM as if it were a library which requires locating the entire set of symbols Despite this tight integration Magic Lantern software does not contain any Canon code lt is entirely a clean room implementation that runs along side the official Canon firmware as a separate DryOS task Installation How do I install it Follow the install guide You will have to copy Magic Lantern files on your card and run Update firmware from the menu The running firmware shuts down loads the file into RAM and starts it running Rather than reflashing the ROMs this new program starts the DryOS boot process to install itself What happens during installation There are two ways of running user code on Canon DSLR cameras 1 Using the update process with a fir file which must be digitally signed 2 Using the bootdisk process if the camera finds AUTOEXEC BIN on the card this file is loaded and executed This file does not have to be signed but the BOOTDISK flag must be enabled in the camera and the card must be prepared in a special way labeled as bootable When you run ML installer via Firmware Update it will do the following e it will enable the BOOTDISK flag in the camera by calling EnableBootDisk function from Canon firmware this flag is stored in ROM so the modification is persistent but can be reverted easily it prepares the card makes it bootable by writing the following strings i
38. ges and timelapses n M mode this function does shutter and or ISO bracketing In the other modes it does exposure compensation bracketing To start bracketing take only the first picture and ML will continue the sequence To preview HDR images in camera set SET MainDial ExposureFusion from Prefs menu Image review settings then go to playback mode hold SET and turn the main dial wheel For each HDR picture set Magic Lantern may also write a bash script for stacking the exposures with enfuse version 4 x with optional alignment align image stack More info Exposure Fusion What is it How does it Compare to HDR How Do I Do It Intervalometer Take pictures or movies at fixed intervals You can stop the intervalometer by rotating the mode dial by pressing MENU or PLAY or by turning off the camera Settings in submenu Duration between two shots Start delay up to 8 hours Stop after X pictures In movie mode only duration of a movie clip Turning on Intervalometer displays a calculation for how long the time lapse will shoot for how many frames it will take and the playback time based on your image quality setting free space and video frame rate selected in Canon menus Example 1h33m 563 shots 24fps gt 00m23s Turning on Intervalometer displays a calculation for how long the time lapse will shoot for how many frames it will take and the playback time based on your image quality sett
39. gic Lantern is stable and will not crash You can use it to test your particular configuration If it crashes report an issue Show tasks Displays the tasks started by Canon and Magic Lantern Save CPU usage log Saves a log with the CPU usage for all tasks Free Memory Displays the amount of available RAM Shutter Count Displays the number of shutter actuations number of pictures taken plus number of liveview actuations CMOS temperature Displays the internal CMOS temperature in raw units Ambient light 5D Mark II Displays the value from ambient light sensor under LCD display expressed in EV steps The scale is arbitrary not calibrated in any way 46 Battery level 60D and 5D Mark II Displays battery percentage estimated time remaining and battery discharging rate For accurate readings wait until the percentage indicator decreases by at least 2 since pow ering on 47 FAO General What is it Magic Lantern is an enhancement atop of Canon s firmware that frees your Canon DSLR allowing you to use many useful features It is an open GPL framework for developing extensions to the official software Does Magic Lantern completely replace Canon firmware No Magic Lantern runs from the card as an add on over standard firmware You will still be able to access all Canon functionality To go back to Canon firmware you may Press and hold SET at startup to bypass ML only once fo
40. ing free space and video frame rate selected in Canon menus Example 1h33m 563 shots 24fps gt 00m23s Tips 27 To avoid flicker shoot in manual mode use manual white balance avoid short expo sure times and use a manual lens if you use an EF lens lock the aperture and unscrew it To make a timelapse without increasing shutter count do not use the intervalometer instead set FPS override to a very low value for example 3fps and start recording When using the intervalometer in LiveView with noisy mode your shutter will wear twice as fast than outside LiveView If the intervalometer can t be stopped it may happen in crazy mode turn the camera off or open the card door Power Saving When not in LiveView press DISP or INFO to turn the display off In LiveView ML will turn the display and the sensor off during idle times if you enable this option from Powersave menu While the intervalometer is running the card led will blink once per second to let you know it s alive and kicking Bulb Focus Ramping Bulb Ramping allows the capture of a timelapse that gradually changes exposure compensat ing for the transition from day to night Options Auto exposure ramping this option will adjust shutter and ISO automatically by look ing at image brightness of previous shots Manual exposure ramping this option will adjust shutter and ISO to follow a fixed ex posure ramp a fixed amoun
41. ing a condition like this for example 70 of pixels should be below 50 brightness Exposure for every shot is computed from previous shots using a feedback controller algorithm with a smoothing factor ISO is chosen using the 180 degree rule so the resulting shutter speed stays between 90 and 270 degrees that is between 1 4 and 3 4 of the delay between two shots Only full stop ISOs are used you are supposed to shoot RAW Shutter speed can be adjusted with a resolution of 10ms Frames with fast shutter speeds less than 1 second in Rebel cameras less 0 1 seconds in 60D are taken in Manual mode You will get flicker It can go from 1 8000s ISO 100 daylight to several minutes of exposure time ISO 6400 complete darkness Exposure algorithm is a feedback controller designed with pole placement the closed loop response will have two real poles placed at the smoothing factor value Smoothing factor is computed in such a way that when scene ramping speed matches the speed selected in menu ramp is followed at exactly 1 EV behind it If the lighting changes suddenly a few stops between two shots for example you change the ND filters or the aperture the algorithm should recover completely after 2 or 3 shots A sudden exposure change is considered when the exposure difference is greater than 2 stops Logging When you use bulb ramping Magic Lantern will save a log file with the exposure pa rameters metered
42. ion by dimming or turning off the LCD screen or by pausing LiveView without moving the mirror See Power saving for details In plain photo mode with display off the power draw is a bit higher because Magic Lantern disables CPU powersaving features otherwise intervalometer and other ML functions would stop running We have measured 6 hour on 60D compared with 4 hour with Canon firmware and 10 hour on 5D Mark II compared with 5 hour with Canon firmware Why the audio is so quiet noisy after disabling AGC You will have to adjust the volume manually use the audio meters to determine the proper level Best audio is obtained by use of a preamp system fed to the camera As a general rule the use of a quiet preamp to send the signal to the camera will result in better the sound recorded in camera Use of a preamped XLR adapter like the JuicedLink CX231 or a field mixer will give superior results You may also use a recorder like Zoom H1 H2 or H4n but since the line out level is much higher than the mic level you will have to turn the output down from your recorder or use a pad cable For more info check out the Canon DSLR Audio thread on dvxuser and AGC Disable Magic Lantern vs Juicedlink on dvinfo 53 Troubleshooting It won t boot e If the LED is blinking continuously you have the wrong Canon firmware version Make sure you didn t delete AUTOEXEC BIN from your ML card If you did format the card ta
43. is if you are using a device which covers the LCD sensor e g a loupe Sticky DOF Preview This will make the DOF preview button sticky so you no longer have to hold it pressed Note enabling DOF preview will block most other buttons Tip enable Exposure Override to preview DOF without blocking the buttons Sticky HalfShutter This will make the half shutter press sticky so you no longer have to hold it pressed Tip use this to prevent the camera from turning off LiveView after 30 minutes Swap MENU lt ERASE 60D Swaps MENU and ERASE buttons This feature allows one handed navigation in ML menu on 60D but will have to use MENU button to delete the pictures DigitalZoom Shortcut 600D On 600D T3i this lets you customize the behavior of DISP Zoom In Zoom Out shortcut key in movie mode 1x 3x toggle between 1x and 3x digital zoom modes FullHD e 3x 10x default Canon setting change digital zoom value between 3x and 10x Note by default Magic Lantern disables digital zoom values greater than 3x in order to avoid image quality degradation Auto BurstPicQuality When enabled it will temporarily reduce picture quality in burst mode in order to maintain a decent frame rate even when the buffer becomes almost full This function will reduce picture quality if the buffer has space for less than 4 pictures e RAW JPG gt JPG Large Fine gt JPG Medium Fine e RAW JPG Large Fine gt JPG Medium Fine e JPG
44. ke the battery out and reboot If you still have problems ask on the forum After shutdown it won t power on unless removing battery You are removing the card too early Always wait for LED blinking confirmation or for 5 seconds before removing the card What s going on on certain cameras a few seconds after you open the card door Canon firmware is accessing the card without any LED activity If you remove the card during this period the camera will get stuck in an infinite loop will slowly drain your battery and will not reboot until you take the battery out and you put back in Magic Lantern v2 3 will show a confirmation LED blink after this process ended With older versions after you open the card door wait for 5 seconds before removing the card This problem can t be fixed without rewriting Canon bootloader code which we won t do so you really have to be patient when removing the card What happened with movie mode remap We had serious problems with it so it was disabled The problems were confirmed with a min imal example code so the issue is either in Canon firmware which was probably not designed for dynamic mode remapping or in the way we request the mode remapping procedure The only way to get it back is to show us a safe way to change the shooting mode For this you need to point out what s wrong with this call prop request change PROP SHOOTING MODE amp new mode 4 and suggest a different method
45. n press will zoom in and the second will zoom out Auto exposure on zoom auto adjusts exposure while zoom is active This lets you adjust aperture freely on a manual lens without the image going too bright or too dark so it helps when focusing Increase SharpContrast when zoom is active sharpness and contrast are maximized Increased sharpness works somewhat like focus peaking Zoom on HalfShutter zoom is enabled when you press the shutter halfway Zoom with Focus Ring if your Canon lens reports focus distance you can enable zoom ing just by turning the focus ring If you d like the zoom to stay enabled for a longer time press and hold the shutter halfway Arrow SET shortcuts Select the features you want to adjust quickly with arrow keys Audio gain e SO Kelvin Shutter Aperture LCD Brightness Saturation You can also enable quick functions for the SET button coupled with the corresponding arrow adjustments Audio input internal mic external mic balanced Push button white balance 180 degree shutter speed or the closest approximation Reset LCD brightness to 5 and saturation to Normal 42 Misc key settings LCD Sensor Shortcuts Use the LCD face sensor as an extra key in ML e g for triggering arrow keys for blocking follow focus or for bypassing magic zoom key To fully disable the LCD sensor in Magic Lantern disable LCD auto off from Canon menu Wrench 1 You need to do th
46. n the analog domain in dB If you use an external preamp set this parameter as low as possible otherwise set it as high as possible without clipping audio meters should be green L DigitalGain and R DigitalGain Digital gain applied to left and right channel Recommended setting 0 Input source Audio input source for recording internal mic external stereo L int R balanced internal mic on Left external mic on Right from both external pins as balanced audio Auto int ext camera detects if a mic is plugged in Int is dual mono ext is stereo Canon Balanced Mic to Female XLR Cable Pinouts FEMALE XLR Ground Positive Hot Negative Cold Tip Positive Hot 1 Ring Negative Cold 2 Sleeve Ground 3 Balanced audio allows for very long cable runs without interference Usually balanced mics have three pin XLR connectors and it is very easy to out together an XLR to Canon mic in put cable Balanced allows us to use such pro mics with our little Canons and this is a very welcome surprise for audio guys source 12 Wind Filter Digital high pass filter See AK4646 datasheet p 34 Mic Power This is required for internal mic and certain types of external mics but it reduces input impedance See AK4646 datasheet p 31 and the Mic power control thread ON input impedance is 2 KO e OFF input impedance is 30 kQ This setting is always ON when input source is either internal mic
47. n the boot area EOS DEVELOP and BOOTDISK it does not reflash the original firmware Do I have to install Magic Lantern on all my cards Yes because Magic Lantern runs from the card If you prefer you can use cards with Magic Lantern loaded and cards without it Just make sure you don t delete Magic Lantern files from the card always format them from the camera if possible ML saves settings on the card Can I use the same settings for all my cards You have to copy the configuration files from ML SETTINGS directory on all your cards 50 Can I use the same card in two compatible cameras It will work but it s not a good practice We do not recommend doing this How do I uninstall it Simply format the card The boot flag will be still there but it will not affect normal operation except for EyeFi cards To remove the boot flag for using EyeFi cards run Firmware Update from a ML card and follow the instructions Does ML do any persistent changes to my camera Yes Besides the bootflag which is required for auto boot there are a couple of other changes which are saved into NVRAM These are ISO shutter aperture white balance Exposure compensation exposure simulation drive mode AF points AF mode Picture style and associated parameters Flash settings enabled disabled exposure compensation red eye reduction Backlight level for example it s lowered temporarily if you use Dim display
48. on locks the shutter value in movie mode so you don t change it by mistake you will be able to change it only from ML menu FPS override This setting alters EPS for all video modes Only undercranking works well FPS is changed by altering two timer values let s call them Timer A and Timer B Increasing any of these values results in lower FPS Aside from FPS changing these timers may alter shutter speed and rolling shutter Options Desired FPS choose a value from 0 2 fps to 65 fps If the desired value is not possible ML will choose the closest safe option look at Actual FPS below Optimize for Low light use this option for recording timelapse with shutter speeds close to 1 fps 360 degrees at high FPS values you may be able to use other shutter speed values Exact FPS tries to achieve an exact FPS value such as 24 000 or 30 000 or 12 500 If more exact solutions are found ML will choose the one with lowest jello effect High FPS changes FPS without altering shutter speed and allows a slight over cranking 60D 600D LowJello 180d tries to minimize the jello effect caused by rolling shutter while allowing you to expose at 180 degrees 0 5 fps if possible High Jello maximizes the jello effect and enables fast shutter speeds You can use this mode for recording slit scan frames distorted images like these which use the extreme jello effect in creative ways Shutter range displays
49. ons e Kelvin white balance e WBShift G M Green Magenta white balance shift Useful for fluorescent lighting WBShift B A Blue Amber white balance shift 1 unit 5 mireks on Kelvin axis accord ing to this post Custom RGB multipliers fine tune custom white balance Black level this parameter is applied on RAW data before applying white balance Ad just itif you have problems with green or magenta shadows Auto adjust Kelvin G M in LiveView ML will compute the white balance for the current scene using the center 200x200 pixels rectangle as reference gray ISO Advanced ISO control Color coding orange Canon ISO with good noise or dynamic range 100 160 200 320 3200 green ISO with negative digital gain applied via DIGIC 80 90 160 320 obtained by setting ML digital ISO to a negative value These can have lower noise and or better highlight rolloff than their Canon equivalents red ISO with positive digital gain avoid these values Submenu options Equivalent ISO Analog ISO 14 Canon digital ISO used for obtaining intermediate ISOs like 160 320 640 ML digital ISO DIGIC in movie mode enables ISO 50 ISO 80 ISO 51200 and many other intermediate or astronomical ISOs Highlight Tone Priority which increases dynamic range by 1 stop in movie mode ISO selection Canon ISOs or ML ISOs only used in movie mode Notes and tips for ML digital ISO in movie mod
50. ox 1 101 IRE IRE 0 108 formula proposed by Piers which maps 16 235 luma levels to 7 5 100 IRE RGB displays HTML like color codes False color This is a tool for evaluating the exposure It shows different luma Y levels using a color map You may select one of the following color maps WW i Po Lb 11 ial Tips you may configure a display preset with False Color and toggle it with a single button press you may also use false colors to highlight 50 and 70 brightness levels or to reveal color banding or to check for uniform green screen lighting Histogram and Waveform These exposure tools will show the distribution of image brightness levels 20 To learn how to read these graphs see Understanding Histograms and Final Cut Waveform Monitor Vectorscope This tool shows the color distribution with an U V plot Useful for color grading To learn how to read it see Introducing Color Scopes The Vectorscope 21 Movie Functions specific to movie mode Bit Rate Controls H 264 bitrate used for video recording Possible modes CBR constant bitrate You specify a factor for multiplying default video bitrate between 0 1x and 3x CBR 1x is the firmware default setting e QScale constant quality variable bitrate VBR Available values 16 16 Lower numbers mean higher bitrates Firmware default completely disable bitrate control Notes Increasing the bitrate may ca
51. p the Magic Lantern menus Press the DELETE button What So many options in the menu I m lost Press MENU to hide what you don t use Press INFO DISP to get context help How do I restore ML default settings Delete the config file MAGIC CFG from Prefs menu and restart the camera How do I erase all of the images without removing ML Canon menu gt Format gt Format card keep Magic Lantern How do I record for more than 12 minutes Lower the bitrate CBR 0 4 will let you record continuously for 30 minutes Use Movie restart but you will lose a few seconds when a new file is created To record continuously for more than 30 minutes you need to use a HDMI recorder Enable the Clear Overlays feature to hide the focus box and the 16 9 bars and make the half shutter button sticky to prevent the camera from turning off LiveView after 30 minutes Technically there s no 12 minute limit There s a 30 minute limit and a 4 GB limit whichever comes first With default bitrate settings the 4 GB limit is reached after around 12 minutes more or less How do I get exposure times longer than 30 seconds You may use Bulb timer for a single photo HDR bracketing in manual mode Bulb ramping for timelapse How do I see shutter counter CMOS temperature Look in Debug menu Can I use Live View in complete darkness Yes Increase display gain from Display menu use a low FPS with FPS override or both
52. r and practical manner The image shows a screenshot with commonly used ML features enabled audio record time indicator levels fps LEFT 46 RIGHT 48 clip point RGB RGB i histogram A gt focus peaking aperture shutter g m MF AF battery expo length speed balance shift distance indicator comp Some items that may need more details Audio meters this shows the audio record levels in dB The bars become yellow at 12 dB and red at 3 dB FPS the current FPS value is displayed with 3 decimal places 25 000 24 000 23 976 etc Shutter speed in movie mode values that maintain a certain amount of filmic motion blur 180 degree shutter are displayed in green In photo mode values that may cause blurry pictures are displayed in red ISO values with low noise negative digital gain are displayed in green Clipping dots on histogram they appear when the image contains overexposed areas Green magenta white balance shift not all cameras let you adjust these in movie mode fine tune them from White Balance submenu in ML menu Focus distance this is displayed for most newer Canon lenses If your lens does not report focus distance ML will display the AF MF status instead Detailed focus and DOF info is displayed in the Focus menu Key shortcuts PLAY mode shortcuts e Q 550D UNLOCK 60D DISP 600D LV 500D FUNC 50D or Picture Style 5D Mark II show exposure tools zebra fals
53. r the current session Format your card in the camera and choose to remove Magic Lantern Disable the bootflag this will uninstall ML from the camera to do this run Firmware Upgrade and follow the instructions Is Magic Lantern only for video No Early versions were developed by independent filmmakers and tailored for video pro duction on 5D Mark II Things changed when Magic Lantern was ported to smaller APS C cameras like 550D 60D 600D and 500D which attracted developers interested in both still photography and DSLR video Visit the gallery for photo examples Is it legal This is a clean room black box reverse engineering effort and as such should be OK Fre quently asked questions about reverse engineering addresses the legality question producing an interoperable product is one of the explicit allowances enshrined in law Magic Lantern does not contain any Canon code Furthermore we do not distribute any copyrighted code or cryptographic secrets neither from Canon nor from any other third party All the knowledge used for development was obtained by analyzing ARM code from the firmware by experimenting and from lawfully obtained documentation 48 Is it safe No Magic Lantern was created by reverse engineering an undocumented system that controls hardware Therefore we can t be certain that it s 100 safe Magic Lantern does not replace Canon code which is stored in ROM but it does chang
54. re 0 52 Can I use LiveView in complete darkness o o o oooooo ooo e ee 52 How do shoot timelapse onus odes ra EN 53 I want to use my camera as quickly as possible Can ML help me 53 Does Magic Lantern consume more power than standard Canon firmware 53 Why the audio is so quiet noisy after disabling AGC 53 TPIS I euer menu haer Sa gts aE eh oR a RS oe ERN ee 54 A ee dece a Pe Bie es a et ee bed ed dede 54 After shutdown it won t power on unless removing battery 54 What happened with movie mode remap o oooooo ooo omo eee 54 Why does the camera take pictures when pressing the shutter half way 54 Why do I have to press the shutter button twice to take a picture 54 Why is the LED blinking every 5 seconds oo ooooooooooo ooo o 54 Why did the autofocus stop working ooo cc ke ee 54 Why picture style X does not appear in movie mode 55 My camera freezes I get ERR70 80 99 I get corrupted files Why 55 What about ERR20 when taking pictures 2 2 ee 55 Why feature X doesn t work properly doces ee eS 55 Uu M a CET 55 Does it work with CHDK lt secus ese be rara a Re See d e 55 What is it written in CanIgetthesource ooo ooo tawa 55 How do I get a ROMO bin firmware image llle 56 What are all of the Oxff81beef things and funny names like EP_SetManualMovieMode 56 MDE bregar
55. rence picture which you just took Use the main dial to select the tone range to meter for You can t perfectly match two im ages just by varying one parameter exposure so you have to choose what s important for you in this picture For lowest flicker meter for midtones choose the 50th percentile ie median because it s a robust estimation unlike simple averaging Leave some headroom for highlights underexpose a bit If highlights are important meter for them choose 80th percentile for example You will have to shoot RAW and remove flicker when you develop the RAW files The algorithm works best when brightness is close to 50 try not to choose extreme values for it When you are ready to start press SET 5 Sit back and relax Limits Tips ISO is chosen between 100 and maximum auto ISO value from Canon menu Shutter speed is chosen between 1 8000 lower limit and the delay between two shots minus two seconds upper limit Example for 10 second intervals shutter speed will be between 1 8000 and 8 seconds Aperture is fixed you can change it manually Don t adjust ISO and shutter before the timelapse they are fully automatic Use a ND filter to reduce flicker during daylight Reduce flicker in post We recommend VirtualDub with MSU Deflicker plugin free works with Windows and Wine See also Timelapse workflow using free software tuto rial Technical notes 29 Exposure is metered us
56. rent focal length and current aperture Focus Dist The distance to the focal point Most newer newer Canon lenses report this value but not all Hyperfocal The hyperfocal distance is the point of focus where everything from half that distance to infinity falls within the depth of field This is the largest depth of field possible for the current f number DOF Near The nearest distance in which objects appear in focus DOF Far The farthest distance in which objects appear in focus 37 Display Options for display most of them are for LiveView LV contrast Adjusts the contrast in LiveView It does not affect recording This helps when focusing with very flat picture styles Choices Normal no effect High Very high Low Very low Zero LV saturation Adjusts the saturation in LiveView It does not affect recording This helps you focus without being distracted by color Choices Normal no effect High Very high Zero grayscale LV display gain Photo mode only this feature increases the brightness in LiveView making it usable in very dark scenes where Canon s LiveView would be pitch black Combine this with EPS override for better low light performance Range 0 7 EV For movie mode use ML digital ISOs for a similar effect Color scheme This affects the colors and brightness for on screen information including LiveView overlays Canon menus and ML menus Choices Default Dark Brigh
57. rnal audio track see this topic Be careful this may trigger the shutter from the sounds made by camera like focus beep or noise from operating the buttons Motion Detect Motion detection in LiveView Trigger modes Exposure change it only reacts to brightness changes Detects large moving subjects which cause significant change in exposure Frame difference it computes the difference between last two frames A and B luma channel only this detects smaller movements which do not change exposure Detection time is somewhere between 200 and 300 ms according to DataGhost s speed test it s faster with silent pictures Silent Picture This feature is reserved to very advanced users It can take pictures in LiveView mode without moving the mirror When enabled it saves uncompressed YUV422 frames from the Live View image buffer when you press the shutter halfway Make sure you don t have autofocus assigned to half shutter press put it on or turn it off Modes 31 Simple low resolution mode where the LiveView image buffer is simply saved on the card Image resolution is usually around 1 or 2 MPix and depends on the current mode zoom or not recording or not and movie resolution Burst similar to Simple but images are saved continuously as long as you keep the shutter pressed halfway Hi Res emulates high resolution by taking a matrix of small silent pics in zoom x5 mode You need to have the camer
58. roject by donations Also thanks to CHDK team and all the supporters of the old 5D2 Magic Lantern Magic Lantern is being developed by independent film makers in our spare time and at risk to our beloved cameras We hope that it saves you time and aggravation on set and we d appreciate your support You can help by donating via PayPal or through equipment donations You can also contact me Alex via email Thanks Donate Features Audio disable AGC audio meters manual audio controls selectable input source in ternal internal external external stereo balanced audio monitoring via A V cable Exposure helpers zebras false color histogram waveform spotmeter vectorscope Focus tools focus peaking zoom while recording trap focus rack focus follow focus focus stacking Movie helpers Bitrate control movie logging Exif like metadata auto restart after buffer overflow or 4 GB limit HDR video advanced FPS control LiveView adjustments contrast saturation display gain for using LiveView in darkness Cropmark images user editable overlays to assist framing and composition Fine control for ISO Shutter Kelvin white balance and other image settings Bracketing advanced exposure bracketing focus stacking Remote release with LCD face sensor and audio trigger without extra hardware Timelapse intervalometer for photos and movies bulb ramping manual and auto matic recording at very low FPS down to 0
59. t Gray Dark Gray Dark Red Dark Green Tip dark themes may reduce the eye strain during night shooting 38 Clear overlays Clear bitmap overlays from LiveView display HalfShutter LiveView overlays are cleared when you hold the shutter button pressed halfway for one second You can also use the button or the DOF preview button Tip assign autofocus to button from Custom Functions set Shutter AE lock button AE lock AF e Whenldle In this mode all the overlays are erased from the screen 100 clean display when the camera is idle i e a few seconds after last button press Always In this mode all the overlays are erased Menus will work normally Tip this feature may be useful with External Recorders since it removes the focus box and other graphics from the display Focus box LV With this setting you can choose to show the Focus box in LiveView or hide it when not needed Force HDMI VGA This option will force a low resolution mode on HDMI displays 720x480 which avoids blank screen when you start stop recording Screen layout settings Screen orientation positioning fine tuning adjustments for external monitors Screen Layout Choose screen layout position of ML top and bottom bars for different cam eras or for external monitors Top bottom layouts Inside 3 2 default layout for 3 2 screen cameras 550D and newer Inside 16 10 for 16 10 HDMI monitors Inside 16 9 for
60. t of EV change per shot Can be used as standalone or combined with auto ramping Manual focus ramping this lets you adjust focus gradually while shooting the timelapse It requires a lens with autofocus and it can only work in LiveView Settings for auto ramping Mode sunset sunrise auto In sunset mode the exposure will always increase In sunrise mode the exposure will always decrease This idea was suggested by Tom Lowe on RedUser net forum Maximum ramping speed this parameter is used for computing the optimal smoothness factor A lower value will reduce flicker but if the value is twice as low as the real rate of brightness change ML will lose the ability to ramp correctly For example if you set a maximum ramping speed of 0 1 EV shot and the scene requires a ramping of 0 2 EV shot ML will start flickering heavily 28 Quick start guide for auto ramping 1 Take a picture of your scene ML will use it as an example of I want my timelapse to be exposed like this picture 2 Enable Bulb Ramping and Intervalometer 3 Leave the camera still while ML runs a calibration step Make sure you have a static and well lit scene any static scene which does not require long exposure should be fine After calibration you should get a nice S curve on the screen 4 Now you will have to say what tone range to meter for i e highlights midtones Follow the wizard Use arrow keys to select your refe
61. the available shutter speed range with current settings When you use FPS override Canon menu will still display 1 30 1 4000 but the actual shutter speed will be different read it from ML displays You can alter shutter speed range by changing the ratio between the two timer values decreasing timer B will result in faster shutter speeds available Timer A displays the value of timer A and lets you fine tune it ML will re adjust timer B to match your FPS choice Timer B displays the value of timer B and lets you fine tune it ML will not re adjust timer A so this option will let you fine tune the exact FPS value TG Frequency displays the crystal oscillator frequency of the FPS circuit driver read only depends on your camera Actual FPS this displays the current FPS computed as TG_FREQ timerA timerB read only 24 Sound Record by default ML will disable sound recording when FPS override is en abled otherwise audio will go out of sync and recording will stop Only enable sound if you know what you are doing Notes and tips This function will not change the frame rate from the video header the video will play back at the setting from Canon menu Recommended usage set FPS to a very low value for example 3fps to record a time lapse To get 180 degree shutter speed at very low FPS simply discard half of the frames in post e f 0 2 FPS is not enough use Frame Merger a VirtualDub plugin
62. to discuss the project with them however so if you have any technical contacts inside of Canon s software team please put them in touch with us 56
63. use recording to stop You need a fast card CBR actually works by adjusting QScale on the fly the instant value is displayed near the recording dot In QScale mode bitrate is completely out of control don t use it In CBR mode OScale will not go outside 16 16 When QScale reaches the extreme values 16 or 16 bitrate will be different than your CBR setting Watch the bitrate indicators This is not a bug please do not report it e You can push the bitrate higher if you record without sound then use Audio RemoteShot to sync the video with an external audio track You can t change this setting during recording If buffer usage gets too high ML will pause all CPU intensive graphics Change the BuffWarnLevel setting to customize this Time Indicator When recording a movie ML will display a small time counter in the upper right corner which can be Elapsed duration of the current clip Remain Card estimated amount of recording time remaining on the card Remain 4GB estimated amount of recording time until reaching 4GB or until filling the card whichever comes first 22 Unlike Canon s timer which assumes constant bitrate ML timer assumes variable bitrate and works even if OScale is enabled However due to variations in bitrate the estimated value will fluctuate a lot and this is normal Movie Logging If this setting is ON Magic Lantern will write out a metadata file for the each movie to

Magic Lantern v2.3 – User's Guide

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Magic Lantern v2.3 &ndash; User's Guide

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Magic Lantern v2.3 – User's Guide