mickeys Loc: Fort Wayne, IN

has anyone used magiclantern's firmware on your camera and how did you like or dislike it. would you recommend it

big-guy Loc: Peterborough Ontario Canada

Been using it for years now on all my cameras and find it to be a Godsend. That said, one must keep in mind that there are so many kewl tools included that it will take quite some time to become adept at using a good chunk of them. Like Photoshop there are many tools you will not need or use so it will take a little bit to figure it all out. I listened to all the doomsayers for almost 2 years before trying it out and kick myself for listening to them all. I have had it installed on 6 cameras now and have not had any problems... Let me clarify, I have had no cameras turn into bricks but on occasion have had the camera lock up which a simple turn off and pull the batteries out solved the problem.

One bad thing is that while listening to the doomsayers I did purchase many second party tools like inter-valometer etc. which are now useless to me and collect dust on the shelf. The instructions can be a little short but do cover the basics so it's just a matter of read, try, adjust, try...A-ha!

Don't like it? Simply remove your SD/CF card and replace with a non ML card and your back to square one. I wouldn't want to live without it.

mickeys Loc: Fort Wayne, IN

ok thanks

mickeys Loc: Fort Wayne, IN

tried it but it wants me to reinstall firmware1.0.1 I have 1.0.2

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Agree with everything Big Guy said - many great additions such as focus pealing, intervalometer, etc., and even more if you shoot video. I was at 1.02 as well, and backreved to 1.01 (or was it 1.03 to 1.02?) to install it. If you look at what’s included in 1.02, it was minimal and didn’t apply to me, so no loss. As I reacall, you need to attach the camera to your computer to backrev after downloading the older FW from the Canon site. No big deal, just can’t backrev in-camera as I recall.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Sounded interesting so I googled it. Seems like it's Canon only and I'm a Nikon guy. Oh, well.............

big-guy Loc: Peterborough Ontario Canada

Yep, sorry all you Nikonites.

foathog Loc: Greensboro, NC

But what's so good about it???? you said absolutely nothing

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Magic Lantern is run-time software, not firmware, it's like an application (app) for a computer or smartphone. It doesn't change the camera's firmware, but is designed to work with it and adds many additional functions to those cameras that it runs on. It is however an 'unofficial' freeware hack, not supported by Canon, with little if any support from the ML community. It is firmware level specific, but that is usually not an issue.

Many of the functions support video use, others add 'mirrorless' like functionality such as focus peaking that Canon doesn't offer on its DSLRs yet. Check the website for full details: http://www.magiclantern.fm/

I have used ML for over 3 years on a T3i and a T2i with much benefit and no problems. I wish there was a version for my 80D.

My biggest wish would be that Canon would implement the ML capabilities themselves, it would increase the value and competitiveness of their cameras.

The other benefit for those that care is that it will display shutter count info for cameras that it runs on.

As is clear, I'm an advocate for ML.

big-guy Loc: Peterborough Ontario Canada

How does one portray volumes of information in just a paragraph or two? If you want to know then I suggest you visit http://www.magiclantern.fm/ and get all the answers to your query.

What is it?

Magic Lantern 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.

Here are just a few of the highlights all built in with no need for second party equipment.

Custom Kelvin whitebalance.
Auto ETTR (Expose To The Right).
Exposure Lock for manual mode.
Quickly switch between two exposure presets.
Manually override exposure settings (movie mode).
Toggle exposure simulation on/off (Liveview).
Zebras for under/over exposed areas.
Focus peaking for quickly checking focus.
Magic Zoom window to fine-tune focus.
Cropmark overlays for 16x9 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.
Full control over H264 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.
Bracketing for exposure, flash, or depth-of-field.
In-camera intervalometer.
Custom bulb timer for extra-long exposures.
Motion detection.
Silent pictures.
Record voice tags for photos / videos.
Trap focus.
Follow focus.
Rack focus.
Custom AF patterns.
Automatic auto-focus microadjustment (DotTune AFMA).
Analog / digital gain adjustments.
Selectable input source.
Toggle wind filter.
Live audio monitoring through with headphones.
WAV recording.
Beep / test tones.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

👍👍👍 Excellent list Big Guy. I’ve used Magic Lantern for several years and some of the features mentioned, such as raw histograms, focus peaking, zebras and the intervalometer have become indispensable to me. Amazing list of useful features for zero cost for Canon users.

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

And for Canon's Powershot cameras, there's CHDK:
http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK_User_Manual
I find it particularly useful for enabling RAW file output on pocket cameras designed for JPEG output only. But as with Magic Lantern, CHDK can do many interesting things.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Yep!

a1demo Loc: San Diego CA.

Was the same for me... love ML