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Hello Nargetdev!
As a fellow 6D shooter, and as someone who has dabbled in the most basic programming, I just
want to encourage you and say I'm glad that someone else is interested in maintaining the 6D!

I keep having thoughts of trying to get into ML development -- but then I read the stuff  these guys are talking about in the dev. forums and I find myself so lost that I realize I'm a long ways from hacking cameras! 

So anyhow, more power to you! Hope to see the 6D back in the game this summer!
Cheers!
-Daniel

Hi Everyone!
I wanted to share my entry for the 2014 RODE Reel contest.

I shot this video entirely on a Canon 6D. Magic Lantern was used extensively for focus peaking, white balancing, finetuning the fps to a perfect 180 degree shutter, and most importantly using the spot meter and waveform to try to expose properly with my vintage manual lenses.

Lighting was two homebuilt CFL boxes and reflector, rotation shot used a homebuilt spidertrax dolly.

As always, please remember to watch in higher quality on youtube!

Video Description:
What if the Government had the NSA create a web browser?  US is a new web browsing experience that offers you all the same features you rely on in other browsers -- but also a whole lot more. US keeps you safe by watching your every move...and by any other means necessary. A comedy.

And here's the contest's required behind the scenes video, also shot on the 6D.

Thank you Magic Lantern!!
-Daniel

Someone with more technical knowledge will jump in soon here I'm sure...
but I have -0.3 ML Negative Gain + Zebras at 99% and I'm seeing them just fine.

I tried to take a screeshot to prove it, but for some reason the zebra overlay didn't come out of the PPM.

-Daniel

[not]

I have done (and am still doing) a ton of reading and watching Youtube-reviews on cameras.
It seems that the 6D produces very ugly picture artifacts, called "aliasing" and moirés, especially in 720p but also in 1080p when not shooting raw. How much is to that reports? The examples in the YT-reviews looked really ugly.
Thing is that I might not always want to shoot raw video, so the image quality of "normal" 1080p should be somewhat better than with my $99 Boscam HD-19 UAV cam ^^.

Again about the 30 minutes recording limit - I have found a few topics here but nothing conclusive yet... Has somebody found a way around it yet or is somebody actually trying to do so? The reason why I ask is that I - as I wrote - plan to shoot animals and my experience has been that it's best to just keep rolling and rolling and select in post what shots you want to use. Especially when going after very shy animals.

To address the first question about aliasing/moire --
On my 6D I have mixed results with picture artifacts. I would say that in a real world setting things are much less severe than in a youtube video actively looking to show off the problems. Not to say they aren't there. My personal real world experience has shown about 80% of my footage looks fine, and then I'll be unhappily surprised here and there with the other 20% having artifacts that I didn't catch while shooting. Now, don't get me wrong. Aliasing and moire bug me a lot, and I really wish they would have worked on reducing it. But if you pay close attention to a lot of TV these days, it's not an uncommon problem. A lot of cameras suffer from these problems. Not just the 6D. I've seen big budget shows where I can catch a shot or two that has visible picture artifacts on striped shirts or things of that sort. So yes, the problem is annoying. Yes, it would be really nice to use a camera without any of it, and I really look forward to the day when cameras are artifact free. But it's all perspective. For how much good work my Canon 6D does, I can live with some artifacts here and there. And one day I'll get a camera that doesn't have it. I would just take those youtube videos with a grain of salt. For me, shooting 1080 h.264 on the 6D has been mostly a pleasant experience with generally low artifact rates.

To answer your second question, I can understand your reasoning for wanting to shoot over 30 min..
If you were shooting let's say, a concert, it could be critical that your file did not stop recording mid song.
But you mentioned you are shooting wildlife -- just keeping it rolling and looking for and editing the good stuff later.
Are you already aware of the auto-restart recording feature of magic lantern? You wouldn't lose more than a second or two between clips.

Thanks!
-Daniel

If you are not particularly neurotic (like I can be), 720 RAW upscaled to 1080 is still going to be quite powerful -- assuming you've got time to work with it in post.  I'm just finicky in that I want to see the 1080 framing/FOV. The smaller 720 recording area drives me bonkers. So I've been using h.264 pretty much exclusively on the 6D. I really should suck it up and give 720 RAW video some tests.

Dual ISO video can be used if your scene has such crazy DR that you can't get it any other way.
Other than that, the 6D is still up there in the top for native DR (if I'm not mistaken).

Be it 5Dii, 6D, or 5Diii, you will find magic lantern to be invaluable in helping you create beautiful images. And you will find that all three of these cameras are capable of remarkable things with just a touch of creativity. If you have any doubt of their ability to record beautiful images, whether h.264 or RAW, just refresh yourself with the amazing videos on youtube created using these very tools.

I, for one, can easily get caught up in the geeky tech toy part of it. But I think if you buy the camera you can afford, whether it is a 5Dii or 6D, you will have a lot of camera to work with.

Just my .02 cents.
-Daniel

I can happily recommend a 6D. They can frequently be found body only for around your price point.
It has newer sensor technology than the 5Dii and performs extremely well in low light (even edging out the 5Diii very slightly for sensor performance). You could then either use your old EF glass, or buy vintage primes + adapters rather inexpensively. This is exactly what I did. At the time I bought my camera and for the price, there wasn't much else to even consider.

Now that I've become more experienced with my camera and all these cool RAW features are available, I am slightly jealous of the 5Diii's full 1080 continous RAW recording. The 6D seems to cap out around 720 for continuous RAW recording. If RAW video is extremely important to you, I'd save up. But it really does sound to me like the 6D would make you quite happy if, as you mentioned, you intend to use it for h.264 1080 video, and photography. Photo IQ is outstanding. The video is very capable and will take you quite far. The 6D is a fun camera, plain and simple.

As a gearslut I'm a little curious about the GH4 and the A7S...it might be worth checking them out. The only footage from the GH4 I've seen lacked something of the cinematic feel. Hard to say without really using it hands on though. I don't know what it is, but it's similar to the reason I chose the Canon 6D over the Nikon D600 -- the Nikon video, while similar in spec, just didn't look "right" to me. I think it's the motion? Of course now I have a preference for Canon because of Magic Lantern!

Hope this helps a bit.
-Daniel

Hi All,

Sorry if this isn't the best place to post this but i'm trying to test out one of your recent cr2hdr-20 bit updates but am having a bit of a battle with the dcraw and exiftool.

What happens when I drop a CR2 or DNG onto the cr2hdr executable is the command prompt flashes open then closes immediately. However I caught it open in this screen shot so perhaps it will give some clue as to the problem. Again i'm sure this is basic but you could just save my bacon if you can help me get this working.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/shzqgvmk6lbbwr3/Screen%20Shot%202014-05-04%20at%2014.43.52.png

Hi Joshua,
I had this exact same problem the other night trying to get it to run on XP via Bootcamp.
After much frustration, I did get it working by doing the following:

I downloaded an earlier version of cr2hdr from https://bitbucket.org/a_d_/magic-lantern/downloads. The one dated 2013-10-04.

I then took the dcraw and exiftool files and copied them into c:/windows/system32.
Cr2HDR is a command line application. It relies on dcraw and exiftool. Basically, by placing them in the system32 folder, the command line knows exactly where to find them.

Finally, I downloaded the most current version of Cr2Hdr from the dual ISO thread page here:
http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=7139.0. Go ahead and delete the dcraw and exiftool that come with it.

You should now be able to use the application like normal -- by dragging your files over it.

Hope this solution works well for you like it did for me.
-Daniel

[Simultaneously shot JPEG]

After seeing some of the other images in here, I'm a little ashamed to even post this. But here is my rough and dirty first test with dual ISO.
I was on a walk and there wasn't much catching my attention, but there was some wide DR between the setting sky and dark foreground. I took the opportunity to give it a whirl.

The only processing was some of RAW Therapee's auto highlight recovery, etc...

Simultaneously shot JPEG


Dual ISO


Canon 6D, Vintage Sears 50mm prime, F8, 1/125, ISO 800/3200
Handheld, No tripod.



PS - @Akry, Great work with your 6D!

Wow!
Thanks Audionut!
You cleared up a whole lot. Thinking about it now, I understand how I was confusing two separate workflows, but
your explanation was very helpful and thorough. Interesting too, about using the spot meter for the brightest tones that should retain detail in a RAW workflow.

Now I've just got to go put this knowledge to use and shoot some stuff

Thanks again to all involved with ML!
-Daniel

Hello everyone!
I've just done a quick, quick test using my grey card. Previously I had only been using it to white balance, but I wanted to give it a try using the spot meter to set exposure as well.

Recently I've been just using the histogram and waveform to try and get my videos exposed as far ETTR  as possible without clipping anything important. But it struck me that using the spot meter and a grey card might be very useful for getting consistent exposures and not having to guess so much.

So, I borrowed a minute of someone's time to be my subject, and I had her hold up the grey card  near her face to measure roughly the same light. I then white balanced using ML's auto white balance feature. Then I used the spot meter and took a measurement of the grey card to get it right on the money - 18%.  I then removed the grey card, and took a spot meter reading on her right cheek, which showed about 40-50%.

So here is the first photo. Grey card reading 18%, cheek approx 50%:


I unfortunately did not get a screen grab of the camera to show my waveform and histogram monitors, but they seemed to be showing a lower brightness than I would think would be wise, from what I understand about ETTR techniques. I realize she is not evenly lit, and the scene itself is not well lit, but there was a lot of room left around her face on the waveform.

Anyhow, I recalled reading something indicating that well exposed Caucasian skin usually sits around 50-70%. So I took a measurement from her right cheek again and adjusted exposure until it read approx. 70%. That produced this photo:


Still, it did not seem to use up all of the available room for exposure in the waveform/histogram.
In fact, now that I think about it, the two pictures look remarkably similar. I hope I didn't botch my comparison somewhere along the way.

Anyhow, I guess what I'm really trying to understand is how the spot meter should be used in conjunction with a grey card, if when I get an 18% reading from the card, it's not utilizing all of the available DR I have for an ETTR philosophy.

I am a very amature photographer/videographer, so hopefully this is not a ridiculous question, or answered a hundred times before. I searched the forums but mostly found people asking about HOW to use the spot meter, not about the significance of the measurements taken.

All help is immensely appreciated.
Thanks again for this great community!!
-Daniel

I'm waiting for them to announce tomorrow that the 6D SD card bus speed limits are actually
350Mbs. Full 1920 x 1080 coming to the 6D in a matter of hours? 

Hello Yorio,
While not specifically a camera cage, I built a modular camera rails system using a design from one of ML's members, Ted Ramasola. You can see his design on his webpage: http://www.ramasolaproductions.com/5.html

After looking around at all the other DIY projects, this one was more difficult and a bit pricey, but the results are very good and very professional.  The beauty of the modular rails system is you can set it up in a ton of different ways and mount just about anything in one way or another. The only thing I would have done differently is used true 15mm rails. It would have cost more, but now that I'm looking at some accessories, 15mm compatibility would have been nice.

Just my two cents.
-Daniel

Not sure if this is the same thing the OP was seeing, but I got confused once with some settings too.
It was in Resolve I think. Anyway, it was showing the "playback framerate" as 24fps, but as far as I'm aware, the rendered footage was still 23.97.  I chalked it up to some sort of internal processing for the app.
Maybe smarter and more experienced people will know more...but just thought I'd throw in what I've noticed before.
-Daniel

Thanks guys! That makes more sense now.
Since it's just me making videos with no budget or lighting expert, I'll stick to whatever ML ISO exposes the scene properly .

Best,
-Daniel

Hi everyone!
Just curious -- I was listening to an interview with the DP of House of Cards,
and one of the questions he was asked was what ISO he shot at (on the RED Epic).
He replied, "800".

That got me thinking: In a big budget production shot digitally, are they sticking to one ISO to remain consistent in noise patterns and things like that?

Not really sure I understand the logic behind using one iso as opposed to whatever iso the scene demands (assuming it's not overly noisy or underexposed).

Love to hear all your thoughts!
Thanks!
-Daniel

Wonderful job!
How did you do some of the zooming out until it morphs into another scene?
Is that just all done zooming in/out in post?

+1 for a behind the scenes or tutorial vid in the future!

Thanks for sharing!!
-Daniel

Hi guys,
Sorry for my earlier post... I didn't mean to stir anything up, just really wanted to know what the difference was and what was recommended to do for 6D owners.
I should have clarified too that when I said "incredibly stable", I meant that the features I use Magic Lantern for (mostly the meters and intervalometer so far) it has been reliable. No crashes to report. I understand there may be instability in some of the newer features that I have not been using much.

Anyhow, I really do appreciate all the work that every one of you developers have done for the community, and while I'm not a coder, I'll download the ML 6D nightly and test it as best I can to help with the development. As an outside voice though, I just want to say that I'm glad there is someone like 1% with a 6D AND coding skills to keep this camera in the mix. It's been a blessing to me to have access to these amazing features.

Thanks again everyone!
I'll watch these threads closely.
-RTLDan

Hi all,
Just a little confused over the whole TL vs the new 6D ML builds.
1% has done an awesome job for the 6D and I've been really getting so much use out
of TL while ML's version has been "unmaintained". Everything has been incredibly stable and very up to date with new features. I guess what I'm wondering is, will I be losing some of the features I've come to expect from TL if I begin using builds from ML? I want to respect the "unity" that ML is asking for by using those builds, but on the other hand if no one is really working on the ML 6D build, it's asking a lot to sacrifice all the work, testing, and features for my 6D that 1% has already provided.

Really just not sure what the story is or what I'm supposed to do?
Thanks to all the developers for making any of this even possible!
-RTLdan

Hi Everyone,
Just wanted to start by saying thanks for such an amazing job. Magic Lantern is the best, and so are the people who make it happen!
Now, I haven't read every single page in all the ML RAW threads, so sorry if this has been addressed before.
I've been experimenting with the use of MLV_REC on my 6D (TL Jan18th Build) tonight, and had three questions/issues.

1. When I select the 6D's max continuous framerate for RAW, we are not using the full 1920 x 1080 resolution, and so magic lantern shows us a little crop box of the resolution the RAW video will be recorded at. This is great. However, when I actually hit record, the box disappears and I'm looking at a full 1920 crop again, which is not easy to work with. It would be great if we were able to keep that box so we can make sure our framing is ok. As of now I've just been guessing. Global draw is not off on my camera either. (I've got the waveform monitor on.) So am I missing something, or is this the state of things? And if it is the state of things, do the devs foresee a fix this as something that is possible?

2. I tried out the MLV Sound recording while shooting raw. Everything worked fine for my short clips at 44.1.
The only thing weird thing that happened is that they would not play on the computer through quicktime or VLC. I do audio work, so I loaded it up into my DAW and it played just fine. So the actual audio is in the file, but for some reason something isn't communicating with the computer's basic audio players.

3. Finally, I'm sure this has been asked for and talked about a lot, but I'll throw my opinion in too...
It would be great if there was a way in the future to play back both the MLV video AND audio in camera. Because of the experimental nature of some of this stuff, it would be immensely helpful to be able to make sure the info is there before moving on to another shot. It would be heartbreaking to find audio didn't record on one of the files.

Thanks again for everything you do and have done!
I hope my observations can help with future development!

-Daniel Rheaume
Portland, Oregon

In Modules Menu select mlv_play and press Q. Read the description.

Hmm... Might have a bug to report in the Nov 3rd build then?
When I hit the Q button I get a black display that says
"License: GPL
Authors: g3ggg0, a1ex
nd,ilt. on 2013-11-03 15:54:04 UTC by '{' is not recognized as an inter"

And then the pressing the arrow key I get this page...
"Information:
Name: MLV Player
License: GPL
Summary: Play MLV/RAW
Authors: g33g0, a1ex
Build date: 2013-11-03 16:04:35 UTC

Callbacks:
CBR_KEYPRESS: mlv_play_keypress_cbr"

Not sure if this is just me, or if I just need to reinstall ML or something?
Similar results when pressing 'Q' to get info about any module.

Thanks!
-Daniel

Hello everyone!
Long time lurker (been following this thread since it was only 1 page!) , first time poster here.
I just installed the Nov 3rd ML build on my 6D. I just noticed in addition to the Raw_Rec module, there is a MLV_rec module. Is there a difference other than the metadata of the MLV format? I assume I'm going to want to use the MLV rec since it's the one that's really being developed right now? Sorry if this has been discussed elsewhere. This thread is my primary link to all things new in ML, and I don't remember reading anything particular about it.

Finally, I hadn't noticed that MLV_player module until tonight either. I spent, like, 15 minutes going through all the ML menus and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to access any kind of MLV player. I know it sounds stupid, but maybe someone can give me a little direction?

BIG thanks to the ML team for all their hard work! I'm especially grateful for color RAW previews at 720!
Thanks!
-Daniel