Magic Lantern Forum

Developing Magic Lantern => Feature Requests => Topic started by: a1ex on June 29, 2012, 08:18:31 AM

Title: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: a1ex on June 29, 2012, 08:18:31 AM
My quick list of candidates:

- Auto ISO limits in movie mode
- Picture style controls (same controls as with Canon menu)
- 60D level indicator (Canon has one too)
- Defishing (very rough in LiveView, although good in playback mode)
- Image effects (MOVIE menu) - they don't do any harm (they are simply DIGIC controls), but I don't think anyone will use them for normal shooting.
- Flash / NoFlash (I've used it on compact cameras and missed it on dslr, but now I no longer use it)
- Silent pics - advanced modes (I intend to keep only simple, burst and maybe matrix modes)
- Mirror lockup sync'ed with self timer (anyone using it?)
- Follow focus with LCD sensor (I don't remember anyone saying he used this)
- From Display menu: image position, orientation, upside-down mode (although they can be useful when you need them)
- Sticky DOF preview / HalfShutter (I never used those, except sticky halfshutter when running through DIGIC register). Trap focus no longer needs this.
- Some things from Debug menu (like tasks, CPU usage...) - but keep indicators with free memory and so on.

From that list, only silent pics is known not to work in matrix mode on some cameras, and I'll just disable that feature where it doesn't work. All the other things are working fine, but aren't that useful IMO.

You can come up with other suggestions too.

Removed:
- auto ISO limits (unstable, interferes with manual ISOs)
- movie remap (sorry for that, I know it was very handy, but causes stability problems)
- record with SET button (100% useless)
- ML auto ISO algorithm (was present in december version, but was too slow for real use)
- zoom in face detection mode (found to be unreliable, and couldn't find any use for it)
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: 2xM on June 29, 2012, 08:28:09 AM
I don't really use these features, but I like to know to have these features if I need them, because I could imagine at least one situation for each of this features.

Maybe it would be good to implement them as plugins (LUA?) and put them on the card, if they are needed?
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: a1ex on June 29, 2012, 08:28:54 AM
The plugin interface and Lua scripting are in very early stages of development and will not be included.
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: weldroid on June 29, 2012, 09:25:27 AM
Never used, and will probably never use:

- Auto ISO limits in movie mode (anyone used it?)
- 60D level indicator (Canon has one too)
- Defishing (very rough in LiveView, although good in playback mode)
- Image effects (MOVIE menu) - they don't do any harm (they are simply DIGIC controls), but I don't think anyone will use them for normal shooting.
- Flash / NoFlash (I've used it on compact cameras and missed it on dslr, but now I no longer use it)

Might use it some day:

- Mirror lockup sync'ed with self timer (anyone using it?)
- Follow focus with LCD sensor (I don't remember anyone saying he used this)
- From Display menu: image position, orientation, upside-down mode (although they can be useful when you need them)
- Some things from Debug menu (like tasks, CPU usage...) - but keep indicators with free memory and so on.
- Sticky DOF preview / HalfShutter (I never used those, except sticky halfshutter when running through DIGIC register). Trap focus no longer needs this.

Absolutely a must, part of current workflow:

- Picture style controls (same controls as with Canon menu)
       (ML controls let me to preview these instantly)
- Silent pics - advanced modes (I intend to keep only simple, burst and maybe matrix modes)
       (I do a lot of timelapses using these to save on shutter count)

BR,
Tamas
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: a1ex on June 29, 2012, 09:28:33 AM
Instead of silent pics, I highly recommend FPS override for timelapse.

For picture style controls it's true, not all cameras let you preview adjustments in realtime. 5D2 and 60D do, so those users may find picture style controls redundant.
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: weldroid on June 29, 2012, 09:39:00 AM
Quote from: a1ex on June 29, 2012, 09:28:33 AM
Instead of silent pics, I highly recommend FPS override for timelapse.

For picture style controls it's true, not all cameras let you preview adjustments in realtime. 5D2 and 60D do, so those users may find picture style controls redundant.

Picture style controls I could probably live without, but I prefer the current implementation. Separate settings for stills/video are completely useless to me though (I always shoot stills in RAW).

FPS override: true, and I am starting to use that more often, but at least the matrixing modes are very useful, because these let me do high resolution timelapses which I can use for panning/zooming kind of shots without needing to move the camera.
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: a1ex on June 29, 2012, 09:55:42 AM
That's good to know. There is huge potential in matrix mode (on 60D it is technically possible to move the focus box around at full speed - 30fps). There are still many details to sort out (the biggest one being memory - allocating large blocks of RAM is possible (up to 160 MB), BUT interferes with normal shooting).

It's on the todo list for 2.4.
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: weldroid on June 29, 2012, 10:07:28 AM
Quote from: a1ex on June 29, 2012, 09:55:42 AM
That's good to know. There is huge potential in matrix mode (on 60D it is technically possible to move the focus box around at full speed - 30fps). There are still many details to sort out (the biggest one being memory - allocating large blocks of RAM is possible (up to 160 MB), BUT interferes with normal shooting).

It's on the todo list for 2.4.
It would be fantastic to have less delay between frames (that somewhat limits the usability of the current matrix shots). I'm on a 600D though...
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: Schloime on June 29, 2012, 11:49:13 AM
Seems like for every menu entry there is someone needing it. (except maybe the "Don't click me" button)
Would it be possible to hide individual menu lines and have a little arrow to show all when needed? Like in the windows menus, where seldom-used items hide themselves, but user-configurable?
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: a1ex on June 29, 2012, 12:36:50 PM
The user-configurability part is a bit difficult (especially how it will interact with future menu changes). But we can choose a very good set of defaults for the simple menu mode.
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: weldroid on June 29, 2012, 01:29:53 PM
May I ask what is the ultimate goal by removing functions?
- optimizing the code (reducing complexity to improve maintainability)?
- optimizing the menu (user friendliness, no more space for possible new features)?
- both?
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: a1ex on June 29, 2012, 01:32:38 PM
Both (especially decluttering the menu). Code size is no longer a problem.

Edit: disabled auto ISO limits too (because I've set it at 100-400, and manual ISO stopped working somehow - started working again after setting it to 100-6400).
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: ilguercio on June 29, 2012, 05:34:45 PM
Flashlight or white screen, can't imagine their use.
MLU is good, it should be a good habit when shooting on tripod.
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: 1% on June 29, 2012, 06:31:52 PM
No problems with auto ISO limits either but I've stopped using auto in movie mode as its a bit impractical and showed 0 for the ISO most of the time. I use 80-2500 as that is the "usable" range. Maybe 1250 even as the 2500 gets noisy.

*Picture style controls (same controls as with Canon menu) - Use this for convenience... hunting through the canon menus for anything is a PITA on 600D. Once I set it to neutral though not much changing.
*Silent pics - advanced modes - Works well... why change it.
*Sticky DOF preview / HalfShutter - I can see the DOF preview being usefull if you want to hold the aperture shut for some reason but never used anything but HS w/ Trap Focus. Maybe keep half shutter just in case?
*Flash / NoFlash - in any real mode I don't think the camera opens the flash by itself. The only reason for me to use this is prevent flash from popping up.
*Mirror lockup sync'ed with self timer - Didn't know this existed but I think I used it on accident when I flipped to 2s timer. Produced very stable shots at low shutters and I was wondering why... now I knows.
*From Display menu: image position, orientation, upside-down mode- Never used this as we don't use DOF adapters on SLR.
*Follow focus with LCD sensor-- sounds neat but not possible on 600D.
Image effects (MOVIE menu) - I think nobody in their right mind will use this but it hurts nothing.


What can I say... I like features. Can deal with a little instability... others maybe not so much.


Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: scrax on June 29, 2012, 07:56:39 PM
Quote from: a1ex on June 29, 2012, 09:28:33 AM
For picture style controls it's true, not all cameras let you preview adjustments in realtime. 5D2 and 60D do, so those users may find picture style controls redundant.

I use ML preview a lot instead of standard canon menu. So i'll suggest to keep them in advanced menu, maybe only on selected cameras?.

Also Mirror lockup with self timer, for me it will be default.

I have DOF sticky set to ON and Clear Overlays set to DOF, and I use it as a switch when sometime I want to keep LV clean, faster than opening ML-menu :)

One thing I've tried to do to clean up a little the menu is to move Power Menu and Config Menu to Tweaks Menu using a submenu like for shortcuts or LV zoom settings (but failed).

I've also re-enabled ALO/HTP on my test because was missing it :)

For me on 600D less used things are:
Defishing (having no fisheye lens...)
Vectorscope (didn't even know what it was before, but looks interesting to have)
Image Effects, not useful but why remove them, maybe we can be show only in simple menu mode?

Also to remove clutter IMO is to have all the "set once and then forget" options to a single menu organized in submenu:
MENU MOVIE (for example):
- BitRate
-- like now
- FPS Override
-- like now
- HDR video
-- like now
- Image Effects
-- like now but only in simple mode
- Settings (or movie tweaks?)
--Time indicator
-- Movie loggin
-- Movie restart
-- REC/STDB notify
-- Movie rec key
--Force Live view
-- shutter lock

MENU SETUP (instead of tweaks):
- LV Zoom Settings:
-- like now
- Arrow Key Shortcuts:
-- like now
-- (600D) DigitalZoom shortcut option
- Play settings
-- all what is in menu Play now
- Power settings
-- all what is in menu Power now
- ML Config settings
-- all what is in manu Config now
- Debug (only visible in nightly build)
-- Screenshot
-- don't click me
-- stability test maybe one for one since already in a submenu here.

MENU SHOOT
flash options like flash/no flash and 3rd party flash can be moved to a submenu (maybe better remove flash-no flash and add 3rd party flash to set button instead of 180° to shortcuts in photo mode)

MENU DISPLAY
- display settings
-- contrast
-- saturation
-- Color scheme
-- Image position
-  layout settings (with a better name)
-- Upside down mode
-- Orientation
-- Auto Mirror
-- Screen Layout
- Force HDMI_VGA
- Crop Factor display
- (600D) audio meters

Note: Upside down on my 600D works but I think that to be useful it need to reverse also arrows since probably camera will be upside down too.

FOCUS MENU
- Trap Focus
- Focus Patterns
- Follow Focus
-- like now and also with
-- Focus step size
-- Focus step delay
-- Wait flag
-- Focus end point
- Rack Focus (with a submenu like stack focus)
-- Rack delay
-- like now
- Stack focus- Focus box (LV) from display

MENU HELP
like now but with also
- shutter count, memory and temp display


Other small suggested change is Menu order:
AUDIO EXPO MOVIE SHOOT FOCUS LIVEV SETUP DEBUG HELP
cause livev can be "set and forget" if used with display presets (I have all active on 4 different presets)
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: a1ex on June 29, 2012, 10:10:49 PM
I like the idea, here's a very rough patch that rearranges menus a bit on these lines: http://a1ex.magiclantern.fm/bleeding-edge/submenus.patch

Small note: the focus settings (step size, delay and wait flag) are also used for rack focus, focus ramping, stack focus... so maybe a second submenu with 3 settings would be better? but then you will have to press more buttons to change focus speed.

Also, people will have to get used to new menus etc, maybe more clicks for old tasks, but probably it's worth it. What do you think?
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: KarateBrot on June 29, 2012, 10:42:57 PM
I don't like the idea of removing features that are working fine. I think more features are always better than less. In my opinion there are some very nice features you put on your list!!!!

PLS NEVER REMOVE:
- Picture style controls (same controls as with Canon menu)
I am rarely using the Canon menu. I want to rely on the knowledge that I can reach all of the cameras features through the ML menu to keep it structured and organized and to have a good overview of my settings. VERY IMPORTANT!

- From Display menu: image position, orientation, upside-down mode (although they can be useful when you need them)
It's very very VERY handy for my 550D while shooting upside down or if I got a display attached upside down which can not flip the image itself

- Movie Remap
It's a shame you needed to remove it. I never encountered any bugs with it and I can't reproduce the Err70 bug you described. Can I re-enable it somehow?


What I use:
- Silent pics - advanced modes (I intend to keep only simple, burst and maybe matrix modes)
- Mirror lockup sync'ed with self timer (anyone using it?)
- Follow focus with LCD sensor (I don't remember anyone saying he used this)
(- Some things from Debug menu (like tasks, CPU usage...) - but keep indicators with free memory and so on.)


What I don't use:
- Defishing (very rough in LiveView, although good in playback mode)
- Image effects (MOVIE menu) - they don't do any harm (they are simply DIGIC controls), but I don't think anyone will use them for normal shooting
- Flash / NoFlash (I've used it on compact cameras and missed it on dslr, but now I no longer use it)
- Sticky DOF preview / HalfShutter (I never used those, except sticky halfshutter when running through DIGIC register). Trap focus no longer needs this.


Removing too much features would be a reason for me to stick with the dec22 version and not to upgrade ML anymore, to be honest!

But besides that: Thanks for putting so much effort into the development of ML.


Edit:
Quote from: a1ex on June 29, 2012, 10:10:49 PM
Small note: the focus settings (step size, delay and wait flag) are also used for rack focus, focus ramping, stack focus... so maybe a second submenu with 3 settings would be better? but then you will have to press more buttons to change focus speed.

Also, people will have to get used to new menus etc, maybe more clicks for old tasks, but probably it's worth it. What do you think?
I like the idea. It's getting more organized that way and one click more to open the submenu is not a big deal in my opinion =)
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: scrax on June 29, 2012, 11:24:19 PM
I'll take a look at the diff hope to understand how to move things in the menu.

Quote from: a1ex on June 29, 2012, 10:10:49 PM
Small note: the focus settings (step size, delay and wait flag) are also used for rack focus, focus ramping, stack focus... so maybe a second submenu with 3 settings would be better? but then you will have to press more buttons to change focus speed.
Also, people will have to get used to new menus etc, maybe more clicks for old tasks, but probably it's worth it. What do you think?

Yes probably a specific menu would be more clear, we can't have things more ordered without more clicks, only way to deal with that is to have shortcuts for everything (or in future a user selectable shortcut that can change any ml option).

by the way also ISO+LV was removed?
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: a1ex on June 30, 2012, 08:39:52 AM
ISO+LV is technically the same as movie mode remap. The problem went as far as doing persistent damage to movie mode in 60D (it stopped working, even without ML, and all I did to cause this was flipping mode dial back and forth a few times - with remapped C mode and movie resolution set to 640 crop). So, there's no way I will enable this in a stable release.

So far I've only removed things that were causing problems.
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: Kathode-Ray on June 30, 2012, 12:41:25 PM
Quote from: KarateBrot on June 29, 2012, 10:42:57 PM
Removing too much features would be a reason for me to stick with the dec22 version and not to upgrade ML anymore, to be honest!

Hi,

Same for me here, if some key features would be removed that would end it for me and I will stick with the 15 may version i'm using now.

As with all features, there's always someone using them. I think the unstable ones that cause problems should be removed, but why not keep the rest? Personally, I don't mind lot's of features, and most of us ML users are like tweakers anyway, right? If the menu is becoming too cluttered, we need another menu :-).

Here's my list anyway:

- Auto ISO limits in movie mode: please keep this feature! I use it a lot in low light situations, with the lowest 1/33s shutter speed. In fact, I would like to see this feature re-enabled with 1/25s shutter for my 60D. Please??
- Picture style / REC picture style: can be removed AFAIC
- 60D level indicator: please keep! If I use Canon's level, the ML overlay is gone.
- Ghost image: remove
- Defishing: remove, I never use it
- Vectorscope: remove, never use it
- Image effects (MOVIE menu): remove, nice gimmick but no practical use AFAIC
- Flash / NoFlash: remove, never use it
- Silent pics - advanced modes: remove
- Mirror lockup sync'ed with self timer: remove, never use it
- Follow focus with LCD sensor:remove, 60D doesn't have a sensor :-)
- From Display menu: image position, orientation, upside-down mode: keeper
- Sticky DOF preview / HalfShutter: keep, can be handy sometimes
- Swap MENU <-> ERASE: remove
- Some things from Debug menu (like tasks, CPU usage...):: remove

I think movie remapping is very handy and I use it a lot. The only thing i've noticed is that when I use "C" remapping, some settings in the Canon menu go back to default:

- Image jump with wheel goes back to "10" (I have it set to "1")
- Auto rotate goes back to "ON" (I have it set to "OFF")
- Sensor cleaning goes back to "AUTO" (I have it "OFF")
- INFO button display goes to all three enabled (I only have the electronic level enabled)

The rest of the setting remain unaltered. Funny thing is this only happens if I use "C" to go into movie mode. ISO+LV works stable on the 60D as far as I can tell, never had any problems with it. I tried to reproduce the errors mentioned in the other thread, but it works fine. ML version is 15 may 2012, 17bf58ce429b+. Maybe this can help to make this feature more stable.

Regards,

Raymond
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: c2s07 on June 30, 2012, 12:51:52 PM
I think you should keep the picture style controls, self-timer MLU and sticky DoF. I'm also one of those who loved the movie mode remap, but I understand your reasons to remove it, even though for me it worked stable all the time (except for the recent sound recording crash?)

Features I could live without: REC picture style, defishing, false color, movie REC key remap, image position and crop factor display.
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: Malcolm Debono on June 30, 2012, 01:29:53 PM
While there are certain features which I don't use (such as fisheye, false colours, swap menu-erase, crop factor), I understand that these might be useful to others.

Would it be possible to create a simple config file with all the features so that we can choose which ones to keep/remove (for example histogram=0 would hide histogram while histogram=1 would keep it visible in the menu). That way each user can choose what's best for him.
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: a1ex on June 30, 2012, 03:37:27 PM
Great feedback, thanks to everybody.

Here's my proposal for the menu (60D - changeset ad4ed848db04 ) - heavily based on Scrax's one:
(http://a1ex.magiclantern.fm/bleeding-edge/menus/menus.png)

About features, I think I'll remove only what's buggy. I'll reconsider movie remap for future updates, if there will be a way to call it without side effects. Also I'm thinking to drop the simple menu mode (since it caused many confusions - why feature X is not on my camera?)
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: 1% on June 30, 2012, 05:22:15 PM
The 15 minute test flipped around LV and movie mode a lot and nothing broke. I got scared for my shutter. Must be a 500D/60D thing.  Maybe we can ask if anyone besides 500d and 60D users have had trouble with it? None of my settings ever go to default with false movie mode... i change them in this mode and they stay in canon movie mode and vice versa.

Menu looks ok.
Battery level doesn't work on 600d?
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: min on June 30, 2012, 06:00:45 PM
User configurable would be awesome if possible. I'm in support of not removing features rather here's what I'd like to see for simple mode and removing clutter:

Audio:
Analog gain
Digital gain (agc can be set to on here to reduce clutter)

Liveview:
Zebra
Peak
Magic zoom

Movie:
Fps override
Hdr video

Shoot (which I think would be more aptly named photo (versus movie)):
Hdr bracketing
Intervalometer
Bulb timer

Help: keep as is.

Essentially, i proposed features you need while shooting be accessible in simple mode, the other feature I imagine would be set once and be kept the same for the entire shoot. In advance mode:
Liveview and display seem like it can be one menu
Headphone on and output can be combined
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: Kathode-Ray on June 30, 2012, 08:11:49 PM
It looks very neat Alex! The Prefs menu is great, very handy for those set-and-forget items. It keeps the other menus tidy. There's even space left for one future item in the top row :-)

Ray
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: a1ex on June 30, 2012, 09:31:54 PM
User configurable menu is possible, try out changeset eddae7f63dc5.
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: Malcolm Debono on June 30, 2012, 10:00:02 PM
Very neat menu!
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: weldroid on June 30, 2012, 10:02:44 PM
Where did SET+Maindial(PLay) options ended up? Prefs/Image review settings?

Looks nice and clean, +1 for getting rid of the simple menu, maybe the user customized menu could replace that one...
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: a1ex on June 30, 2012, 10:03:56 PM
Yes, right there.
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: scrax on July 01, 2012, 02:56:32 AM
Not a priority but just to let you know, last code can't compile plugin anymore...


../../src/exmem.c: In function 'shoot_malloc':
../../src/exmem.c:30:20: warning: initialization makes pointer from integer without a cast [enabled by default]
../../src/exmem.c:32:5: warning: return makes pointer from integer without a cast [enabled by default]
[ CC       ]   plugin.o
In file included from ../../src/all_headers.h:3:0,
                 from ../../src/plugin.c:4:
../../src/dryos.h:459:1: error: redefinition of '_os_command_0x0100005_block'
../../src/dryos.h:458:1: note: previous definition of '_os_command_0x0100005_block' was here
make[1]: *** [plugin.o] Error 1
make: *** [600D] Error 2

Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: scrax on July 01, 2012, 02:59:53 PM
The new configurable menu is great and easy, just press MENU on the items you want to hide and they will become grey, when done close and reopen MLmenu to hide them.
To see the hidden menu (and unhide them with MENU) set ON, under Prefs, "Display hidden menu".

I don't know if is intentional but there are no more overlay on photo mode, nothing is show like without ML. No time no MLU get it...

Also for who lost (like me) overlay in photo mode, you need to enable them in global draw options using QuickReview (LV+QR)
I think maybe if possible is better to have a submenu here too with:
LiveView : On | Off
QuickReview :  On | Off
Photo Display Mode (how is called?): On | Off

EDIT:
Also in global draw pressing Q will revert the value to LiveView only, if more display preset are set it will do the same and change preset, so this will revert all prese to the same LiveView state instad the one set before.
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: Marsu42 on July 01, 2012, 09:31:35 PM
Quote from: a1ex on June 29, 2012, 08:18:31 AM
- 60D level indicator (Canon has one too)

Yes, please keep it - I added it on multiple display presets as an integrated, unobtrusive way to check the camera level on my 60d.

Quote from: a1ex on June 29, 2012, 08:18:31 AM
- Silent pics - advanced modes (I intend to keep only simple, burst and maybe matrix modes)

Please do keep the hi-res matrix mode, I was asking for that before on Google groups - I use it frequently to preview focus stacks without increasing the shutter count, at 20-30 pictures per shot this really does make a difference on camera bodies with 100-150k warranty cycles. Even if there's no way to prevent individual tiles or shots to exposing differently, please at least keep it as it is!

Quote from: a1ex on June 29, 2012, 08:18:31 AM
- Mirror lockup sync'ed with self timer (anyone using it?)

Yes, I'm using exactly this setting since it can't hurt to have the mirror lock up if the camera is on timer anyway.

Quote from: a1ex on June 29, 2012, 08:18:31 AM
- movie remap (sorry for that, I know it was very handy, but causes stability problems)

Noooooooo ... "handy" doesn't even come close, and I for one never had any problems with it on 60d :-(

Last not least: Thanks for asking before removing existing, please don't go the GNOME way and think that users are easily confused!


Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: a1ex on July 01, 2012, 09:59:05 PM
Hehe, good remark about the GNOME way. Fortunately, the new menu fine tuning does a very good balance between feature packing and usability. By default you get everything there, with obscure things in submenus. You want a minimalist menu - no problem, just hide everything you don't use and you have a minimalist menu.

Offtopic: zooming on AF point works very well ;)
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: Kathode-Ray on July 01, 2012, 10:02:14 PM
Movie remap, sad to see it go, for me too...

Couldn't this be made into a "use at your own risk" option? Or maybe a hidden tweak setting, only for 60D users?

Looking forward to try the new menu structure!

Ray
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: a1ex on July 01, 2012, 10:05:34 PM
If things go well, next week we'll have a release candidate (RC1) for public testing.
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: Kathode-Ray on July 01, 2012, 10:13:54 PM
Awesome, can't wait...  ;)

Thanks for all your hard work, it's amazing how ML has grown in such short time.

Ray

Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: 1% on July 02, 2012, 12:24:42 AM
New zoom on 100% + afp zooms to somewhere in the middle then immediately jumps slightly to the side on next press of zoom or arrow key. I actually don't mind this. Although I can turn it off too now.

The zoom in/zoom out seems to have gotten way more responsive and smooth.
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: scrax on July 02, 2012, 01:09:06 AM
Quote from: 1% on July 02, 2012, 12:24:42 AM
New zoom on 100% + afp zooms to somewhere in the middle then immediately jumps slightly to the side on next press of zoom or arrow key. I actually don't mind this. Although I can turn it off too now.
I can confirm that problem on 600D too. can't use that feat for now.

I've just learned a new shortcut (to me) in photo mode when in AF mode selection screen (right arrow) pressing Q will open focus menu, can this option be expanded also to WB (up arrow) and Drive mode (left arrow), to open Expo and Shoot menu? I have no idea where to look for it in the source, searching right now...
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: a1ex on July 02, 2012, 12:53:27 PM
Zoom should be a bit better now. It's tricky because it actually uses a small flood of zoom events, combined with changing Canon variables in RAM (zoom level and position), and the exact behavior can vary slightly between cameras.

With 85c2b1eca3ec it feels very smooth on 5D2 and 60D, didn't try on 550D.

Scrax: the trap focus shortcut looks at the value of CURRENT_DIALOG_MAYBE (correct naming for that is GUI_MODE). With that you can identify what dialog is currently on screen, but it's camera specific. Another method is to check the address of dialog handler code, with get_current_dialog_handler() - this is very robust, but also the address of the handler is camera specific.

Or, you can trap the buttons themselves (with handle_* functions). For trap focus I chose the dialog since the buttons for triggering it are different among cameras (and not all of them can be caught by button handler).
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: scrax on July 02, 2012, 02:26:25 PM
AFP still not  ok on 600D, before it was always going to a few pixel right from center, now it goes in the bottom right corner.
"Last" is working good, also zoom out.
Focal length is ok.

for the shortcuts I saw an old commit (https://bitbucket.org/hudson/magic-lantern/changeset/31f829ce6065) that was having in gui.c some shortcuts commented out for 600D.
Now found were it is now..


#if !defined(CONFIG_50D) && !defined(CONFIG_5D2) && !defined(CONFIG_5D3)
int handle_quick_access_menu_items(struct event * event)
{
    // quick access to some menu items
    #ifdef BGMT_Q_ALT
    if (event->param == BGMT_Q_ALT && !gui_menu_shown())
    #else
    if (event->param == BGMT_Q && !gui_menu_shown())
    #endif
    {
        if (ISO_ADJUSTMENT_ACTIVE)
        {
            select_menu("Expo", 0);
            give_semaphore( gui_sem );
            return 0;
        }
#ifdef CURRENT_DIALOG_MAYBE_2
        else if (CURRENT_DIALOG_MAYBE_2 == DLG2_FOCUS_MODE)
#else
        else if (CURRENT_DIALOG_MAYBE == DLG_FOCUS_MODE)
#endif
        {
            select_menu("Focus", 0);
            give_semaphore( gui_sem );
            return 0;
        }
    }
    return 1;
}
#endif


now why there are CURRENT_DIALOG_MAYBE and CURRENT_DIALOG_MAYBE_2 ?... Ok solved.

That was more easy than I was thinking :)

I've added Q shortcuts when in:
WB -> Expo  (actually on 600D ISO_ADJUSTMENT_ACTIVE  part don't works)
Drive Mode-> Shoot
PicStyle -> Overlay
Focus -> Focus (like before)
Menu -> Prefs (this is more a test than useful)


#if !defined(CONFIG_50D) && !defined(CONFIG_5D2) && !defined(CONFIG_5D3)
int handle_quick_access_menu_items(struct event * event)
{
    // quick access to some menu items
    #ifdef BGMT_Q_ALT
    if (event->param == BGMT_Q_ALT && !gui_menu_shown())
    #else
    if (event->param == BGMT_Q && !gui_menu_shown())
    #endif
    {
        if (ISO_ADJUSTMENT_ACTIVE)
        {
            select_menu("Expo", 0);
            give_semaphore( gui_sem );
            return 0;
        }
#ifdef CURRENT_DIALOG_MAYBE_2
        else if (CURRENT_DIALOG_MAYBE_2 == DLG2_FOCUS_MODE)
#else
        else if (CURRENT_DIALOG_MAYBE == DLG_FOCUS_MODE)
#endif
        {
            select_menu("Focus", 0);
            give_semaphore( gui_sem );
            return 0;
        }
#ifdef CURRENT_DIALOG_MAYBE_2
        else if (CURRENT_DIALOG_MAYBE_2 == DLG2_WB)
#else
else if (CURRENT_DIALOG_MAYBE == DLG_WB)
#endif
{
select_menu("Expo", 0);
give_semaphore( gui_sem );
return 0;
}
#ifdef CURRENT_DIALOG_MAYBE_2
        else if (CURRENT_DIALOG_MAYBE_2 == DLG2_DRIVE_MODE)
#else
else if (CURRENT_DIALOG_MAYBE == DLG_DRIVE_MODE)
#endif
{
select_menu("Shoot", 0);
give_semaphore( gui_sem );
return 0;
}
#ifdef CURRENT_DIALOG_MAYBE_2
else if (CURRENT_DIALOG_MAYBE_2 == DLG2_PICTURE_STYLE)
#else
else if (CURRENT_DIALOG_MAYBE == DLG_PICTURE_STYLE)
#endif
{
select_menu("Overlay", 0);
give_semaphore( gui_sem );
return 0;
}
#ifdef CURRENT_DIALOG_MAYBE_2
else if (CURRENT_DIALOG_MAYBE_2 == DLG2_MENU)
#else
else if (CURRENT_DIALOG_MAYBE == DLG_MENU)
#endif
{
select_menu("Prefs", 0);
give_semaphore( gui_sem );
return 0;
}
    }
    return 1;
}
#endif


I think I need some help in adding the code to show onscreen the ISO_ADJUSTMENT_ACTIVE value, so to check if it is correct for 600D.
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: a1ex on July 02, 2012, 02:39:09 PM
To show something on screen, I add a bmp_printf line in debug_loop_task (there' one already commented).

Zoom on AFP is OK after all?
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: scrax on July 02, 2012, 02:50:00 PM
Not yet, I've a screenshot
(https://dl.dropbox.com/u/123918/MagicLantern/focus.png)
In this image focus was on midle right spot:

      o
   o     o
o     o     x
   o     o
      o

and i have the same with a pic with focus in the opposite direction:


      o
   o     o
x     o     o
   o     o
      o

Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: a1ex on July 02, 2012, 03:01:09 PM
In this case, write down the values of IMGPLAY_ZOOM_POS_X and IMGPLAY_ZOOM_POS_Y for the following cases:
1) center (just press zoom in and print the values)
2) left AF point (manually zoom all the way in to something focused with that AF point)
3) top AF point (same as 2)

Those numbers will need to be changed in consts.h.
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: scrax on July 02, 2012, 04:04:16 PM
I've added this in debug.c:1804

        //~ bmp_printf(FONT_LARGE, 50, 50, "%x -> %x ", bmp_vram_raw(), bmp_vram_real());
        bmp_printf(FONT_LARGE, 50, 50, "%x - %x ", IMGPLAY_ZOOM_POS_X, IMGPLAY_ZOOM_POS_Y);

and now I can have all the numbers :D
I have to go out for an hour now, i'll find out them when back, battery drained for now...
center is 144 - d8
top 144 - 98 (not sure)
a2 - d8 is

      o
   o     o
x     o     o
   o     o
      o
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: a1ex on July 02, 2012, 04:08:17 PM
Good, so it's just like 60D/550D. I must have copied the 5D2 values by mistake.
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: 1% on July 02, 2012, 04:42:12 PM

       o
   o     x
o     o     o
   o     o
      o


Strange it would zoom on different point for me.

*Tested out the fix and it works very well indeed.
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: a1ex on July 02, 2012, 04:44:02 PM
Probably the top-right point is not at the middle point between the top and the right ones. Does it zoom close to that point, or far away?
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: 1% on July 02, 2012, 04:53:05 PM
It was zooming close on that point with every shot. After the first fix it would zoom to middle then jump to that point when you pressed anything. Now its all fixed and I have a way to try to test the af patterns easily.
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: a1ex on July 02, 2012, 05:00:31 PM
I think the 60D and 600D have almost identical Canon playback code, 5D2/50D/500D are very similar among them, and 550D is somewhere in between but closer to 60D/600D.
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: 1% on July 02, 2012, 05:10:18 PM
Wonder if they develop similar to magic lantern... same code base with slight changes as needed for each model. I'm surprised in this long while nobody has leaked their firmware sources.
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: a1ex on July 02, 2012, 05:12:00 PM
Yes, the code base is the common to all cameras (evolving chronologically) and there are small user interface changes for each camera (what features to include etc).

Nobody has leaked the sources, but... http://magiclantern.wikia.com/wiki/Decompiling (http://magiclantern.wikia.com/wiki/Decompiling) ;)

Interesting that the backend API wasn't changed from years (like file I/O, semaphores, properties, dialog API) - these functions work well from 5Dc (2005) to 5D3 (2012) :)

This thread should probably split.. it went a bit offtopic, no?
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: gerk.raisen on July 03, 2012, 09:19:52 AM
Hello!

Please keep:


Flash / NoFlash (simple but confortable option)
Silent pics - advanced modes (I use it a lot to save shutter count)
Mirror lockup sync'ed with self timer (my standard setting for night shot!)
Upside-down mode (used for for macro photo)
Sticky HalfShutter (useful in many situation, like for example photo made to me by other persons, I prepare all before, set focus where I want and then is ready also for dummies :)

Movie remap on my 60d it was very useful, and I never had a freeze or crash for it...isn't possible to add only for 60d?


Thank you.
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: 1% on July 03, 2012, 07:33:39 PM
How does trap focus work now? I still can't get it to snap without holding half shutter or setting sticky HS. I thought it didn't need it.
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: a1ex on July 03, 2012, 08:50:50 PM
If you enable continuous mode... doesn't work?
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: 1% on July 03, 2012, 11:08:11 PM
Never mind, being dumb... there are 2 trap focus styles now.
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: Arthur on July 04, 2012, 12:31:11 AM
By the way, I can't say much, but there are some few features I think shouldn't be removed:

My "keep" list:

Sticky DOF preview: This one will be really useful for me, I'm often using DOF preview to check for both DOF, but also to check if there is no diffraction happening, so I cycle through values back and forth, and accidentally unpress the DOF preview while trying to change the aperture (I set my DOF preview to SET., and when trying to press Av+/- I end unpressing it).

Mirror lockup, since my camera doesn't have this option by default.

Quote from: a1ex on July 02, 2012, 05:12:00 PM
Yes, the code base is the common to all cameras (evolving chronologically) and there are small user interface changes for each camera (what features to include etc).

Nobody has leaked the sources, but... http://magiclantern.wikia.com/wiki/Decompiling (http://magiclantern.wikia.com/wiki/Decompiling) ;)

Interesting that the backend API wasn't changed from years (like file I/O, semaphores, properties, dialog API) - these functions work well from 5Dc (2005) to 5D3 (2012) :)

This thread should probably split.. it went a bit offtopic, no?
Would be really cool if this leads to understand how the firmware interacts with the DIGIC processor, we could unlock much more potentials and bypass some artificial blocks Canon might have placed inside their firmware.
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: scrax on July 04, 2012, 12:58:51 AM
Quote from: gerk.raisen on July 03, 2012, 09:19:52 AM
Movie remap on my 60d it was very useful, and I never had a freeze or crash for it...isn't possible to add only for 60d?
Already answered here:
Quote from: a1ex on July 03, 2012, 08:55:29 PM
You can still use it at your own risk - nobody is stopping you from compiling a custom version with it enabled.

But please don't ask me to release something that has the potential of causing permanent camera damage. I'm 100% sure it can - it happened on my own 60D, but I was lucky that I still had access to Canon menus to clear the settings and bring the movie mode back.

Have a nice reading: http://groups.google.com/group/ml-devel/browse_thread/thread/802d76120a9f5472 (http://groups.google.com/group/ml-devel/browse_thread/thread/802d76120a9f5472)

So sorry but if there was only one camera that can't have it would be just the 60D  :P
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: Marsu42 on July 05, 2012, 01:26:31 PM
Quote from: a1ex on July 03, 2012, 08:55:29 PM
But please don't ask me to release something that has the potential of causing permanent camera damage. I'm 100% sure it can - it happened on my own 60D, but I was lucky that I still had access to Canon menus to clear the settings and bring the movie mode back.

Alex, if possible please issue clearer warnings about known dangerous bugs.

I have a 60d and use movie remap, but you writing about "stability problems" didn't sound to me like it was possible to brick the camera, but more like the occasional  "turn on - turn off" or max. "remove the battery" fix. I'll certainly wont' continue to use movie remap if there's a real danger, and you are right about removing it in any release version.

edit: btw, I took part in sponsoring your 60d a year ago and have been happy to test alphas and report bugs (I used the name MagicBrick on Google Groups). So if there's any pre-release sponsor access mailing list or whatever to provide beta links, please add me, too - or is this linked to the profile->paid subscriptions nowadays?
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: a1ex on July 05, 2012, 04:59:04 PM
Okay, so here it goes:

Magic Lantern Security Bulletin: using movie mode remap may cause explosions, data loss, and other kind of permanent damage. See the FAQ: http://wiki.magiclantern.fm/faq#is_it_safe

I knew who you are from your first post. There are no paid subscriptions implemented yet, but probably there will be something like this (where supporters will get betas earlier).

I'm researching how these settings can be restored if anything wrong happens - a disposable camera (like a very cheap second-hand 500D, even not fully functional) would help greatly. What I'm sure is that the bootloader is always loaded, so even if something bad happens, I will be at least able to dump the ROM and do some troubleshooting. But I'm not comfortable trying altering the ROM by hand on a good camera.

For now, there's this page: http://magiclantern.wikia.com/wiki/Unbricking
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: Marsu42 on July 06, 2012, 10:28:45 AM
Quote from: a1ex on July 05, 2012, 04:59:04 PM
Magic Lantern Security Bulletin: using movie mode remap may cause explosions, data loss, and other kind of permanent damage. See the FAQ: http://wiki.magiclantern.fm/faq#is_it_safe

:-p ... I'll pass this on, and I just read about the suggestion to use custom modes with ml for safety. The thing is that I'm constantly telling people how great ml is (I'm amazed so few are using it, I hope the new website will help) - and I'm usually saying that unified is 99,9% stable. That's why I jumped when I read that a long-term feature like movie remap has the potential to brick the camera :-o

Concerning early betas: Well, I'm perfectly capable of compiling ml myself, I'm just too lazy because it's working fine right now (May release from Google Groups). I just thought there was a repo for beta releases and bug testing - because if you'll release "rc1" the term "release candidate" implies that you think it's 100% stable, otherwise it'd be better called "beta1".
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: a1ex on July 06, 2012, 10:38:40 AM
Beta testing was the feedback from ml-devel, then there was a early RC0 testing among the current ML team. You can see the results here:
http://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dG1FMjVQUEtjWV8zSlpaeEZtZDBQZ2c6MQ#gid=0

And I call it "release candidate" because I don't have plans for changing any functionality - just fix any remaining bugs which I wasn't able to detect.

Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: johnby on July 25, 2012, 01:01:25 PM
Quote from: Kathode-Ray on June 30, 2012, 12:41:25 PM
- Auto ISO limits in movie mode: please keep this feature! I use it a lot in low light situations, with the lowest 1/33s shutter speed. In fact, I would like to see this feature re-enabled with 1/25s shutter for my 60D. Please??

I also loved it, this function and I was upset when you do not find it in version 2.3
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: a1ex on July 25, 2012, 01:10:41 PM
Lower ISO limit was OK, but upper limit was interferring with manual ISO.
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: trundicho on July 25, 2012, 09:46:42 PM
Quote from: johnby on July 25, 2012, 01:01:25 PM
I also loved it, this function and I was upset when you do not find it in version 2.3
the shutter 25/s was the killer feature for me - enabling shooting (pal) also with cheaper lenses and get enough light falling on to the sensor.

Please reenable it if possible ;)
Greetings
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: a1ex on July 25, 2012, 10:37:04 PM
1/25 is still there.
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: trundicho on July 26, 2012, 08:51:57 PM
Quote from: a1ex on July 25, 2012, 10:37:04 PM
1/25 is still there.
Great, I can't find instructions or help about it - the minimum shutter I see is 33 while shooting 1080 25p, how can you change it?

Greetings
Title: Re: [CLEANUP] What features are useless and can be removed?
Post by: a1ex on July 26, 2012, 08:53:10 PM
With expo override, just like before.

Closing the thread since it went offtopic.