What Canon will NOT give…

Last Update: September 1, 2009

BRIEF LATEST NEWS:
– Check: Canon 7D and WHAT IS GOING ON?
– New Magic Lantern 0.1.6 released!!

What Canon will NOT give to customers…

The Magic Lantern Project:
Improvements for Canon EOS 5D Mark II

– This Blog was firstly created and intended to spread the Petition to Canon Inc. requesting for FULL Manual Control in movie mode and other improvements that can be really implemented via Firmware Update. With the help of thousands of people signing and requesting by every possible way through many months, enough “noise” was achieved to bring Canon’s attention and make them realize the benefits of giving FULL manual control in video mode to their customers.

It was a long and hard task though, that even many people didn’t believe as possible. Canon kept complete silence until the announcement; and there are also some secrets regarding the matter of “manual control” for video that were not revealed to public, and will be probably never widely known…

At least, and at last, the firmware with Full Manual Control in movie mode was released to the public…

– Aside that, while Canon is capable of, but unwilling to make more and very possible improvements (due to business reasons, etc.), there are few people who spend lof of efforts and their valuable time to bring us improvements to this great camera, the EOS 5D Mark II.

What is Magic Lantern ?

It is an open platform for developing enhancements to the amazing Canon 5D Mark II full frame digital SLR. This camera is a “game changer” for independent film makers. This Project will allow every user of the 5D Mark II to freely enjoy and use improvements for the camera that Canon will not include in their Firmware (if any update is still to be released).

It is very remarkable that this very small  group of programmers does not have the source code nor the resources that Canon does have. That means:  LOT of hard work to figure out how the camera system works, how to make changes and how to implement improvements to it.

(Having the source code, or even some kind of guides, would help VERY MUCH indeed. If you can provide some help on it, please contact us. Any help in this regard will be kept completely confidential and private.)

While still in development (this is a work in progress), we want to share this great and exciting project with people who might still don’t know about it. Below is the link to the official website and some screenshots and videos of progress.

Please consider supporting this very big effort, as it will improve the existing features of the camera and more interestingly: is adding new ones that Canon will never include.

– Official Website: http://magiclantern.wikia.com

– Support this Project:

– Rev. 0.1.6 released !:

“After a month of development and testing, Magic Lantern 0.1.6 is finally ready!
Some of the new features:”

* Custom cropmarks bitmap file
* Live histogram while recording
* Time remaining estimate indicator
* Automated focus pulls
* Focus stacking
* HDR exposure bracketing
* Lens data (hyperfocal distance, DOF, etc)
* Cleaner, multi-level menus that timeout automatically
* Audio monitoring can be turned off during clip review
* Internal mic can be used (must enable audio.mic-power=1 in config)
* Output audio volume control
* Configuration can be saved into magiclantern.cfg

More info at official site and also at: www.cinema5d.com/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=4589

– Curren Features  (rev. 0.1.5):

. On-screen audio meters
. Disabled AGC . Manual gain control
. Zebra stripes (video peaking)
. Crop marks for 16:9, 2.35:1 and 4:3
. To do list for more ideas
. and MORE…
. See the official website for updated fixes and NEW features

– Screenshots of Progress and Features:

VIDEOS:

Last Edit: September 1, 2009