Third alpha for 5D Mark III
Update: Alpha 3 is out!
This is a small update, mostly with bugfixes and a few handy tweaks.
- Card test at startup
(might detect this issue) - Histogram and waveform moved to bottom
- New experimental display for focus peaking (extreme sharpness)
- 16:9 bars for anamorphic preview
- Focus box moves faster (not yet customizable)
- After taking a picture and pressing Zoom In right away, you can scroll through pictures
- Saturation boost when adjusting white balance
- Warnings for bad settings (e.g. if you set picture quality to JPEG instead of RAW by mistake)
- Dim the red LED while recording (make it less distracting)
Alpha 2 announcement:
What's new in Alpha 2?
- In movie mode, just change your exposure settings (ISO, shutter or aperture) and Magic Lantern will perform a smooth transition
- Can be useful, for example, when filming from indoors to outdoors
- This feature is new, and so far the 5D Mark III is the only camera that handles it almost perfectly
- Already well-known feature, helpful with extremely harsh lighting (see demo video) - of course, as long as you keep in mind its inherent limitations (like avoiding fast motion)
- Magic Zoom (zoom box or full-screen - 2.6x while recording)
- Experimental focus peaking modes (alpha blending, raw display)
- Brightness, contrast, saturation (useful if you record with flat picture styles or you use the camera in bright sunlight)
- Display gain (LiveView usable in very dark environments)
- Anamorphic lens correction (preview only, in LiveView)
- Fisheye correction for Samyang 8mm, using rectilinear or Panini projection (LiveView and Playback)
- Clean HDMI out with pillar boxes (just erases the overlays)
- Screen layouts, especially for HDMI (16:10, 16:9 etc)
- Customize menu colors (e.g. dark themes - easy on your eyes during night shooting)
- UniWB correction (attempt to remove the green color cast from the screen when you use UniWB)
- Upside-down display (for inverted tripods)
- Adjust exposure after taking a picture (e.g. to check shadow detail)
- Combine two or more images (multiple exposure preview)
- Timelapse playback (no timelapse recording yet)
- Remember zoom position
- Ghost image (transparent overlay from any photo, e.g. for panoramas)
- Record indicators (free space, elapsed time, remaining time, average nitrate)
- Movie logging (metadata in a small text file)
- Display presets (custom overlay screens - switch them with INFO)
- Task and CPU usage info
Known issues
- Some users reported a few random lock-ups with Alpha 1, but I could not reproduce any.
- The experimental focus peaking modes are a bit too slow (will slowdown LiveView frame rate).
What is still missing?
I'm not yet prepared to change the so-called properties (persistent settings) on a $3000 camera, so a lot of features are still disabled (such as autoboot, HDR photos, timelapse, very long exposures and so on). This version will not attempt to directly change any data in the non-volatile memory.Anything else?
As with Alpha 1, we recommend running Magic Lantern from a small SD card that stays in the camera. All recording can take place on CF cards. The CF cards don’t have to be bootable or prepared in any way, and you can freely swap and format them without problems.
You can, however, use any card combination you like (with some luck, even Eye-Fi cards).
Be careful: If anything goes wrong, we don't pay for repairs. Use Magic Lantern at your own risk!
P.S. For the other camera owners who'd like to try the bleeding edge features and help us with testing, we've got nightly builds up and running.
(first 10 replies)
Sunday, 21 October 2012 21:54
Wow, cool, I don't have a 5D3 and I was just looking to see the discussion over here 
on the new abilities that alpha 2 has to offer, and it's kind of a wasteland here, sad... I'll be heading back to the 7D topics where I hope to see an alpha 2 soon or maybe the full version of ML for 7D, Great Work, in fact amazing WORK!
I was wondering... what limitations are there with HDR movies, why must you avoid fast movement?
on the new abilities that alpha 2 has to offer, and it's kind of a wasteland here, sad... I'll be heading back to the 7D topics where I hope to see an alpha 2 soon or maybe the full version of ML for 7D, Great Work, in fact amazing WORK!I was wondering... what limitations are there with HDR movies, why must you avoid fast movement?
Monday, 22 October 2012 01:47
A1ex, could you explain in Laymans terms what "Clean HDMI out with pillar boxes (just erases the overlays)" is?
Monday, 22 October 2012 08:40
The main benefit is that you won't get the ugly red dot while recording (or any of the other canon overlays)
Monday, 22 October 2012 11:58
Hi, ALex! Thank you for such a great job!
Is there any chance that by the next ML release "pillar boxes" will be removed? Because at the moment HDMI feature is quite useless for external recording. And this is the only thing that prevents me from using ML.
Is there any chance that by the next ML release "pillar boxes" will be removed? Because at the moment HDMI feature is quite useless for external recording. And this is the only thing that prevents me from using ML.
Monday, 22 October 2012 12:29
So you are not using Canon firmware either? :
Anyway, removing pillarboxes is a really difficult task. I doubt it will happen soon (alex, feel free to prove that I'm wrong :p)
Anyway, removing pillarboxes is a really difficult task. I doubt it will happen soon (alex, feel free to prove that I'm wrong :p)
Monday, 22 October 2012 22:27
I'm shooting PAL 24fps . Alpha 1 had the option of 1/48 shutter . But this aplha 2 version has 1/47 shutter.
Does this affect the video? Or should it have been 1/48 as the previous version ?
Besides that, thanks for the amazing tools you guys provide !!
Does this affect the video? Or should it have been 1/48 as the previous version ?
Besides that, thanks for the amazing tools you guys provide !!
Tuesday, 23 October 2012 03:46
Hello,
I'm not sure I understand well what does mean everything posted in this firmware news so I'll ask again in other terms :
Can I use now an external HDMI recorder like http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/hyperdeckshuttle/ and record an uncompressed HDMI signal in my recorder thru the HDMI output of the Canon 5d3, like I can do with the clean HDMI output of the NIkon D600 ?
Yann
I'm not sure I understand well what does mean everything posted in this firmware news so I'll ask again in other terms :
Can I use now an external HDMI recorder like http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/hyperdeckshuttle/ and record an uncompressed HDMI signal in my recorder thru the HDMI output of the Canon 5d3, like I can do with the clean HDMI output of the NIkon D600 ?
Yann
Tuesday, 23 October 2012 08:04
Quote:
I'm shooting PAL 24fps . Alpha 1 had the option of 1/48 shutter . But this aplha 2 version has 1/47 shutter.
Does this affect the video? Or should it have been 1/48 as the previous version ?
Besides that, thanks for the amazing tools you guys provide !!
It's the same thing, the difference between Alpha 1 and Alpha 2 is in the rounding of the number. (1/47 being more accurate than 1/48)
Tuesday, 23 October 2012 09:08
Quote:
Hello,
I'm not sure I understand well what does mean everything posted in this firmware news so I'll ask again in other terms :
Can I use now an external HDMI recorder like http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/hyperdeckshuttle/ and record an uncompressed HDMI signal in my recorder thru the HDMI output of the Canon 5d3, like I can do with the clean HDMI output of the NIkon D600 ?
Yann
No
Tuesday, 23 October 2012 14:20
Yes UNCOMPRESSED in April 2013 with Canon's firmware. Alex must have put a match under Canon with his developments.
NEW FIRMWARE UPDATE FOR CANON EOS 5D MARK III DIGITAL SLR CAMERA PROVIDES UNCOMPRESSED HDMI OUTPUT SUPPORT AND IMPROVED AF PERFORMANCE
LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., October 23, 2012 – Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, today announced a new firmware update for the EOS 5D Mark III Digital SLR camera that significantly improves the camera’s performance and usability. In response to requests from professionals working in the fields of cinema and television production, the firmware update enables the use of uncompressed HDMI Output support, making possible more efficient video editing and monitoring procedures. Additionally, the upgrade supports the advanced needs of photographers through improved AF performance when capturing still images.
Uncompressed HDMI Output Support
When shooting video, HDMI Output makes possible the recording of high-definition uncompressed video data (YCbCr 4:2:2, 8 bit) from the EOS 5D Mark III to an external recorder via the camera’s HDMI terminal. This, in turn, facilitates the editing of video data with minimal image degradation for greater on-site workflow efficiency during motion picture and video productions. Additionally, video being captured can be displayed on an external monitor, enabling real-time, on-site monitoring of high-definition video during shooting.
Improved AF Functionality
Even when the EOS 5D Mark III is equipped with an extender and lens making possible a maximum aperture of f/8, the firmware update supports AF employing the camera’s central cross-type points (currently compatible with maximum apertures up to f/5.6). Accordingly, the update will allow users to take advantage of AF when shooting distant subjects, benefitting sports and nature photographers, particularly when using telephoto lenses.
The new firmware update will be available, at no charge, in April 2013 from the Canon U.S.A. website and can be downloaded by end users or through Canon Factory Service Centers.
Back to top
..
NEW FIRMWARE UPDATE FOR CANON EOS 5D MARK III DIGITAL SLR CAMERA PROVIDES UNCOMPRESSED HDMI OUTPUT SUPPORT AND IMPROVED AF PERFORMANCE
LAKE SUCCESS, N.Y., October 23, 2012 – Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, today announced a new firmware update for the EOS 5D Mark III Digital SLR camera that significantly improves the camera’s performance and usability. In response to requests from professionals working in the fields of cinema and television production, the firmware update enables the use of uncompressed HDMI Output support, making possible more efficient video editing and monitoring procedures. Additionally, the upgrade supports the advanced needs of photographers through improved AF performance when capturing still images.
Uncompressed HDMI Output Support
When shooting video, HDMI Output makes possible the recording of high-definition uncompressed video data (YCbCr 4:2:2, 8 bit) from the EOS 5D Mark III to an external recorder via the camera’s HDMI terminal. This, in turn, facilitates the editing of video data with minimal image degradation for greater on-site workflow efficiency during motion picture and video productions. Additionally, video being captured can be displayed on an external monitor, enabling real-time, on-site monitoring of high-definition video during shooting.
Improved AF Functionality
Even when the EOS 5D Mark III is equipped with an extender and lens making possible a maximum aperture of f/8, the firmware update supports AF employing the camera’s central cross-type points (currently compatible with maximum apertures up to f/5.6). Accordingly, the update will allow users to take advantage of AF when shooting distant subjects, benefitting sports and nature photographers, particularly when using telephoto lenses.
The new firmware update will be available, at no charge, in April 2013 from the Canon U.S.A. website and can be downloaded by end users or through Canon Factory Service Centers.
Back to top
..