Magic Lantern

[RustBeltRaw]

For stills, I only use ML when shooting in Live View. That means when I'm using a tripod, which means I don't use it often. But like many camera features, it's useless until it's the perfect tool. And I use it almost continuously when shooting video. I've messed around with the bracketing and intervalometer features, but haven't really produced any CiC-worthy results yet. So far, I like it. The UI lacks polish, but it works very well once you understand its quirks.

[inkista]

Orlando: you're very welcome. Have fun! My favorite features of ML are focus peaking and Magic Zoom and having a built-in intervalometer.

Kathy thanks.
I check ML pages fairly infrequently and was aware of the 2 processor issue. I too am cautious. My 7D is my workhorse so I'm very leery about compromising it. That said, what Ive seen an read about ML makes me want to try it. Just have to be patient a bit longer..... James

I know the feeling. It felt like it took them forever to add the 50D to the list of supported models. Just hang in there. Those guys are amazing and if they want to port it to the 7D they'll port it to the 7D. The build I'm actually most curious about (also still in alpha) is the one for the EOS M. Given how the prices on the EOS M have begun to plummet, the addition of ML could make it a much tastier proposition.

[pauluk]

Yes it was the bootflag which puzzled me for months it turned out that you had to be av tv etc not auto when you set it up it would have been nice if that was made clear but it is totally worth having even if you only use a couple of the features and it is so easy to install the colour temp, intervalometer sound settings stack focusing and so much more are really good .

[orlcam88]

Yes it was the bootflag which puzzled me for months it turned out that you had to be av tv etc not auto when you set it up it would have been nice if that was made clear but it is totally worth having even if you only use a couple of the features and it is so easy to install the colour temp, intervalometer sound settings stack focusing and so much more are really good .

I've been using it a lot for HDR these past few days. I had to make adjustments to it as there was a delay between shots. I turned off both auto and enfuse script and that speed it up. Not sure which causes the delay, so I have to try it out.

The one benefit of having it on is just noise reduction. It improves upon noise reduction on higher ISO. I took some shots at 3200 and zoomed in. Noise wasn't as visible as without magic lantern. I'll have to see how it looks on my screen when I get home to verify and see if there's any loss in sharpness. But if this is the case, then just for that, it's worth it. More to come later in the week.

[orlcam88]

When I installed ML on one of my cards (8 gb) I made some setting changes to create raw images. When I switched cards, and copy the ML file to a larger one (64 gb), my setting changes didn't stay. So, it appears that if you make changes with on card, it won't save between cards. So, all of my photo's came out as jpeg.

Anyway, using gimp I included a 100% crop of a photo to show noise. Not a great test as I wanted to see how it'll look in Raw but here it is anyway. Below is the crop and full size. No adjustments made, not even alignment:

settings:
ISO 3200
High ISO speed noise reduction at Low
100% CROP


full size image (cropped for this post)


The full size without reducing the image can be found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/orlcam8...57633768799948

[orlcam88]

here are some HDR examples.
No adjustments (alignment, saturation, sharpening, noise reduction etc) made other than running enfuse GUI software: http://software.bergmark.com/enfusegui/Main.html.

The below was set to the default HDR setting on camera w. Which is auto images (resulted in taking 4 images), auto ISO, and create an enfuse script (on camera).
This cause each shot with about a 2-3 second delay. I'm guess that the setting for auto images is causing the delay because when I turn it off, the shots where in quick succession in the next photo.
You can see some ghosting as the Geese on the bottom left were moving when I took the shot. You can also see how windy it is, as the trees where not too sharp. I kinda like that effect though.


The next photo below is composed of 6 images I set on camera and using enfuse software. The day was very breezy when I took this and it did a great job of blending. I turned off auto adjust and enfuse scripting (on camera). I set the images to 6 exposures at -2/+2 steps. ISO was set to auto. These shots where in quick succession.

What I found impressive was lack of noise in the end result. The sun glare was done on purpose as I like this effect. I didn't want to touch it up as I wanted to show how well it works as is.


So far I touched on just 2 of the many settings of this free software. Besides some side effects concerning settings when using different cards I find ML a keeper as it just improved my camera for free!!!!!! I feel like I just bought a new camera.

I'm not much into video but there are a lot of settings for video. Even HDR video.

http://www.magiclantern.fm/

[inkista]

I'm not much into video but there are a lot of settings for video. Even HDR video.

The HDR video isn't what a lot of folks expect.

ML basically switches the ISO between frames, to get you the EV interval you set up. You need a workflow that can take the resulting video file, split it apart into individual frames, and then combine pairs of frames either with an HDR or enfuse workflow, and then take the combined frames and reintegrate them back to a video.