I'm not sure about the merits of this thread. Kind of weird to discuss ML development tactic/strategy/roadmap without (core) devs participating ...
OK then, here's my wish list.
Dear Santa,
Thank you for giving us the knowledge to implement these requests! Limited understanding of Canon code was previously holding us back, but thankfully, now it's pretty much a non-issue!
We're not complaining, but would also appreciate some time and energy to actually implement these features, if possible not just during the holidays

Here's what I'd want for my own use:
- ISO optimizations to maximize dynamic range (still working on them)
- full-resolution silent pictures without exposure time restrictions:
- with burst options (e.g. start/end trigger with half-shutter; currently doable, to some extent, from mlv_lite)
- auto-selection of best images (currently done for 1080p LiveView frames)
- in-camera blending to get long exposures or higher dynamic range (possibly fully- or semi-automatic)
- simple subject tracking in LiveView (e.g. for manual focusing in x10 zoom)
- powersaving optimizations (battery drains too fast for my taste)
- dual pixel stuff (refocusing, MF indicators, rough depth estimations) for when I'll decide to upgrade to a newer camera
-
distance sensor to assist autofocus (that would be a hardware mod I'd like to try, as I'm finding 5D3's AF capabilities completely unusable in LiveView)
Others stuff on my list, not necessarily for still photos:
- capture, organize and annotate detailed low-level logs for various usage scenarios [docs]
- update (auto-generate?) camera comparison tables/charts (e.g. available RAM, sensor readout speeds, card write speeds)
- emulate whatever we understand from the image pipeline, including image review, CR2 capture and LiveView (all in QEMU)
- write tests for every single ML feature in the emulator (relying on user feedback is increasingly hard)
- emulate secondary CPU firmwares, dual core models, GUI on DIGIC 6 and newer and so on (long shot; this would include the TX19A)
- arbitrary resolutions and frame rates in LiveView (
PoC available for 700D and others)
-
in-camera preprocessing (e.g. for dual iso video with 1x3 readout)
- revive the in-camera help browser (with search capabilities, keywords...)
- revive the "one download for all supported cameras" concept (or at least allow using plain Canon firmware from a ML card prepared from some different camera)
- integrate current developments (QEMU, Lua, recent ports, firmware updates, video enhancements) into mainline
Previous wishes:
- histogram enhancements:
WIP- histogram API for Lua:
already suggested here (it's not forgotten)
- stereo 3D: likely easy, as the exposure is started on main CPU in both photo mode and LiveView; I've got the
hardware to check timings, btw.
- TX19A/SH2A-FPU: very low priority; I did emulate a few instructions of TX19A some time ago.
- sound recorder: need to revisit the new-sound-system branch and figure out why it's crashing...
- PTP: that USB cable feels way too flimsy; nevertheless, it can be useful for interfacing with some Arduino or RPi, or to minimize card swapping during development. Recent models have Bluetooth LE (
remote protocol was figured out) and WiFi. These can probably be modified to allow communication with external devices.
Feel free to suggest things. I'll definitely consider all the requests, but... this year I wasn't in the best shape
