Yes, this works for me ... thanks very much for the detailed "How To". It's very close to Jon's original explanation but I couldn't quite get that to go. This adds great capability to the 5DII - hope I don't overdo it.

Here's a question regarding the feasibility of incorporating a new feature into a future release of the firmware — I realize this is me being a bit greedy, so bear in mind that I am completely and utterly thankful for all the amazing, generous work you've done so far!

I've been looking into getting something to help with critical focus monitoring and was strongly considering this (if I can get a grant for my next film project that is... it's a bit over $1000): Marshall Electronics' "V-LCD70P-HDMI" (info about it here: Marshall Electronics - V-LCD70P-HDMI).

It has functionality in its software that would be absolutely fantastic to see at work in a Magic Lantern firmware update. By applying certain viewing filters to the video feed, it displays whether or not certain areas of the video are over- or under-exposed, as well as a really nice feature that shows the footage as black and white, highlighting the properly-focused areas in pink. Love that you added zebra stripes, but this kind of exposure control seems like a significant step further in functionality... and to have instant feedback regarding how accurate the focus is without having to press the zoom button to preview certain areas (or getting a Z-Finder, I'm sure it's great, but I find it way too pricey for what it is) would be just absolutely wonderful.

I know nothing at all about the kind of work that would go into something like this and don't even know if the existing camera hardware would support a feature of this type, but it certainly would add yet another compelling reason for any filmmaking Mark II adopter to go "open source."

Does this strike you as something that could even be possible on this camera?

Cheers, and many thanks,
-Sean

Install
 

I purchased the 5D about two weeks ago and I'm wondering if anyone has had a problem with ML installs? I want to install the upgrade but I'm a little nervous. Is it easy to return to the current Canon firmware (if needed)?

It's no problem at all.

In fact, Magic Lantern shouldn't be called firmware. Maybe tempware, sideware, or overlayware is a better term.

The way it works is you load it on all of the CF cards that you will use. You can also load a personalized configuration file, and a custom guides bitmap that you can choose for 4x3, 16x9, 2.35:1 or whatever aspect, crosshairs, safe zone, etc.

When you start the camera, it runs pure Canon firmware. You optionally load ML. (Takes less than five seconds.) The code loads temporarily into RAM - it never burns into the Flash ROM. When you are done shooting your sequence, turn off the camera and pull the battery for a couple of seconds. This ensures that no trace of ML is in the camera. The next time you start it, you're back to pure Canon code.

It's good (and easy) to develop the habit of pulling the battery. This ensures that there are no remnant loops running. It's possible that ongoing code could drain the battery more quickly than usual.

In a worst case, the processor could overheat on a hot day in the sun. However, I have yet to hear of anybody bricking their camera. I saw the overheating warning once when leaving the camera on a tripod with the LCD in direct sunlight on a hot day. (Magic Lantern or not, a sunshade is a good idea.) I let the camera rest a few minutes and resumed shooting with ML and with no problems.

Being a little paranoid at first is a good thing. You'll be itching to pull the battery quickly and often. Pretty soon you relax when using the "tempware", but the habit of pulling the battery stays firmly imprinted.

For us users, the risk is quite low. Tramm is the one taking real risks, as he's prodding hardware registers as he experiments to figure out what does what. And Tramm's camera is still running strong - Knock on wood. :)

Personally, I won't shoot any video without it.

Chris:

The ML firmware does nothing to the in Camera firmware. Once you turn camera off and pop your battery, all vestiges of ML are gone from the camera system. The battery pop is recommnend in case anything is in the memory system, to clear it.

You should look at ML as a supplement to the current 1.10 firmware. I have run and tested several version, and have not had issues.

You will occasionally see the camera hicup.... and not normally during recording, but solvable by a shut down, and restart.

Check out Wiki pages: Magic Lantern Firmware Wiki

A user manual is here:
Magic Lantern 0.1.6 User Manual - Magic Lantern Firmware Wiki

Thanks guys. That's all I needed to know. I have been a beta tester for years with Matrox and Adobe but I was paranoid with my best new toy. I will jump in shortly and then probably bug you guys a bit to make sure I'm getting the most out of the 'overlayware'.

I know I'm new to this thread but has a suggestion been made to record in different formats, i.e. Matrox compatible AVI or MXF?

Currently I use Adobe Media Encoder to batch process the MOV files to Matrox compliant AVI's before opening Premiere to edit. Depending on how much footage I shoot, I tend to just set it encoding overnight.

I use Cineform NeoScene. The raw footage from the camera is 30 FPS, not 29.97. NeoScene converts to .avi files in the Cineform codec with a batch process, retiming to 29.97. I edit in Vegas. Good stuff. $129.00 at Cineform, Video Guys had it for $99 at one point.

The h.264 encoding is done in the DIGIC hardware, so it is unlikely that we would be able to make any significant changes in the video format. I am, however, experimenting with turning up the bitrate and other quality parameters.

Chris,

I convert to 1920x1080p with Adobe Media Encoder at 29.97. Are you saying that it's not actually re-timing? I guess to really know is to see if my audio recorded on a Zoom H4n looses sync after a while.

Did you see the video where a Canon rep suggested that the processor has some ability to sense the data rate the CF card can write? The set rate may be the maximum. UDMA is needed , of course.
I wonder if the new Sandisk cards increase the number of channels. I believe the primary improvement in the Red CF card is channels. From my memory it has eight, while none of the common cards had that many. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

I am saying that from what Cineform and Canon tell us, the camera records at 30P, 30 fps, not 29.97. Cineform says they adjust the footage to 29.97. In the process, they have to adjust sound a bit too, to match, and they do in without pitch change. In that way the footage conforms to mother 29.97 material that comes off most video cameras shooting at a nominal 30 fps.

I believe that Cineform simply resamples the audio to the slower rate. The pitch changes, but a 0.001 change is not significant.

Do I paste over the entire contents of the config file or do I paste at the beginning or end????

Overwrite Entire contents

ML is working great! Is there a certain CMOS temp in which we should become alarmed? I was only using it about 15 min and the temp was steadily going up. I do not know what normal should be????

The 5D2 includes a warning if the camera gets too hot. I have only seen this once. I had the camera on a tripod with direct sun on the LCD screen. I turned off the camera for a couple of minutes in the shade, and started shooting again without problems.

If you don't see the warning, I wouldn't worry about it. If you do see the warning, please note the temperature and post it. :)

So, I have two recommendations: 1) shade the camera on hot days - especially into the lens or LCD, and 2) pop the battery after every use of ML, just to be safe. On one occasion, I forgot to pop the battery, and the battery was drained by the next afternoon. I found that the habit is easily developed. The time I forgot to pop the battery, a friend was operating it and he turned it off...

under-exposed zebras, can/will it happen?
 

Hi Tramm,

After all these months of knowing about Magic Lantern I've finally started messing around with it (mostly for having correct cropmarks) and I love it! I can't wait for the next release for all the new options!

I love that I finally have cropmarks for 2.35:1 that shows in both LiveView and recording (my Marshall crops don't work correctly obviously with 5D feed and that's frustrating!!). FYI the image and cropmarks display correctly in both liveview and record on my 21" FPD2185W Gateway monitor using a HDMI to DVI cable. Also, in case you didn't know, I can get my Marshall LCD720P HDMI to work with ML during recording only if I put it to the 1:1 option. However the Marshall display is messed up during LiveView, but I knew this was an issue already. Can't wait for full HD during record for use on my LCD70P Marshall. Oh BTW using this Gateway monitor is great because there is a zoom option on the monitor and so even though it's a bit pixelated you can fill most of the screen with both the LiveView and recording output at zoom which is nice. Of course a monitor this size is only practical in certain filming situations obviously.

Well my point to this post is I was wondering if it's possible to have under-exposed zebras as well as the over-exposed? This would really help me because I tend to film more on the dark side of things and want to know when I've lost detail in the shadows. I don't know if under-exposed indicators are common in filmmaking (I come from the still side of the galaxy) but the way my brain works it would be very helpful to have on screen as well.

Thanks and I really appreciate all your hard work!!!

This is important, as the LCD is not a good indicator of shadow details. On our recent 48 (Dream Job), we put some light in the "van interview shots" and were convinced that it would still be dark in there. As it turns out, the interior was quite bright.

Frankly, I think a waveform monitor might be better though for giving an idea of the level of texture in the shadows.

Can we just take a sec here to once again acknowledge what a FREAKIN' complete GOD Tramm is because of this firmware. Thanks.

Yes...waveform...please!

I would like to see solid release, auto boot up and full HDMI output on record. Looks like timing of that based on previous releases should be due soon. Who will release first Canon or Magic Lantern?

Complications are involved in getting to the new release. As the software gets more complicated, the more the chances of problems and bugs arise. Tramm's goals are extensive for the next release, and I see this akin to moving from juggling 3 balls, to getting the software to juggle 10. It may take 30 times the work to get it there.

Add to that the release of the 7D, where a lot of research is now also being expended, and you can understand why the coming of a new Magic Lantern update for the 5D is slower.

I think the urgency is lower too. We have fixed audio gain, audio monitoring, zebras, rack focus and a bunch of other stuff. The one other killer feature would be HD monitoring via the HDMI port, but there were some problems during proof of concept testing. If that had worked, we'd probably have had a release to add that feature alone.

Rode NTG-2 + JuicedLink CX231 gain settings?
 

Anyone using the Rode NTG-2 with ML? I'm running the NTG-2 through the JuicedLink CX231, and was wondering what the optimal settings would be.

audio.mgain = ?
audio.dgain.l = ?
audio.dgain.r = ?

My policy is to set the digital gain to 0dB to maintain all the bits. I run the JL at 100% on the high setting. It set the m.gain (analog gain) to +10 or +17dB. That's a good starting point.

If the sound is always too low, turn up the analog gain. If the sound is occasionally too hot, turn down the JL for those moments. If the sound is always too hot, turn down the analog gain.

Does it work with a mac
 

Does ML work with a MAC?

It runs on the camera, so the computer doesn't matter. As long as you can download the files and put them on your CF card, you're good to go.

Thanks Tramm for your hard work....I have much fun using the ML on a wedding gig last Saturday... just one question in regards to using an external mic, audio was being recorded even though mic (Rode) was turned off, so was it recording using the built in mic.

Once again thank you very much and I do hope that Canon will integrate ML in the coming firmware upgrade.... Please Canon!!!

If you want to use an external mic with ML, you must enable the external mic through the ML setup screens. The key takeaway is that unlike the stock firmware, where the external starts getting used the second you plug it in, ML will use whatever source is switched on regardless of whether a mic is physically plugged in or not. I learned that the hard way, but hey, at least I remember now!

Hello guys,
I have tried out the firmware and was very impressed by rack focus. It worked very smooth and nice.
But, noise and hiss are still there. I am using Rode VideoMic and settings from ML firmware manual. However, it seems that overall volume becomes lower and thats why I do not hear the hiss anymore. But when I increase the volume to be able to hear whats there (in quick time or in final cut using audio levels), the hiss comes back and as prominent as without the firmware.
Is there something I am doing wrong?
the setting I have
output vol 6
anlg gain = 10
audio.dgain.l = 18
audio.dgain.r = 18
agc OFF

You want a hotter mic or a preamp, like a juicedLink.

I usually choose
output vol 0 (I have a Boostaroo headphone amp)
anlg gain = 10 (sometimes 17)
audio.dgain.l = 0
audio.dgain.r = 0 (choosing non-zero reduces headroom/dynamic range)

You can see and hear the juicedLink here:
Part 1: Boom Mic - vimeo.com/5370880
Part 2: Camera Mounted Mic - vimeo.com/5388476
Part 3: Wireless Lavalier - vimeo.com/5443143
Part 4: Foley - vimeo.com/5453690
Part 5: Noise - vimeo.com/5474562
Part 6: Conclusions - vimeo.com/5903379

Magic Lantern manual
 

I suppose this is a dumb question, but is there a manual for the latest version of Magic Lantern? I've crawled all through the wiki, but can't find anything that looks like a manual. There seem to be a lot of neat features, but it would help to know how to use them. Please don't tell me I have to sit through all those slow-loading videos to learn how to use it.

Martin

Martin: This is a manual I started at the Wiki, and that has had Wiki style upgrades from others, particularly the main developer Trammel Hudson:

Magic Lantern 0.1.6 User Manual - Magic Lantern Firmware Wiki

Thanks Chris. That answers a lot of questions. Just got a 5DM2 this weekend, and have been feeling my way through the Canon instructions before tackling Magic Lantern.

Martin

Firmware 1.2.4 incompatibility
 

The new Canon 1.2.4 firmware is not compatible with Magic Lantern 0.1.6. I've updated the FAQ and added a note on the download page. Only Canon firmware 1.1.0 is supported by Magic Lantern 0.1.6.

I'm confused about the ML versions versus the Canon Firmware updates. The lastest from canon is now 1.2.4, I can update to that and still put ML on top of that, right?

Also, do I need to update firmware every time I fire up the camera when using ML?

No, as is indicated in Tramm's post above, Magic Lantern does not currently support the latest firmware. You will need to revert to 1.10 to use Magic Lantern. I believe Magic Lantern is awaiting the 5D upgrade which includes the frame rate changes before moving forward with a new upgrade. Hopefully we will see the frame rate upgrade in the next month or so.

As to your second question, yes. You keep in on your cards, and load it after start up under 1.10. I look at Magic Lantern as a program running within the 1.10 "operating system" adding functionality to it. You won't necessarily need it for every shooting situation, but when you do, its nice to have it.

Perfect! Thanks! Sooo excited about the 24p update. Although, doing it post is not that bad I guess.
-----
OK, now I'm embarrassed that I didn't see Tramm's update right before my question.

30p to 24p is a worst case situation.... unless you are will to slow down play back to 24 fps. There are really no great methods to get a 30p to 24p conversion and that is why the Canon 5D owners have been pressing Canon to get 24p to the 5D

Hi

does anyone know of a source for downloading the Canon D5 Mark II 1.1.0 firmware.

I read that it is possible to revert the 1.2.4 firmware back to 1.1.0, can anyone confirm this.

Thanks