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Hi all,

I've searched the forum, and I suspect there is no magic answer or I am missing something obvious, but I was wondering about best ways to save power using the Motion Detect feature.

Our 3-legged house cat has gone missing (Denton, Manchester, UK) and so we're leaving food out each night and trying to snap which local animals are eating the treats. I tried motion detect on night #01, but had to put H1 ISO in as my long lens (from upstairs in house) only went to f4.0 at the required focal length.

The feature worked well, but due to LV mode the battery only lasted a few hours, not the whole night. I suspect due to the high ISO, I was draining more juice. I also noticed that the sensitvity would "creep up" and trigger pictures over time. e.g. sensitivity 15 would be ok as the scene would read as 13, but after 10 minutes on high ISO the scene would creep up to 14 and eventually 15, thus triggering pictures unnecessarily.

So here is my question; can the camera use the LV data, but 'switch the screen off?'

I dimmed the screen and turned off all displays to get the most out of my battery.
Short of this and buying a mains adapter, are there any other tips for power conservation, and/or stopping the sensitivity of the ISO triggering pics.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not expecting any magical answers! Perhaps I am pushing this feature to it's limit (and need faster lenses or a little more light outside without scaring the cats away...)

It's an awesome feature as it is (I got better results than using time-lapse on night #02) but if anyone has any tips of knows or any extra MD features in the newer builds that would be awesome. Just want to catch evidence that our cat is still ok if we can...

Thanks again Team ML, Col

[exiftool -Exposure2012+=+*.** /drag folder here containing cr2's and .xmp's]

Doyle; many thanks, your tutorial worked a treat.

Haven't quite worked 'how' it has worked, but I seem to have ended up with some additional XMP files with the suffix 'original' at the end of them. Perhaps Exiftool is being friendly and making backups of the originals? 

To clarify (if anyone else is having the same issues) this was my process;

1 - Download and install exiftool FOR MAC (There is a specific Mac OSX package)
2 - Prepare/move CR2 files and .xmp files from Magic Lantern in one folder
3 - Open Terminal
3 - Enter the coomand as Doyle explained above;

exiftool -Exposure2012+=+*.** /drag folder here containing cr2's and .xmp's

Where the *.** is enter the amount you want to set
eg 0.05, next to the number you have chosen
Too the left is +
+=over expose
-= under exposure

4 - Allow process to run (New/backup XMP files were created for me. I waited until the list had finished)
5 - Select all CR2 files, open in Adobe Camera Raw
6 - FILES SHOULD OPEN, DE-FLICKERED
7 - Select all, make White Balance auto. (Unsure about next bit?...)
Make any edits should you want them? Note, that if you change exposure now, you'll undo the de-flickering!
(Perhaps edits should be done first, then you start the de-flickering command afterwards? Needs testing!)
8 - Close Adobe Camera Raw
9 - In After Affects, import the first CR2 image, select 'Camera Raw Sequence.' Create timelpase!

Many thanks Doyle! Maybe this Mac step by step should be added to that top post/tutorial thread?

[- Is Lightroom a pre-requisite, or is there a way to do import a sequence and have it de-flicker using just After Affects? Or even just ACR?- If After Affects or ACR alone is an option, how do I get de-flickering (getting each CR2 to read it's XMP highlight data I assume?) across a batch?In Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) I don't see any automation or de-flicker options; the closest thing I can find is an "auto" exposure for raws, but that only seems to apply an auto setting on a per-image basis.]

Hi all - As ever, brilliant work all round; really excited and trying to get stuck into ETTR timelapse.

However, I too am struggling to the .XMP files to do, well, anything to a batch of images. I was wondering;

- Is Lightroom a pre-requisite, or is there a way to do import a sequence and have it de-flicker using just After Affects? Or even just ACR?

- If After Affects or ACR alone is an option, how do I get de-flickering (getting each CR2 to read it's XMP highlight data I assume?) across a batch?
In Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) I don't see any automation or de-flicker options; the closest thing I can find is an "auto" exposure for raws, but that only seems to apply an auto setting on a per-image basis.

I beleive I have followed the camera settings correctly, but with XMP settings. This is because I am on a Mac (as opposed to the UFRAW workflow for PC users?) but all the guides for XMP seem to... stop. :-(
A step-by-step (or video?) by anyone who has this working in XMP, on OSX, would be massively appreciated!

Many thanks, apologies if I'm missing anything super obvious.