Seriously thinking about getting Magic Lantern

Started by joak, April 13, 2018, 11:57:48 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

joak

Hello,

I hope this is a pretty active forum because I have a few questions.

I guess I'll start with...is Magic Lantern safe for my DSLR?

I posted a question regarding filming in RAW...and also installing Magic Lantern (for that purpose) on the Canon forum. The general consensus from other posters was that one shouldn't use this with their Canon DSLRs. Stuff about voiding warranties, which I'm not particularly concerned about as my camera is pretty old and "lower end". They also said it could turn my camera into a paperweight, that my particular model couldn't support ML anyway, etc.

I guess I'm willing to take the risk (if there is one). But I would rather not have my camera take a dump on me just yet because I'm a moron and I installed some stuff that fried my camera.

FYI, I use the Rebel T5, aka 1200D.

I haven't had any real problems with filming per se. But I figured it would be cool to try and better my filming. This all started when I heard about how awesome filming in RAW is, since it gives you more latitude in post and allows you to capture details that would otherwise go overlooked...or compressed all to hell.

I found a couple videos on YouTube regarding Magic Lantern, as well as one how-to on installing this on the T5. But, again, the folks on the Canon forum were talking to me like I was about to do some back alley drug deal that was sure to ruin my camera.

Sorry for the wordy first post. I'm just wondering if there are any Canon users here. Particularly somebody who has run Magic Lantern on the Rebel T5.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Walter Schulz

Basics about ML/riscs/warranty: -> Top of page -> User Guide ->  FAQ
1200D/T5 download -> Top of page -> Downloads -> Download Nightly Builds -> Ports in Progress -> 1200D / Rebel T5
There you will find a link to 1200D forum thread, too: http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=12627

1200D development status is "port in progress". So not yet matured to "nightly build". There is no schedule in ML development.

Personal opinion: T5 seems to have a rather limited SD-card interface (25 MByte/s?). Therefore not that well suited for RAW recording which has quite demanding bandwidth requirements: 14-bit uncompressed 720p24 = About 37 MByte/s
Not covered in latest experimental builds (lossless compression/4k_crop), either.
Suggestion: You will be able to record short RAW clips with T5. Sufficient to check RAW quality and workflows before thinking about switching cams.

Got me a used 100D/SL1 for about 170€ lately. Awkward battery life but lots of fun with latest developments.
Owner of 7D, 650D, too: All running ML, various builds (including experimental) without serious issues for quite some time.

50mm1200s

There's always risk, but I personally use magic lantern for 6 years and used CHDK for other 2 years, with nightly builds and experiments: never destroyed my cameras.
People on Canon forums will say to you not to use it because Canon doesn't like people messing with their firmware. Actually ML makes 5D MKIII almost better than their cinema cameras. I think that, with dual_iso, ettr and the adtg trick you can get almost the Arri Alexa dynamic range on 5D MKIII so, yeah, they don't like ML.

Walter Schulz

Cannot agree. I looked up some ML-related threads there and I could not find any official staff member commenting on it. Replies come from the community and those talking about things they never tried. -> Hearsay and badly digested infos from 2nd hand repeated, mostly. Short: FUD, unintentionally.

Points to joak for checking facts.

joak

Thanks guys.

So, other than the T5 not being well suited for shooting Raw, are there any other perks to using magic lantern on this camera?

Please note, I am NOT very tech savvy when it comes to this stuff. I don't know how to "write code" or whatever. And I barely understand the language. I can follow directions and navigate menus alright I guess. But that's about it.

dfort

There's a lot more to Magic Lantern than "just" raw video.

https://www.magiclantern.fm/features.html

Check out the FAQ page for answers to the questions you are posting.

https://wiki.magiclantern.fm/faq

Like Walter said the 1200D is a port in progress so I would recommend periodically checking up on the status of that project.

https://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=12627.0
https://bitbucket.org/hudson/magic-lantern/branch/1200D