Magic Lantern
Monday, June 22, 2009 at 10:52AM Thanks to Mik for the comment that brought this to my attention. Magic Lantern is a firmware hack for the Canon 5D Mark II that enables the following features:
- Onscreen audio meters
- Zebra stripes
- Crop marks
- Manual audio level controls
- Lower noise than stock firmware
- Possibly messing up your nice camera
I don’t quite know what to make of this, other than to point out the obvious: filmmakers are so keen on making this camera work for them that they’re willing to void their warrantees and risk ruining their cameras.
It reminds me of what Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) said in Jurassic Park: “Life… finds a way.”
Personally, I’d rather have a peaking focus assist than audio level control. I don’t mind doing dual system with this camera. But the zebra feature is great, as are the crop marks.
If the Magic Lantern guys figure out 24p I may just have to install it, but until that day I’ll hold out hope that Canon will beat them to it.
Stu
Good and usefull comments below, including one from Ville that links to a FAQ and prompted me to strike out the line about voiding your warrantee.
Reader Comments (10)
I'm just wondering why 24p wasn't the first hack on their list. That alone would have been good enough.
Music Video Shot with D90
My guess is the video processing chip does not support at all or easily support other frame rates, so it probably requires considerable work to get 24p even it it is possible. I agree that given the often too-short-depth of field, focusing aid would have been most important after 24p.
It's not "them" - it's just one guy doing the hack, and it does not void camera's warranty either, just switch the camera off and it will boot to original firmware.
here is a nice FAQ:
http://cinema5d.com/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=2494
Hudson said "... And if it breaks your camera, you get to keep both pieces"
I just about fell off my chair laughing, you can use the 5D as a nice paper weight then. If that happened, I think I would cry myself to sleep every night .... lol
'J-Dog
I wonder if this site will ever be about anything other than boring little still cameras again. That'd be awesome.
The rumors when I started on hacking the 5D was that Canon's new firmware was going to fix the video issues (exposure, fps, etc), but not the audio, so it made sense to start with the audio issues. The other reason audio fixes were done first is that the AK4646 has a full spec-sheet available, while the DIGIC4 is 100% undocumented.
I wrote a contrast edge detection algorithm to go along with the zebras, but it wasn't very good, so I didn't ship it in the 0.1.3 beta release. I plan to go back to fix that, along with trying to enable digital zoom while recording and full-res HDMI output when I have a field monitor to test with.
24p is a "who knows" feature for Magic Lantern. Maybe it can be done. Maybe not. But without any documentation on the DIGIC, I would put money on Canon releasing something first.
Thanks for the info Hudson! An edge-detect focus assist option would be killer.
Well now I know, and knowing is half the battle. I was thinking maybe a patent search could provide some documentation on the DIGIC...
Sorry, but to what "Lower noise than stock firmware" are you referring here? Excuse my ignorance, but I don't understand this point. I think there is nothing about it on the wiki either.
Noise comment is about audio noise. Magic Lantern disables the Auto Gain Control on the audio circuit.