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Messages - Meloware

#1
An update:
I am grateful for the modifications in ML made to support this thread. I am still planning to make a video explaning my setup, but in the mean time it might be okay to post a link to an 8mm movie film I copied with the EOS-M, using these special Magic Lantern builds. My final post-processing was done in Blender, and the resulting frame sequence was encoded with Avidemux and uploaded to YouTube. Please enjoy!  https://youtu.be/CZevC9i2JGU
#2
This is great! Thank you for starting this. It is really the level of introduction I need.

Don't local variables normally only need to be defined within the function which uses them? In hello.c you seem to be defining a local(?) variable after the #include statements.

/* Config variables. They are used for persistent variables (usually settings).
*
* In modules, these variables also have to be declared as MODULE_CONFIG.
*/
static CONFIG_INT("hello.count", hello_count, 0);


I guess the first thing the module does when loaded is to execute the commands listed at the end. These are the MODULE_INFO and MODULE_CONFIGS commands. The MODULE_CONFIGS seems to be registering the hello_count declared at the beginning of hello.c .
MODULE_CONFIGS_START()
    MODULE_CONFIG(hello_count)
MODULE_CONFIGS_END()


Could you please explain this some more? Do all variables need to be defined in this way?

static CONFIG_INT("hello.count", hello_count, 0);
has 3 elements within the parenthesis and MODULE_CONFIG has only a reference to hello_count. What are these three elements?
Let's say that I needed an integer variable, named "temp" in this module. How would this new variable be setup in the same module?

***
As far as your feedback questions, my answer is "yes, I want all of that". Once I learn more, I may become more specific. For my movie transfer, I would be very interested in how an image is saved or a frame is added to an MLV video. How might the code know when the camera is ready for another exposure? What is known about the DMA channel? Of course, one must first learn to crawl, before they may be expected to walk.
#3
This works great for my purposes! Using my EOS M, dfort's build, and a SanDisk Ultra HC1 SD memory:
Full Resolution cycle time (from audio trigger to ready for next exposure) is about 6.47 seconds (saved to MLV video file).
Simple Resolution cycle time is about 2.7 seconds.

Theoretically, this means a 10 minute sound film can be copied in 26 hours (in full resolution). (Don't gasp! That is actually practical when expensive equipment isn't tied up in doing the work).
8mm movie frames are much lower resolution, and those transfers may not benefit from FRSP. A Silent/Simple resolution transfer will be 60% faster than FRSP.

With Silent/Simple mode (and LiveView), the camera is no longer dropping into standby, based on the LCD powersave timer. This can't be an accident! You fixed that, as well, right?

I'd like to develop this application to the point where I can define it and publish it. With these features, ML can now offer an important, affordable way for historic, non-profit organizations to perform digital transfer of their movies and create digital collections of fragile books and documents! My earlier post mentioned using an Arduino or Raspberry Pi, as a next generation system controller. Arduino seems to be more inclined to market kits with specific functions, where I need to quickly design and build a hardware controller. Pi may be the way to go.

I now have a Oracle VM now capable of building ML. I was able to compile unified and run it in my camera. I haven't had the nerve to modify any code yet, but as I learn more I may hope to have some intelligent optimization questions. Unfortunately, the older cameras don't seem to support the newer generation, faster SD memories' high speed functionality.

Thank you again for the great support, and I hope to soon be able to offer some video and documentation of the valued uses for this feature!
#4
I am beginning to think about building other render stations for some of the 8mm formats. My controller was built out of my TTL parts drawer and it proves how far behind the times I am. A Raspberry Pi (or Arduino as a1ex suggested) would be far easier to use, these days, and I would be able to publish a design which would be easier for everyone to duplicate. All the clock, sense and control signals could be done, with the Pi, and could even support different modes of operation. The only other components would be the projector's optical shutter position sensor, the stepping motor, the $12 Chinese stepping motor controller, and power supply.

A big question is if the camera can be made to send ML control messages out of it's USB port. I agree with dfort that it should be the camera that needs to be master in this system. Everything else can wait until the camera is ready, but without a "camera ready" signal, the system needs to rely on a "worst case" dumb timer. Has anybody been able to make any use of the camera's USB port? All of the cameras, in the ML family, have USB, right? This has some real potential. Please speak up if you have some experience accessing the camera's USB interface. I am a long ways away from trying to tackle this, myself.

As an alternative, the code-pulsed LED is awkward, primitive, but doable with known ML function calls. A Raspberry Pi could help here, too, but a true USB connection would obviously be superior. The IR remote is only an input, right? Even if it was to be used as a exposure trigger, it still wouldn't serve for a "camera ready" status signal.

In the mean time, thanks for the continued effort in dealing with the Live View issue.
#5
A1ex: thank you and dfort's patience with my somewhat ignorant questions. I very much appreciate your efforts to solidify the use of Live View and audio triggers, and didn't fully realize the recent posts on this thread were working on just that.

I am not sure you understand my context in mentioning "Cycle Time" and the use of a flash shoe without also triggering the shutter. My work with these Canon cameras and ML are to produce a poor man's movie film transfer and digital restoration system. ML allows budget minded, professional quality transfer, and Blender's compositor feature allows an amazing set of post production tools, before the result is sent for final rendering in AVI Demux.

A ten minute sound film requires 14,400 individual frames to be captured in the camera. This number of cycles would destroy the shutter of my 650D, and to my horror, the mirror-less EOS M still employs mechanical components which would quickly wear out under this kind of use. My only option, with these cameras, is ML and the Silent Pictures feature.

Although I am recording raw video, the system is synchronized to only take one exposure for each frame of film.

With so many frames, it takes days of frame by frame image capture to digitize an average movie. My definition of the term "Cycle Time" refers to the interval required for the camera to capture an image, save it, and then recover and be ready for the next frame. The MLV_Rec feature is great and allows frame capture at a rate superior to saving individual DNG images. My film capture system would still benefit greatly from any improvement in the time it takes to save images.

The flash shoe question was related to my quest to find a way for the camera to indicate to my external equipment that it is ready for the next exposure. As a SD memory fills, it takes longer and longer to save each successive frame. Right now, my system has to "guess" when the camera is ready, before it initiates an exposure. This worst case guess is what defines my cycle time, for each frame. If I could generate a machine readable "yes, I'm ready" signal, that would be my trigger to initiate another exposure (rather than using a worst case dumb timer). I had hoped I might use the flash shoe switch closure to signal this. If that use isn't possible, my only other option would be to flicker the camera's status LED in a machine readable pattern, and have a photocell or photodiode sense the event and signal my equipment.

Between you and dfort, I appreciate you addressing most of my earlier questions. I will wait now for you guys to have something to test.

The only remaining issue from my earlier post, is the problem of preventing my EOS M from dropping into Power Save standby, when recording in Silent Pictures/Simple resolution. This mode would be very useful and fast for 8mm capture. Simple resolution may be about all standard 8mm needs, given it's very small frame area. It seems that the camera drops into power save standby, as defined by the LCD timeout value. Could this be over-ridden when using the camera in forced Live View? Keep your priorities, but please also consider this one in due time.
#6
Walter Shulz:
QuoteFirst test with 650D and 7D:
FRSP with Audio RemoteShot working.
I there a build, for the 650D, which implements Forced Live view (with audio trigger) 650D? Did I miss this?

I am trying to determine the status of  dfort's Forced LiveView modifications. I am currently using dfort's
magiclantern-Meloware.2017Mar03.EOSM202 build.

Is the modified source for this build available?
Are these features going to make it into the unified branch?


This build fixed the problem of the camera dropping into standby (while in FRSP) from the timer set by the LCD display powersave value. I have found that same problem exist with Silent Pictures in Simple mode.

Is it easy to prevent the Powersave timeout on Silent/Simple resolution, as well?

Currently, with the EOS M, the total exposure cycle for FRSP (recording to MLV) is about 6.5 seconds. I'd love to have this faster, but it is actually similar to the cycle time of my 650D and a true remote half-shutter trigger. The Simple resolution (with the EOS M and audio trigger) cycle time is about 2.6 seconds. It is harder to measure with the 650D, but it may be faster. I realize the memory chips used may affect this, but both of these cameras only seem to support first generation SD cards.

Is there any likely way of improving this cycle (or write) time, in the near future?

The write cycle times for these SD chips increases as the memory fills. Without access to a "camera ready" signal, the worst case scenario needs to be guessed at and set. I had hoped to modify the use of the flash shoe to re-task as a "camera ready" status output. Any flash related code I can find is intimately tied to the shutter operation.

Is there any known possibility of forcing a flash event, without involving the shutter?

The only other possibility I might see, is in generating some kind of flashing semaphore with the status LED, and detecting it with a photocell and external electronics.

The Lua scripting has a well documented API. I have not seen any documentation for an API which directly accesses the Canon functions (presumably as would be needed in writing the modules).

Could you please tell me where the Canon functions are defined? Are they all known?

My camera had to sit on the shelf for two years, before I found my needed functionality in Magic Lantern. Thank you for the support and I hope to see great stuff continue to be developed.
#7
Interesting. There is a different report of error messages, but it seems to fail in the same place. Below is the output just before the trouble starts. In both cases, the build fails after the script checks tcc. With the entire cygwin directory replaced, it is a challenge think of where else to look.
Was this zipfile made on a Mac? Every file in the zip was considered encrypted on Windows 7. It took three hours for Explorer to change all the attributes and allow it to run. This "encryption fix" works much faster with 7z, but I needed to try both to see if the error was identical.
I also tried to make a build for the 650D and 700D cameras, and they also failed at the same point.

I am now able to compile ML after installing an Oracle VM Virtual Linux Box. Unless other people have this problem, it may not be worth spending effort solving. Still, I wish I knew why this didn't work. There is still no certainty that this current failure is related to the problem I had to start with.

make[1]: Entering directory '/home/chris/magic-lantern/tcc'
make[1]: Nothing to be done for 'all'.
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/chris/magic-lantern/tcc'
[ CC       ]   module.o
[ AR       ]   strrchr.o
[ AR       ]   dietlibc.a
[ AR       ]   lib_a-setjmp.o
[ AR       ]   newlib-libc.a
[ CP       ]   newlib-libm.a
[ CP       ]   gcc-libgcc.a
[ LD       ]   magiclantern
[ SYMBOLS  ]   magiclantern.sym
/bin/sh: /usr/bin/awk: cannot execute binary file: Exec format error
[ CP       ]   EOSM_202.sym
[ CP       ]   install
[ VERSION  ]   ../../platform/EOSM.202/version.bin
/usr/bin/hg: line 10: import: command not found
/usr/bin/hg: line 11: import: command not found
/usr/bin/hg: line 13: syntax error near unexpected token `'HGUNICODEPEDANTRY','
/usr/bin/hg: line 13: `if os.environ.get('HGUNICODEPEDANTRY', False):'
/usr/bin/hg: line 10: import: command not found
/usr/bin/hg: line 11: import: command not found
/usr/bin/hg: line 13: syntax error near unexpected token `'HGUNICODEPEDANTRY','
/usr/bin/hg: line 13: `if os.environ.get('HGUNICODEPEDANTRY', False):'
../../src/Makefile.src:312: recipe for target '../../platform/EOSM.202/version.bin' failed
make: *** [../../platform/EOSM.202/version.bin] Error 2

chris@melo2 ~/magic-lantern/platform/EOSM.202
$
#8
I see the same problem, after following these specific instructions.

I did check the version of gcc, which was installed by the instructions in your main post, with the command: gcc --version

It reported that I have gcc version 5.4.0, and not 4.8.3 as seems to be what is recommended. Could this be the trouble?
#9
I have been all day on this, as well as annoying dfort, and still without progress. I am unable to install Cygwin, etc., according to dfort's post http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=15894.0 and successfully build ML.

My system is Windows 7 Pro (I7 24GB ram). All of the files I needed were downloaded today. I have followed dfort's instructions for a 32 bit install, copying and pasting all the command line examples he has provided. All appeared to proceed normally, and I presume the install was properly finished once the unified version was cloned out of https://bitbucket.org/hudson/magic-lantern was done.

Desiring a build for the EOS M, I went to \home\chris\magic-lantern\platform\EOSM.202, with my Cygwin 32 terminal, and typed:
make zip

Dfort tried the same procedure today, and made a successful build. He then emailed me the console report of the build process.

My experience was identical, until after a bit after the message 
make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/chris/magic-lantern/tcc
was generated. Trouble seems to begin at the line:
[ LD       ]   magiclantern

Below is my printout following the exit from the tcc directory. Everything prior to the following lines were essentially identical to dfort's successful build. Notice that none of the symbols defined within tcc seem to be understood. HELP! I have attempted a fresh install twice and still get the same error. I am ready to be shamed for doing something dumb, if someone is willing to show a path to success.

make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/chris/magic-lantern/tcc'
[ CC       ]   module.o
[ AR       ]   strrchr.o
[ AR       ]   dietlibc.a
[ AR       ]   lib_a-setjmp.o
[ AR       ]   newlib-libc.a
[ CP       ]   newlib-libm.a
[ CP       ]   gcc-libgcc.a
[ LD       ]   magiclantern
module.o: In function `module_load_symbols.constprop.2':
module.c:(.text+0xebc): undefined reference to `tcc_add_symbol'
module.o: In function `_module_load_all':
module.c:(.text+0xf2c): undefined reference to `tcc_new'
module.c:(.text+0xf38): undefined reference to `tcc_set_options'
module.c:(.text+0xf5c): undefined reference to `tcc_delete'
module.c:(.text+0xf98): undefined reference to `tcc_delete'
module.c:(.text+0x11b4): undefined reference to `tcc_delete'
module.c:(.text+0x11f0): undefined reference to `tcc_add_file'
module.c:(.text+0x1250): undefined reference to `tcc_relocate'
module.c:(.text+0x127c): undefined reference to `tcc_relocate'
module.c:(.text+0x12e4): undefined reference to `tcc_delete'
module.c:(.text+0x1350): undefined reference to `tcc_get_symbol'
module.c:(.text+0x1378): undefined reference to `tcc_get_symbol'
module.c:(.text+0x13a0): undefined reference to `tcc_get_symbol'
module.c:(.text+0x13c8): undefined reference to `tcc_get_symbol'
module.c:(.text+0x13f0): undefined reference to `tcc_get_symbol'
module.o:module.c:(.text+0x16e0): more undefined references to `tcc_get_symbol' follow
module.o: In function `_module_load_all':
module.c:(.text+0x1740): undefined reference to `tcc_delete'
module.o: In function `module_load_task':
module.c:(.text+0x1a0c): undefined reference to `tcc_load_offline_section'
module.o: In function `module_load':
module.c:(.text+0x1ad0): undefined reference to `tcc_new'
module.c:(.text+0x1adc): undefined reference to `tcc_set_options'
module.c:(.text+0x1b00): undefined reference to `tcc_delete'
module.c:(.text+0x1b14): undefined reference to `tcc_add_file'
module.c:(.text+0x1b28): undefined reference to `tcc_relocate'
module.c:(.text+0x1b38): undefined reference to `tcc_delete'
module.o: In function `module_get_symbol':
module.c:(.text+0x1b58): undefined reference to `tcc_get_symbol'
module.o: In function `module_exec':
module.c:(.text+0x1b80): undefined reference to `tcc_get_symbol'
module.o: In function `module_unload':
module.c:(.text+0x1cfc): undefined reference to `tcc_delete'
make: *** [../../src/Makefile.src:195: magiclantern] Error 1

chris@melo2 ~/magic-lantern/platform/EOSM.202
$
#10
Thanks! It runs forever now.
#11
I might have similar skills to dfort (but less experience on ML), and am willing to try and help out any way I can. I am east coast US, have an EOS M, and 650D, have written a couple of thousand lines of code, and am responsible for this last round of trouble.

For my application, fast cycle time is top priority and power is not an issue. I have been monitoring the Silent Pictures status (especially frame count to estimate remaining capacity) and using the last message to determine when I can take the next exposure. I mentioned earlier in the thread that it would be great to have a "camera ready" signal. It occurred to me that this might not be too hard!

After the current exposure is saved, why not use the flash mount to signal a "camera ready" event? These cursed memories take varying times to save frames and I currently need to wait for the worst case write times. As the chip fills, the time it takes to save gets longer and longer. If the flash shoe could trigger, once the camera was ready for another exposure, then the automation could run reliably and as fast as possible! I would use the "camera ready" signal, instead of relying on a guessing analog timer. In addition, There might be menu option to set a maximum frame count desired for the session, and once the count expired, "camera ready" would no longer be asserted. I could load the thing up, and go to bed! The system would stop recording when the memory was full and the next movie frame would be in place for the next blank chip. Is this dreaming or getting too greedy?
#12
dfort, thanks for the new build. I understand this version addresses the intervalometer, but did make some observations. The status messages are still wiped out and unreadable, as before, with the silent pictures and audio trigger. However, the intervalometer maintains an display of the timer interval and total frame count. Maybe it would be easier to use this same method to provide me with a running frame count and memory use status line! I don't care where the message comes from, as long as it is there.

The other observation is that the camera never drops back into standby, due to the LCD Powersave timer. This latest build still drops into standby, when using silent and audio trigger. Why does my combination of features get affected and not the intervalometer?
#13
Quote from: miket on February 24, 2017, 03:44:14 PM
I am very interested in using ML to transfer a collection of family films.  I have been following the 12/10 video bit thread closely and wanted to ask if the video mode frame rate can be externally clocked (not advanced by an internal timer) to accomplish the film capture.
Mike

miket, I am not familiar with all the technical detail you were providing with your post. My choice of Canon cameras are largely due to the APS-C image sensor and the fact that they may be used with ML. Both my EOS M as well as my T4i/650D have native HD video recording modes in 1080p. What format are you family films in? My gut says 8mm is less quality than HD and that 16mm can benefit from HD. My goal in this forum is to get folks to appreciate the benefit of supporting this application and to help assist in the changes needed to support the very inexpensive EOS M for frame by frame capture.

Big frame images take a large amount of memory and processing time. Raw frame capture in very large images won't be possible in real time film running because of the amount of data involved. My frame by frame system steps the projector a frame at a time (with a stepping motor) and operates the camera with my home built controller. The speed of the system is largely limited because of the amount of data required by these raw images. If this is what you want, please help me in encouraging ML development in this direction.

If you want fast, quick and dirty, why not use a simple film chain? I doubt the 8mm format beats 1080p, and the only forgivable issue may be the rolling brightness from the projector shutter. These cameras will operate without a lens attached. Take your film projector, replace the projection lamp with a good daylight color LED bulb, and focus the projector on the camera sensor. Then, just shoot 1080p video. Here is an example with 8mm. It is not perfect, but it is fast and easy. https://youtu.be/TtCu1tHlCk8
#14
General Help Q&A / Re: Silent Pictures with the EOS M
February 28, 2017, 01:06:49 AM
My only camera is the 650D. The EOS M has no lens, and I have no smart phone. I want to support you in any way possible, but am not sure how watching my system run might help.

The 650D remote shutter jack has two contacts. One is the shutter, the other is the Half-Shutter.

I start a job by button pressing into live view (with Silent and MLV_Rec enabled). I then start my external controller. The controller forces the stepping motor (on the projector) to begin running to advance the next film frame. An optical switch stops the stepper when the beam is broken, by the shutter wheel, signaling my system that another frame is ready to capture. The controller then asserts a long "half shutter" switch closure, which begins the camera cycle, and takes the picture.

At this time, I also start  a "wait for the camera to be ready, again" timer. This is the timer I set by hand by watching for the appearance of the "long half shutter for next exposure" message. Once the "long half-shutter message" appears, the camera leaves the display on long enough to clearly read the message, and then the LCD goes black. My manually set "wait for the camera to be ready, again" timer expires and trips the controller's "kick timer", starting the stepper again and the next cycle begins.

I only button press into Live View once, at the beginning when I install a blank memory chip. From that point on, the only action on the camera will be the "long half-shutter" remote trigger from the controller.

I am pretty sure it is the LCD Powersave timer which is shutting down the EOS M. The camera is dropping into standby and I can control when this happens by changing options for the LCD in the powersave menu. If this is coming from the Powersave, the option is to provide an extremely long timeout (two days?), provide an option to disable it from the menu, or have it automatically disabled when the camera is operated in this mode.

As far as speeding up the cycle goes, I guess it depends entirely on what the camera is doing, and when. My experience with the 650D/T4i is that the camera is ready for another exposure as soon as the "long half-shutter" message appears. As I mentioned, the EOS M won't audio trigger until Live View is again active and the "Audio Release On" message appears. I certainly hope the overall exposure cycle can be shortened. Right now (with dfort's hack) it is about 8 seconds. Is 4 seconds possible?

This is incredibly frustrating! Canon puts a large, professional quality APS-C image sensor, in the camera, and then doesn't let you use it. I got the EOS M because my application doesn't require an SLR or even a shutter. Oh Boy, a mirrorless camera! I can shoot forever, right? Wrong... the thing still has mechanical components that wear out. One hundred thousand cycles may sound like a lot, but that is only around three 12 minute films, for me. Magic Lantern works great with my 650D, but I wish I could free it up and use my new EOS M. ML is my best hope for a solution.
#15
General Help Q&A / Re: Silent Pictures with the EOS M
February 26, 2017, 07:41:31 PM
Dfort, this is great! Hack or not, we now have Silent Pictures MLV video recording, on the EOS M and triggered by the audio. Here is a summary of what I found so far:

Camera: EOS M
ML build: magiclantern-Meloware-hack.2017Feb25.EOSM202

Canon Menu setup:
Image Quality – RAW
Image Review – Hold
Power Saving: (LCD auto off: 1 min), (Camera auto off: Disable)

ML modules enabled: mlv_rec, silent
ML features setup: Silent Picture (Full-res, MLV), Audio Remote Shot: ON (level 10)

External trigger is a audio loop, connected into the camera's microphone jack. There is a 200 ms 1000Hz burst followed by 7.8 sec of silence.

About 1 second after the tone burst, the display announces the first messages produced by the exposure. This message only appears for an instant and is therefore unreadable. The captured imaged then draws (which is probably what eliminates the initial message). At about 3.8 seconds, the summary data flashes on screen, which contains the over all frame count and total SD memory use. This is also where the message about using a long "half shutter" appears.

Of the two message events, the last one is most important. I monitor the LCD with a webcam along with a second webcam which continuously views the equipment (in case something unexpected happens). I watch these two displays from another room, while watching television or doing other work. The last status message tells me when the chip is getting full and needs to be exchanged. If the system runs beyond the memory capacity, I lose part of the film and need to waste time recovering.

The system exposure interval is hand adjusted on my own controller and it is set (by eye) to occur just after the appearance of the "long half shutter" message. This interval is generally around 6 seconds, depending on the write speed of the SD memory. The "long half shutter" message is my visual clue that the camera is ready for another exposure (too bad there is no "camera ready" signal to tap into).

With this build, the camera is unable to cycle again until the appearance of the "Audio Release On" message, which occurs about 7.8 seconds after the start of the tone burst.

Summary:

Show Stopper! The LCD powersaver remains active and stops the recording after it times out. It cannot be disabled in the main menu and effectively needs to be. A 64 GB SD card takes over three hours to fill and 128 GB obviously more. In order to be practical, the system needs to run unattended for these kinds of times.

The exposure cycle time for this build is 8 seconds. This is two seconds slower than I currently have with the 650D and a remote shutter. Every second counts when you need to copy 30,000 frames for a 12 minute film. With this build, the "long half shutter" message occurs 4 seconds before the "Audio Release On" message. I am presuming the current frame is saved once the "long half shutter" message appears, so waiting another 4 seconds before you can take another exposure may be a big waste of precious time. Please investigate how fast the camera may be made to recover. I am hoping this can be twice as fast without too much trouble.

The final message, containing the "long half shutter", frame count, and used memory are important to see in order to know when the system needs servicing. Can this be made to linger long enough to clearly read? The captured image and initial message are of little importance as compared to this last message.

This build runs reliably, otherwise! I am grateful for ML's support and interest. I hope to publicize the value of your project. Your work makes possible professional quality digital archiving of museum collections, on a budget affordable to most of us. Aside from movie transfer, high volume copying of fragile books, ledgers, and other documents (too fragile for the flatbed scanner), will now be possible.

I hope this application is an unexpected and welcome surprise to your group!

Chris Clawson
Museum of Our Industrial Heritage
http://industrialhistory.org

#16
General Help Q&A / Re: Silent Pictures with the EOS M
February 26, 2017, 03:31:32 AM
QuoteWhat I discovered works, though it is exactly what you don't want, is to turn off image review. The first audio event will take a shot, the next audio event will reset, next will take a shot, etc. just like it does with your 650D setup.
Instead of "Live View" we might call this "Blind View". This Blind View RAW recording does work, but only to a point. Even though the Image Review feature is disabled, the LCD powersave timer is still active, and cannot be disabled from the main menu. Eventually the timer value expires and the camera goes into standby. Camera Auto Off can be completely disabled, but the continued camera operation is still at the mercy of the LCD Auto Off timer.

The shore powered movie transfer station needs to run for hours at a time. The limitation is the capacity of the SD memory card. Might we put a "Disable" option in the LCD Powersave list? Another possibility is to disable the timer altogether when Image Review is turned off.
#17
General Help Q&A / Re: Silent Pictures with the EOS M
February 25, 2017, 05:01:15 AM
I can confirm that with the EOS M. When the image review is turned off, the entire LCD display is off. The HDMI output also becomes inactive. This means the frame count and SD memory capacity and performance is not displayed. Using the audio trigger twice for each exposure would require more electronics to be built in my controller. The full res video does get recorded this way, but at the expense of important operational information. The image review is very nice but not as essential as the status data. Thanks for pointing this out. This same technology in an industrial camera might cost $5000, so if this is as good as it gets, I could build more electronics and use other computers to track frame count. The goal of getting the image sensor to record would still be possible. By the way, the audio trigger also appears to work by simply shorting the wires of the microphone jack. My remote trigger for the 650D uses an open collector switch closure. I don't know if this alone could be a reliable audio trigger, but I could gate some of my stepping motor clock as an audio source.
#18
General Help Q&A / Re: Silent Pictures with the EOS M
February 24, 2017, 04:35:49 AM
For my film transfer application, I would prefer the display to remain active. I need to monitor the frame count, so I can harvest my chip before it fills. Keeping the last captured frame in view allows me to see what is happening on the film. My station currently uses a 650D/T4i, and I have a web cam viewing the LCD display and am pumping the webcam video downstairs to my living room. Would the goal be easier if the display didn't get powered down? I don't want power save features. Everything is powered off the line and needs to be monitored continuously.
#19
General Help Q&A / Re: Silent Pictures with the EOS M
February 22, 2017, 04:29:53 PM
QuoteTo return to LiveView from full-res silent pictures, simply press half-shutter again after the exposure.
To trigger exposures without returning to LiveView, thus saving the battery, use long half-shutter presses.
Both cases should work with external signals. However, the EOS M is unable to accept external half-shutter signals, to my knowledge.
This describes how my EOS M works, when the shutter button is physically pressed, and how the T4i operates with a remote cable plugged in. Of course, this cable feature is unavailable on the EOS M.
Quote
The rationale behind this behavior is around herehttps://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=18787.0 (basically, allow remote triggers to work without LiveView draining the battery).
The alternative would be audio trigger. However, it doesn't work with FRSP, but it's easy to fix.

It seems the post you  mentioned above does seem to describe the same problem. For myself, battery life is not an issue. This is a home designed, frame by frame movie-to-digital transfer station, and everything is powered by line adapters and power supplies. The audio trigger module is where I would go, if I had the knowledge and resources to build my own version. I would think it would be a simple matter to substitute the "shutter" variable for the "Half-shutter" variable, and my troubles might be behind me.

QuoteAlso, the intervalometer is synced from the real-time clock, so you may be able to use it without any sync signals (open loop).

The intervalometer isn't an option because this is an asynchronous system. The camera needs to take an exposure when the larger system is ready. My station currently copies at about 10 frames a minute, although I hope to get it faster. It is my system ready signal (a switch closure) which needs to trigger the camera.

Yes, it needs to run for days to render out a 15 minute film. Even a short film is over 30,000 exposures, on the camera, and any mechanical operation would quickly wear it out. The Silent Picture feature is essential in making this home design possible.

I really hope this solution is fairly easy and interesting for one of you coding experts to help me with. The results of my work benefit a non-profit industrial history museum. All of the films at http://industrialhistory.org/education/videos/ were made without compensation and Magic Lantern is essential in my design. This may seem to be a novel use of ML, but I hope you get to look at some of the results and agree that this is a valuable tool in preserving historic films.
#20
General Help Q&A / Re: Silent Pictures with the EOS M
February 22, 2017, 06:15:47 AM
As I understand, Silent Pictures only runs in LiveView. What defines that in a mirrorless camera less clear to me. Any preview has to be live, because the EOS M has no optical view in the first place. The "Half Shutter" event is how a Silent exposure is triggered. Button pressing to "Half Shutter" does work as expected on the EOS M camera, but I need to trigger an exposure from a method which can be generated from an electronic controller (a switch closure). I am able to do this with my T4i.

Between exposures, I am still interested for the back display to show the current picture, but I still need to see the data like frame number and total card usage (which is normally displayed). In any case, displayed data isn't as important as being able to record the video using an external trigger.
#21
General Help Q&A / Re: Silent Pictures with the EOS M
February 22, 2017, 05:04:13 AM
Just to say once more: With my EOS M, I can enable mlv_rec.mo and silent.mo, set the resolution to full raw, and then press on the shutter button halfway, and make multiple exposures to an mlv video file. I just tried it again. I can then extract all my frames as 31,877KB DNGs. There may be more to this issue, but if you are investigating my problem, please keep in mind that I can create full res MLV video files by using the button. I hope this leads to an answer. Thanks!
#22
I run my 650D/T4i constantly by rotating 2 SD memories. Both chips have the exact same ML installed and the camera has been updated with the same version.
I am not sure that these instructions are complete, but I have been running my camera to transfer movie films for at least a year. You can rotate chips through the camera without re-installing ML each time.
#23
General Help Q&A / Re: Silent Pictures with the EOS M
February 22, 2017, 04:13:21 AM
Thanks. I know nothing of writing/running Lua but if the functionality is there, I'll may need to learn it. I don't normally code, but sometimes it is necessary for reaching goals.

Does the T4i remote shutter jack produce a different event than the physical shutter button? Why wouldn't they just be made electrically in parallel? If I use the physical button (on the EOS M), everything works great. I just can't do that for 30,000 pressings – I need to use my controller. If worse came to worse, I might have to consider opening up the camera and trying to wire in my own jack.  Aside from the needed trigger, ML has everything else I need to do the job.
#24
General Help Q&A / Silent Pictures with the EOS M
February 22, 2017, 03:14:23 AM
I transfer and restore 16mm movies using my 650D/T4i with Magic Lantern's silent.mo and mlv_rec.mo. I just bought an EOS M (cheaper and mirror-less) and discovered too late that Canon didn't bother to include a remote shutter connection. The camera STILL has mechanical parts operating with each exposure, so I must find a way to use Silent pictures with this camera.

If I load silent and mlv_rec in the EOS M, it still functions well with the "half shutter" button pressed. I can still use all recording modes by physically pressing this button. Please suggest a way I might do this with a switch closure from my own film controller(as I did with my 650D/T4i).

ML's audio trigger looks promising, and even works with the lower resolution modes of Silent pictures. When I try and use the audio trigger with full resolution video and DNGs, the first exposure is taken and the screen then goes black. No further trigger events are possible until I physically press a "half shutter". I may then audio trigger one more complete exposure and then everything stops as before. I am a poor coder and have no idea how to write and compile my own version of ML, but it seems like it might be an easy change for someone more experienced.

Is there any other possible solution? Do Lua scripts offer a solution? Any guidance or help in getting my EOS M working with event triggered Silent pictures (full-resolution) would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for past help and I hope this one is interesting and doable.
(Sorry – had to post here because I can't seem to post in Camera-Specific discussion)
#25
Magic Lantern made it possible to take tens of thousands of exposures, without mechanical wear on the camera. My T4i/650D is sadly slow in saving the raw frames, but the quality is great. I modified a 1970s film projector to take a snapshot of each frame of film, as 18 Megapixel Raw images. It only runs at the rate of about 6 frames per minute. I then harvest  the full SD chips, and save them to my PC. The filesize of each frame is 31 Megabytes.

ImageMagick allows me to convert the awkward DNG (Adobe Digital Negative) format into a form that is more easily used by other programs. AviSynth then stabilizes the frames and removes dust and scratches with its amazing temporal tools which look forward and backward in time, before deciding to remove noise, scratches and dirt.

Blender 3D's compositor feature allows me to center box and crop my captured image frame sequence. The Blender compositor feature allows you to animate corrections needed to fix unexpected bounces or jerking. I render out of Blender to make my final, full movie frame sequence.

Avidemux finally is used to make a web usable file. It combines my sound track and encodes the video in a nice, clear fashion.

simonm: "Taps" I made from a 16mm print. Our museum has an 8 x 10 photo glossy photo of what we believe to be a still taken during a film shoot at GTD. The movie camera, in use, clearly can be identified as being a "Mitchell 16". Many or most of these productions may have been filmed in 16 millimeter, not 35. Other things you asked about I have yet to control.

I captured the sound by playing the optical track through the projector, with its old tube amplifier. I then edited it properly to remove hum and the other obvious stuff.

The survival of these films may be evaluated at three levels. How much wear and damage does the print suffer? Is the base still in good condition? The clear, "plastic" base of safety film is perishable over time. Vinegar odor is a sign the film print is beginning to break down. Eventually, it will crystallize and disintegrate.

Color pigments are most often the first quality to lose. The color movie has a film emulsion which contains colored pigments. This defines the movie's colors. These color pigments fade over time, with the first victims being the Cyans and Blues. "Taps" has better color than later prints of other films I have from the 1960s and after.

Thanks for the asking, and I hope this continues to attracts some interest.