Tips and Tricks for Working with Magic Lantern.

[Chris Barcellos]

In as much as this Magic Lantern is meant to supplement Canon firmware, I think we will all be learning some new tricks in working with Magic Lantern. I hope this thread will be used by those who have had experience to pass on some words of Wisdom. I start with some tips of my own.

First, I've had to think of Magic Lantern, as it currently stands, as a mode to shoot in.

Second, since I use Nikon lenses, I can adjust aperature. No problem there.

Third, at first I thought I could not adjust ISO inside Magic Lantern. But when, pressed ISO, then turned turned the small wheel by the shutter release, I discovered I am changing ISO. You see a very quick flash on the screen as you change. So when you hit the auto, you know 1 click back and you are at 100, etc.

Fourth. shutter speed controll is apparently invoked when you hit the small light bulb button on the top right of camera. Adjust shutter up or down. I didn't see a reporting of what you are selecting in the finder.

And White balance can be pushed and selected show rapid flashes of what White balance mode you are in, again selectable, but this time by rotatin the big wheel.

All these selection still show in the readout on top of the camera.

Finally, as reported by Tramm on the Wiki page, if you go into magnify mode for focusing, the camera will freeze up. You need to act to open camera up and eject battery. In fact Tramm recommends removing the battery after using a Magic Lantern session, to assure it isn't stuck in some routine.

Look forward to hearing what others have learned.

[Mathieu Kassovitz]

It seems to return back in time to those work arounds . . . Isn't it possible to fix these hassles?

[Tramm Hudson]

Originally Posted by Chris Barcellos

First, I've had to think of Magic Lantern, as it currently stands, as a mode to shoot in.

That is a good way to think of it right now. Since the camera reboots into 1.1.0 automatically, it is best to load the new firmware right before pressing record.

Third, at first I thought I could not adjust ISO inside Magic Lantern. But when, pressed ISO, then turned turned the small wheel by the shutter release, I discovered I am changing ISO. You see a very quick flash on the screen as you change. So when you hit the auto, you know 1 click back and you are at 100, etc.

You can still change all the parameters, but the zebra stripes are drawn over top of any menus. Since we're trapping the event messages, it should be possible in the future to detect when Canon's software wants to draw on the screen.

As a work around, if you hit the picture-style button it will stop drawing the zebras and display a small event viewer. Then you can bring up any of the Canon menus and adjust the settings. Once you're done, hit picture-style again to restore the zebras.

The better approach would be to understand Canon's dialog creation code and create legitimate DryOS dialogs rather than writing directly into the bitmap overlay video memory.

Finally, as reported by Tramm on the Wiki page, if you go into magnify mode for focusing, the camera will freeze up. You need to act to open camera up and eject battery. In fact Tramm recommends removing the battery after using a Magic Lantern session, to assure it isn't stuck in some routine.

Are you running the latest Magic Lantern 0.1.3 from the wiki? A bug related to the magnify function was fixed late last night before the official announcement. That was the last show-stopper before going live.

[Chris Barcellos]

Tramm:

After announcement, I went back to page, and it still linked me to the earlier version.

Maybe I hadn't refreshed, but I will be sure to update.

Thanks again for all the hard work.

[Tramm Hudson]

Originally Posted by Chris Barcellos

After announcement, I went back to page, and it still linked me to the earlier version. Maybe I hadn't refreshed, but I will be sure to update.

The mercurial revision id should be "58e322d6 tip" for the official 0.1.3 release. If there is a "+" after the hex digits, it indicates that you don't have build from a clean checkout and it is from my work tree.

Since the splash screen is only displayed for a few seconds at boot and the 48-bit ID is in a really small font, I added a way to bring it back up by hitting the "Picture style" button when the Magic Lantern firmware is running. This will also bring up an event viewer so that you can see the raw hardware events as they are generated.

[James Miller]

Great work Tramm, I have been playing around with this today and using the 'Picture Style' button to change menus is a good tip. I have noticed that the inbuilt mic only records sound for 1 second or less, is this normal (Not that anything is normal in a beta release) ;)

Using the zebra bar outside in bright light without a loupe is a treat, excellent.

Thanks James

[Chris Barcellos]

James:

Camera mic goes of line. It is not in loop, because the main purpose of this set up is getting good sound it through mic input, and monitored through AV out. Camera mic is off. Recording with regular 1.10 is recommended when you want to use camera mic.


Tramm:

I have managed to get 0.1.3 board now, and the improvements and use of Picture style button, is a great enhancement from 0.1.2. Very nice.

[Tramm Hudson]

Originally Posted by James Miller

I have noticed that the inbuilt mic only records sound for 1 second or less, is this normal (Not that anything is normal in a beta release) ;)

Yes, that is Canon's doing. The mvr_rec_start() function re-writes all of the audio device parameters when it starts recording and 1 second later my thread sets them all back to the way that I want them.

Using the zebra bar outside in bright light without a loupe is a treat, excellent.

Are they triggering at about the right level for you? I took at guess at the YUV setting for when to make them appear, but do not know how close it is to 100% IRE.

[Chris Barcellos]

Some of us have bought some of the cheap batteries out of asia for back up shooting. It appears that at this point, that the booting sequence for Tramms software is interrupted by the Cameras battery identification and query, and then the camera reboots in 1.10. So you should use your real Canon batteries until future releases correct that.

Tramm: I also tested AC power unit today to see how that worked. It boots in Magic Lantern fine.

[Tramm Hudson]

Originally Posted by Chris Barcellos

Some of us have bought some of the cheap batteries out of asia for back up shooting. It appears that at this point, that the booting sequence for Tramms software is interrupted by the Cameras battery identification and query, and then the camera reboots in 1.10. So you should use your real Canon batteries.

What is likely happening is that the camera is not ready to go into LiveView mode when my thread calls FA_LiveView() after sleeping for a few seconds. We can probably detect the event in the dispatch handler and prevent it from being emitted so that the prompting never happens. I can build you a firmware that just dumps the event log after a few seconds, which might provide enough debugging to determine which event(s) needs to be supressed.

[Chris Barcellos]

Originally Posted by Tramm Hudson

What is likely happening is that the camera is not ready to go into LiveView mode when my thread calls FA_LiveView() after sleeping for a few seconds. We can probably detect the event in the dispatch handler and prevent it from being emitted so that the prompting never happens. I can build you a firmware that just dumps the event log after a few seconds, which might provide enough debugging to determine which event(s) needs to be supressed.

Sure thing I am game for it. PM or email me.

[Victor Bieganek]

Just wanted to say thanks.