Magic lantern cameras supported

Magic Lantern | About

About Magic Lantern

Magic Lantern is a software enhancement that offers increased functionality to the excellent Canon DSLR cameras. We have created an open framework, licensed under GPL, for developing extensions to the official firmware.

Magic Lantern is not a "hack", or a modified firmware, it is an independent program that runs alongside Canon's own software. Each time you start your camera, Magic Lantern is loaded from your memory card. Our only modification was to enable the ability to run software from the memory card.

Originally created by Trammell Hudson, Magic Lantern played a role in turning consumer digital cameras into tools suitable for high quality digital filmmaking and is now being developed by photo and video enthusiasts, adding functionality such as: HDR images and video, timelapse, motion detection, focus assist tools, manual audio controls much more.

Contact

The preferred way to contact us is on the forum, where your message can be seen by the entire ML community. Support is usually provided by other users (like you). Therefore, it's best to read how to ask questions before posting, and to have some patience if your question is not answered right away.

You may also contact us by e-mail at [email protected], or by sending us an anonymous message via Tipbox.

Scope

The goal of the Magic Lantern project is to provide technical means for executing open source software on Canon DSLR cameras.
Magic Lantern runs on most low-end and mid-range Canon DSLRs, from 1100D to 5D Mark III. Please check the Download page for current models, and the New Ports forum for future models.
The EOS-1D and Cinema series of Canon cameras fall outside of ML project scope because of their prohibitive price and narrow user base. We are not aware of any firmware enhancements for these cameras, nor do we support such efforts.
For very old Canon DSLRs, check out the 350D hack and the 400plus project.
For compact Canon cameras, use the excellent CHDK firmware add-on.
There are also firmware enhancements for Nikon (nikonhacker.com), Panasonic (personal-view.com), Pentax (pentax-hack.info), Sony (website down or moved?), GoPro (CHDK forum), etc.

Legality

Is Magic Lantern legal?

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer:

Background reading: check out the Reverse Engineering FAQ from EFF.
Both USA and European laws allow reverse engineering for interoperability, without requiring the permission from the copyright holder (in our case, Canon).
Since we are not distributing any Canon code and we reverse engineer solely for purposes of interoperability, Magic Lantern does not run afoul of the law.
We do respect Canon as a company, and love their products.
We do not publish Canon code or any other copyrighted material - be it from Canon or from any other third party.
We publish limited information about DSLR internals, with the only purpose of achieving interoperability. Reverse engineering is required to achieve interoperability, because no public documentation is available to create software for Canon DSLRs.
To our knowledge, Canon has not yet made any official statements about Magic Lantern, nor CHDK.
If anyone (including Canon) thinks we can improve the way ML is working, just let us know.

10 Years of Magic Lantern

Magic Lantern is ten years old. Happy Birthday Magic Lantern! Here at Newsshooter, I thought we should pay our respects to a team of individuals that dared to be different.

The first public post from ten years ago about my homebrew firmware for the Canon 5D Mark 2 DSLR marks the very humble beginning of the Magic Lantern project: https://t. co/b7vbw3dJK4 pic.twitter.com/UfcCd8bD0w
— Trammell Hudson ⚙ (@qrs) May 20, 2019

A bit of history

In 2008 the Canon 5D Mark II changed everything. It was the first affordable full frame sensor camera capable of capturing video. It quickly became the go-to tool for budget filmmakers and it wasn’t long till people wanted to get more out of their cameras. Enter Magic Lantern.

Image credit: Tramell Hudson

Magic Lantern was originally written by Trammell Hudson in 2009 for the Canon EOS 5D Mark II after he managed to reverse engineer the camera’s firmware.

Magic Lantern is a software enhancement that offers increased functionality to Canon DSLR cameras. Magic Lantern created an open framework, licensed under GPL, for developing extensions to the official firmware.

Magic Lantern is not a “hack“, or a modified firmware, it is an independent program that runs alongside Canon’s own software. Each time you start your camera, Magic Lantern is loaded from your memory card. The only modification Magic lantern created was the ability to run software from the memory card.

Magic Lantern was and still is a free software add-on that runs from the SD/CF card and adds a host of new features to Canon EOS cameras that weren’t included from the factory by Canon.

Essentially Magic Lantern opens up functionality that is technically possible to run on Canon DSLR cameras.

Because installing Magic Lantern does not replace the stock Canon firmware or modify the ROM but rather runs alongside it, it is both easy to remove and carries little risk. The camera checks a “boot flag” in its re-writable memory, and if set, reads from a memory card to get the additional firmware routines. Each time the camera is started, there is an option to disable Magic Lantern.

Magic lantern is completely free. It doesn’t cost anything to download or use.

Why use Magic Lantern?

4K RAW recording option for the 5D Mk III

You may be asking why anyone would want to use Magic Lantern and mess around with their camera to change how it performs. Well quite simply, because they can.

Most cameras are a lot more capable and powerful than you may think. In some cases, cameras from manufacturers have had features or capabilities restricted solely by the firmware they are running. The majority of cameras being released today are a lot more capable than you may think, but that doesn’t mean camera companies are willing to give you the keys to the front door and turn the alarm off.

In saying this, companies have to make products reliable and stable and if an engineer thinks that a camera can’t do a particular function with a zero fail rate they are not going to implement that feature into the camera. Companies also have to protect other products in their line up and they also need to make money. Making a completely open source camera doesn’t make financial sense to a large corporation or company.

My personal view

The Magic Lantern 2 hack running on the Canon 5D mkII

Magic Lantern offers a greatly improved feature set which turns Canon DSLRs into much more fully feature video cameras. You simply download the files to each memory card you use, pop it into the camera and load the new firmware. Then each time you start the camera it can automatically find the firmware on your memory card and reload it.

However, in my past experience, I have found it to be less than 100% reliable in critical conditions, with the occasional lockup that required me to reboot the camera by reinserting the battery. For this reason, I have stayed away from using it for the type of work I do where missing a key moment is not an option. My cameras need to be 100% reliable, end of story.

It is also technically going to void any warranty you have on the camera and there is always that slight chance that you could irreversibly turn it into a paperweight.

All that said it is amazing that a global team working together was able to add video features to existing Canon cameras.

Is this all legal?

Both USA and European laws allow reverse engineering for interoperability, without requiring the permission from the copyright holder (in this case, Canon).

Since Magic Lantern is not distributing any Canon code and they are just reverse engineering solely for purposes of interoperability, Magic Lantern does not run afoul of the law.

Magic lantern is keen to point out that they do not publish Canon code or any other copyrighted material – be it from Canon or from any other third party. The only information they publish is limited information about DSLR internals, with the only purpose of achieving interoperability. Reverse engineering is required to achieve interoperability because no public documentation is available to create software for Canon DSLRs.

Canon has never officially made statements about Magic Lantern.

What cameras are supported?

Magic Lantern on the canon 60D

Here are the cameras that are currently supported by Magic Lantern.

5D Mark II, 5D Mark III, 6D, 7D, 50D, 60D, 500D/T1i, 550D/T2i, 600D/T3i, 650D/T4i, 700D/T5i, 1100D/T3, EOS M.

Here are the cameras Magic Lantern are currently working on:

70D, 100D/SL1, 1200D/T5, 450D/XSi, EOS M50

What does Magic lantern allow you to do?

Well, a lot! Below is a list of features that Magic Lantern adds:

Full control over h364 bitrate.
Full control of recording framerate.
Record HDR video.
Custom vignetting for lens correction.
Record 14-bit uncompressed RAW video to your CF/SD card.
Experimental 2.5K/3K/4K with 10/12/14-bit RAW video (uncompressed or LJ
Zebras for under/over exposed areas
Focus peaking for quickly checking focus
Magic Zoom window to fine-tune focus
Cropmark overlays for 16×9 bars or any custom shape
Overlay a ghost image in live view
Spotmeter in live view
False color for precise exposure control
RGB histogram with RAW support
Waveform for perfect green screen lighting
Vectorscope for color tones
Kelvin and push-button white balance
Auto ETTR (Expose To The Right)
Exposure Lock for manual mod
Manually override exposure settings in LiveView
Quickly switch between two exposure presets
Toggle exposure simulation on/off (Liveview).
Dynamic range improvements (Dual ISO, other features being researched)
Analog / digital gain adjustments
Selectable input source
Toggle wind filter
Live audio monitoring through with headphones
Beep / test tones
Bracketing for exposure, flash, or depth-of-field
In-camera intervalometer
Custom bulb timer for extra-long exposures
Motion detection
Silent pictures without shutter actuation
Record voice tags for photos / videos
Trap focus
Rack focus
Focus stacking
Custom AF patterns
DOF calculator (diffraction-aware)
Automatic AFMA calibration (DotTune
Program your own camera!
Write Lua scripts in any text editor – no special setup needed!
Change any ML settings from scripts (menu API)
Change most Canon settings from scripts (WIP)
In-camera text editor and calculator
Games (implemented as Lua scripts)

Magic Lantern Example Footage

The above video was shot by Tom Akerman using the Canon EOS 5D mkIII with various Canon L lenses.

This was shot by James Miller with the Magic Lantern 5D3 Raw firmware. Captured at 1920 x 720 @25p

The above video was shot on the 5D Mark III with a Sigma Art 35mm and a 64GB Lexar 1066x CF-Card. It was shot in in 3520×1320 in 10bit-lossless at 23,976 fps using the crop_rec module. The files were mounted w/ MLVFS, graded in DaVinci, exported to DNxHR HQX 10bit, edited in Premiere and finally exported to 4K DNxHR HQX 10bit.

The above footage was shot in Magic Lantern Raw format and color corrected with Davinci Resolve. A 5D MKIII, Sigma 50 mm f/1.4, and Canon 100 mm f/2.8 lens was used.

What does the future hold?

Magic Lantern will continue to press forward, adding more features and testing out other camera models.

No matter how you feel about running third party firmware on a camera, you have to give credit to Trammell Hudson and the team over at Magic Lantern. Not only did they give users of Canon DSLR cameras enhanced features and capabilities, but they also give away the product for free.

There is always going to a select few companies and people who were pioneers in our industry, and Magic Lantern is certainly one of those pioneers. Happy birthday Magic lantern and thanks for all you have done and continue to do.

You can find more information about Magic Lantern on their website.

By Matthew Allard ACS

Matthew Allard is a multi-award-winning, ACS accredited freelance Director of Photography with 30 years' experience working in more than 50 countries around the world.

He is the Editor of Newsshooter.com and has been writing on the site since 2010.

Matthew has won 43 ACS Awards, including four prestigious Golden Tripods. In 2016 he won the Award for Best Cinematography at the 21st Asian Television Awards.

Matthew is available to hire as a DP in Japan or for work anywhere else in the world.

Magic Lanterns: 200-Year-Old Projectors Almost everyone has projectors in the office, some have projectors at home, built into a tablet or as an addition to a smartphone. Slideshows have firmly settled into the corporate culture, without which speeches and presentations are extremely rare. And where did it all start? From a magic lantern that could frighten believers, entertain people at fairs and give lectures to students of the 17th century.

To make a projector at home, you need a smartphone, a lens and a box. Before we had mobile devices, we needed a separate light and a separate image carrier. Or a candle, a kerosene stove, an oil lamp and glass with a pattern that will be projected onto a plane or puffs of smoke.

The first projector appeared in the 17th century and was called the "magic lantern". It was developed by the Dutch mechanic, physicist, mathematician and astronomer Christian Huygens, who studied the behavior of light in Icelandic spar, released an outline of the wave theory of light and improved the telescope.

The optical principle of "magic lanterns" is identical to that of the camera obscura, which was supposedly first used by Leonardo da Vinci. The Huygens device consists of a body with a hole or lens. Inside - a light source: at that time a candle or a lamp, later - an electric lamp. The image carrier was glass plates. In the image below you see the chimney that is required when using oil lamps.

Like automatons since the 18th century, lanterns originally helped to entertain the nobility. Later, the device began to be used to entertain the common population, while sometimes the “magic lantern” was hidden, and the images were projected onto clouds of smoke, scaring the audience with monsters and evil spirits or telling them various stories at fairs. The Jesuits showed the believers with the help of projection the horrors of the underworld.

The Philosophical Dictionary of Richlet of 1719 gives the following definition of the device: “A small machine that shows various ghosts and terrible monsters in the dark on a white wall; thus, one who does not know the secret thinks that it is done with the help of magical art.

"Solar microscope", as one of the variants of the "magic lantern", was another important step towards the cinema. The device allowed to show color images in motion. Such a device was used in his speeches by Jean-Paul Marat, a doctor and political activist of the era of the Great French Revolution.

Since the 17th-18th centuries, technology has been increasingly used for scientific lectures, for educational work. In 1878, the monthly magazine Magic Lantern began to appear in St. Petersburg, which was intended for public reading using "foggy pictures" - this is another name for the images received from this device.

Presentation in modern terms means a slide show of text, images and graphics. The visual range helps to remember and draw the attention of listeners to certain aspects. Today, the word "presentation" has a clear synonym - PowerPoint. And before every office began to use a lot of computers, there were, for example, overhead projectors. I remember this device from school - they were used fifteen years ago, and they probably continue.

But still pictures are not as interesting as moving pictures. To display the first cartoons, special plates with several frames were used. The spread of this entertainment format has led to the standardization of image media. It was another step on the path of cinematic art. A "lantern" with moving pictures was called a "phenakistiscope", which meant "deceiver" and "look".

The design of the first such device was developed around 1830. And in 1878, the governor of California argued with a photographer whether a galloping horse took all four legs off the ground. Another version of the story says that the photographer was simply fulfilling the order of the governor to analyze the movement of the horse. As a result, twelve cameras placed along the treadmill filmed the movement of the horse. For the best result, the shooting was carried out against the background of a white wall. Then the number of cameras was increased to 24, and a moving image was made from the pictures. The photographer's name was Edward Muybridge, and he was the first to introduce the concept of "frame rate".

The Lumière brothers, who have shown films since 1896, have used 16 frames per second. This was due to the fact that the film flow was 1 foot per second - it was easier to count. And in 1926, with the advent of sound films, a consortium of American film companies introduced the standard of 24 frames per second. This parameter was finally approved by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts in 1932.

In the 19th century, lanterns, which had long ceased to be exclusively high-society entertainment, became available for home use by ordinary (almost) mortals. Lanterns began to be produced more and more often, using a variety of types of cases. There were lanterns in the form of houses, churches and Chinese pagodas, carriages and cars.

Electric overhead projectors replaced oil lamps. In fact, such devices are not much different from the “magic lanterns” of two hundred years ago, except for the automatic scrolling of slides and the presence of a light bulb.

I had PD2 as a child - I recognized it from the photo below.

FD2 overhead projector. Source

Alpha 35-50 slide projector. Source

Svitaz-Auto slide projector. Source: Avito

Filmoscopes were popular in the USSR - this is the same overhead projector, only instead of slides it used roll filmstrips. Did your parents show fairy tales about Chipollino, Aibolit Little Red Riding Hood or even about Alice from the 21st century on the wall before going to bed for some of you?

How to install Magic Lantern on your old macOS Canon DSLR |

Contents

1 My camera problem
2 Magic Lantern Fix
3 Before You Start
4 Installing Magic Lantern from MacOS
5 Closing Comments

adapted to technology. I get frustrated when perceived technical limitations prevent me from using a piece of technology because it could potentially be arbitrary. Secondly, I despise the idea of destroying old hardware simply because its manufacturer considered it obsolete, regardless of the capabilities of the technology.

Magic Lantern provides a workaround for recording longer video segments and has many other upgrades such as audio meters, waveforms, focus change, bitrate control, slow motion and many other improvements.

That's why Magic Lantern is the perfect program to inspire new life into an old DSLR.

Look at the Magic Lantern

My camera problem
Fix the Magic Lantern
Before I start
Installing Magic Lantern from MacOS
Final comments

My camera problem

I have an "old" Canon Rebel t3i DSLR. It takes beautiful photos and can even make some good videos. I say "a little" video because there is a 12 minute video recording time limit that limits its use to short clips.

At the time I was just living with it. Never question the limitation. After all, there must be a good reason why I could only record 12 minutes of 1080p video. Correctly?

Incorrect. The "limitation" was not a camera issue, but a file system issue. The card is formatted with the old obsolete FAT file system. The file system has a 4 GB limit. It just so happens that 12 minutes of 1080p video takes up 4 GB of space. So instead of adding support for larger files using a different file system (the camera can read and write to an exFAT file system that supports larger files), the engineers simply decided to stop video recording up to the 4 GB limit.

As a result, I later switched to other DSLR cameras that can record video of any length needed for my needs, thus setting the t3i aside and unused for years. Until I found a fix.

Magic Lantern fix

I love it when I come across some tweak or software that brings new life to old technology. Magic Lantern is one such program. According to their own wiki, "Magic Lantern is an enhancement to Canon's firmware that frees up your Canon DSLR and allows for many useful features. It is an open (GPL) platform for developing extensions for official software."

Magic Lantern not only provides a workaround for recording longer video segments, but also has many other upgrades such as audio meters, waveforms, focus change, bitrate control, slow motion and many other improvements.

Not only did it solve my video length issue, but it also breathed new life into older hardware, bringing it closer in capabilities to more modern counterparts. I am a happy tourist!

Before you start

As with any other unofficially supported third party software, Magic Lantern may render your camera inoperable if it is installed incorrectly or uses a combination of incompatible settings. Please refer to the Magic Lantern user manual for more information.

Installing the Magic Lantern from MacOS

Installation is simple, but it's important that you follow each step carefully and fully charge your battery or connect to a power source when installing new firmware.

Make sure your Canon camera is set to Instruction Manual (M) mode.
press menu button on your Canon camera.
Go to the third wrench and make sure you have the latest firmware supported by Canon. Please note that you need to download special macOS firmware files to install the official Canon software, so make sure you get the correct ones. You can visit Canon for more details.
Once you have decided on the latest official firmware, go to Magic Lantern Downloads .
Select and click on your camera model .
Click on the Latest Build ZIP file and allow the download to complete.
On your camera, format the SD card using the **Low Level Format** option.
Place your camera's SD card into the SD Card Reader on your Mac.
open finder .
Go to Downloads .
If not already done, unzip the Magic Lanter ZIP file you downloaded.
Double click on magiclantern-Nightly .
Select all files and copy them.
Insert all files into SD card top location.
Throw out your SD Card and put it in the camera.
press menu button on Canon camera.
Go back to the third wrench Settings.
Highlight Firmware .
Click on Installed .
Select yes Install new firmware from SD card. It will look like "Firmware Ver. 1.0.x-ml-Nightly.x"
After prompting turn off the camera.
turn camera back .
press Dustbin or delete button.
Press Installed to accept start the magic lantern.

Because Magic Lantern runs from the SD card, you need to make sure you don't delete the files added above from the SD card in order for Magic Lantern to work. If you change SD cards, then additional enhancements will not be available and you will have to use the camera as usual.

If you plan on using the camera's RAW video capabilities, be aware that you'll need a super-fast SD card that records at over 65MB/s, such as this Lexar SD card.