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Magic Lantern Firmware Wiki

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5D Mark II with Cinevate DSLR rig, juicedLink CX231, SmallHD DP1 and Glidetrack HD on a Bogen 516/3192

Magic Lantern Firmware

Magic Lantern is an open platform for developing enhancements to the amazing Canon 5D Mark II full frame digital SLR. This camera is a "game changer" for independent film makers:

  • It allows the use of a wide range of lenses (anything that can be adapted to the EF mount).
  • The 35mm full-frame sensor is larger than the RED ONE's sensor, Super 35 film. It is approximately the size of VistaVision. This means shallower native depth-of-field than anything on the market, except for the Phantom 65.
  • The dynamic range and latitude are close to the capabilities of high-end HD cameras.
  • The low-light performance is currently unrivaled, even by the RED ONE.

Support the project!

Magic Lantern has been developed by independent film makers in our spare time and at risk to our beloved cameras. We hope that it saves you time and aggravation on set, and we'd appreciate your support. You can help is through donating via PayPal, wishlists or through equipment donations. You can also contact me via email.

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But, the software in video mode has limitations, even after the recent 1.1.0 upgrade from Canon that fixed the most glaring manual exposure "bug".

That's where Magic Lantern comes in -- it turns your 5D Mark II into a 5D Mark Free. We've written extensions and widgets that fix many of the annoyances in working with the 5D Mark II on a film or video set. Our first set of fixes are targeted at the audio limitations of the camera, but there are some video enhancements included, too:

  • On-screen audio meters
  • Manual gain control with no AGC
  • Zebra stripes (video peaking)
  • Custom Cropmarks for 16:9, 2.35:1, 4:3 and any other format
  • Control of focus and bracketing

Beyond those features, however, is the ability to write your own extensions or to commission new ones. Within some limitations, we can fix many of the Canon firmware problems and plan to write widgets to address the requirements of the film users of this amazing camera.

Frequently Asked Questions

Zebra stripes demo

What is it?

Magic Lantern is an enhancement atop of Canon's firmware that makes your 5D Mark II into the 5D Mark Free. It adds new features like onscreen audio meters and zebra stripes, as well as disables the audio AGC. It is an open (GPL) framework for developing extensions to the official software, tailored for film making needs. It does not replace the existing firmware, but instead runs along side of it. There is no need to "uninstall" it -- simply power cycle the camera to reboot to the stock Canon firmware.

Where do I get it?

You can download pre-build firmware files or the GPL licensed sources. This is still a beta version and there are some rough edges.

Will it break my camera?

As of September 2009 the software has been downloaded over two thousand times and there have been no reports of damage to the cameras. While this is no guarantee of absolute safety, the stable releases have been tested by beta testers. Most of the risk is to the developers' cameras while testing new features and probing new portions of Canon's firmware. By the time the software moves from development to beta testing it has been installed hundreds or thousands of times.

What can I do to help?

If you're a programmer skilled in ARM assembly, embedded systems, GUI programming and don't mind risking your expensive camera, join the Magic Lantern devel mailing list, edit the wiki and make improvements.

Where do I report bugs?

For general tech-support, post questions to dvinfo's 5D forum or cinema5d's firmware forum. For bugs and enhancement requests, use the issue tracker.

Can I donate / pay for it?

You can donate via PayPal. I'm also looking for a steadicam and interesting lenses, so if you have any older ones that are no longer being used please let me know. Or you can make a donation to the EFF for me.

When will 24p be available?

Arriflex ST versus the 5D, by Olivier Koos
24p and 25p frame rates are very important for film makers and folks in PAL countries.  Canon has announced a 24/25p upgrade that will be available by mid 2010.

Why not just buy a video camera?

5D Mark II configured for film making with follow focus, matte box, rails, preamp and dolly

If you can find a video camera that a) shoots HD, b) has a 50 mbps data rate, c) has interchangable lenses, d) has a 35 mm or larger sensor and e) costs less than $150k (without lenses, like the CineAlta F35), then buy that one instead. There are limitations to shooting movies on a 5D Mark II, notably the limited 12 minute recording time and lack of balanced audio inputs, but a ArriCam Lite only records 5 minutes of Super 35 and a high quality preamp like the juicedLink CX231 provides balanced inputs. The lack of auto-focus in movie mode isn't a problem either -- movies are focused manually with a follow-focus like the Cinevate Durus.

Will it work on a 7D?

7D being reverse engineered

Short answer: Not yet. Until there is a firmware update for the 7D, it will be difficult to get a firmware dump. It might be possible to generate one with the 5D dumping toolkit, which would allow a very quick port to the 7D. Send me one and I'll get right on it -- thanks to an anonymous donor I have one and have determined the device ID to be 0x80000250 and work is being done on generating a firmware dump via CF or USB.

Will it work on a 40D, 50D, T1i, GH1, etc?

Short answer: No. Longer answer: It is likely that the 50D and T1i are close enough to the 5D Mark 2 that the same techniques can be applied to building similar firmware. The CHDK project successfully supports many different cameras running different operating systems, but finding the necessary kernel entry points is a very time consuming process. Once the 5D Mark Free software is publicly available, some one with the inclination to port it to the 50D can do so. The 40D is similar in hardware, but runs vxWorks and would be lots of effort to support The GH1 is a completely different bit of hardware and would require an entire from-scratch reverse engineering effort. Until Panasonic releases a firmware update it is unlikely that any such efforts can be begun and even then it would require someone with a camera, the inclination and the skills to work on it.

However, there is an effort in reverse engineering the Pentax K10/GX10 and K20/GX20 cameras. As of August 2009 they have been able to decrypt the firmware update and are making progress in understanding how the camera works.

For more questions about the Magic Lantern firmware, see the full FAQ

Downloads

Technical information

See also

Thanks

CHDK 
Without their hard work on understanding Canon's point-and-shoot cameras, this would not have been possible. They did the hard-core reverse engineering on their cameras using only a LED to blink raw machine code and built an entire community on top of it. And since they released it all under the GPL we were able to learn from their efforts.
Jon Fairhurst @ Poorly Projected Pictures 
Jon did the alpha testing to find a decent set of input gains and to compare the Magic Lantern firmware against other recorders. He also handles much of the tech support and has a few thousand posts over at dvinfo.net.
juicedLink 
Robert at juicedLink provided guidance on the audio testing procedures and provided a CX231 preamp for testing.
Cinevate 
Cinevate has donated a matte box and rails system. Their DSLR shooting rigs turn the 5D into a cinematic camera system.
Chris Barcellos @ MYF Media 
Chris does a great job of bravely beta testing the Magic Lantern firmware and has been providing tech support.
SmallHD 
SmallHD has provided a DP1 HDMI field monitor so that Magic Lantern can be extended to support external displays.
Glidetrack 
Glidetrack produces high quality, low cost and very compact tripod mounted tracks for dolly shots. It's amazing how much a tracking shot adds to the cinematic feel.
Donors 
Thanks to everyone who made a donation via PayPal or through equipment donations! You can donate via PayPal to help keep the project going, too.
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