T4i playback issue

[uberthin]

I'd appreciate some help:

Once I hit the 'play' button to see a still image I've taken before I would like to see the ML overlay with items such as the spotmeter.  In an old version of ML I was able to press 'play' again to bring up the ML overlay.  I upgraded ML and now I can't do this.  When I hit 'play' the first time I am shown the picture (as expected), but when I tap it a second time I'm dumped back to 'taking a picture' mode.  In the old version of ML hitting the play button for a second time would show the ML overlay.

I have a rebel T4i with canon firmware 1.04 (as recommended).  The old version of ML was from 2013.  The new version is "magiclantern-Nightly.2018Jul03.650D104.zip" which is listed as the latest build for my camera.

In the canon settings I have 'image review' set to 4 seconds.  After taking a picture the image comes up automatically for review, and during this time the ML overlay (spotmeter) is shown.

[uberthin]

Can anyone weigh in on my issue?

I need a way to use the ML features (spotmeter, histogram, focus peak) when reviewing photos I've just taken (chimping).

I spent another hour or two trying to get it to work.  I copied my old (July 2013 build) settings file and tried using it with the latest stable nightly build (July 2018).  No dice.  I tried the newest nightly build (September 2020).  No dice.  I've reverted to the old 2013 build.

Thank you!

[Kharak]

I think ML overlay has mistakenly been "removed" from 'Play' a long time ago and was never fixed. I too thought I used to be able to use ML overlays when watching pictures taken on my 5d2 back in the day, but two 5d3's since and I dont think it ever worked for me on those.

There are not many new builds being released anymore or developers working on older models, you could check Danne's bleeding edge builds, not sure if he has one for 650D thiugh.

Do you know if Raw Zebras also worked when reviewing pictures or only the spot meter? Also was it the RAW spotmeter?

[a1ex]

This feature is triggered by a model-specific button (5D2: PicStyle, 5D3: Light, 100D: Menu etc - see the Help tab). The 650D/700D don't seem to have this feature enabled at all.

Ideally, there should be one single button for all models to trigger this feature. Possible choices:

- Pressing PLAY a second time once in review mode could be OK, but normally the user would expect it to exit the image review dialog. If we decide to hook this key, I'm pretty sure there will be others who will ask for the previous behavior (or, at least an option to turn this off). Interpreting a double-click could also be an option.
- MENU also looks like a reasonable choice to me, though, in this case, the user may expect a menu. There are some playback-related features that could be moved here, so it might not be a bad idea, after all.
- SET is not good, as it triggers a menu on recent models. It's available (unused) on some old models, but that doesn't help with portability.
- *, AF-ON, DOF preview: hard to use (they normally trigger half-shutter events)
- left, right - better leave those for navigation
- down: used as "delete" on EOS M, maybe others
- up: might be available on most models without joystick, but I wouldn't choose it on models with joystick
- did I miss any other buttons present on all models?

Not going to implement this overnight, but that old model-specific code needs to go, if you ask me.

[Kharak]

This feature is triggered by a model-specific button (5D2: PicStyle, 5D3: Light, 100D: Menu etc - see the Help tab). The 650D/700D don't seem to have this feature enabled at all.

Light button  I gotta test this ASAP! I'll let you know.

[Walter Schulz]

- Pressing PLAY a second time once in review mode could be OK, but normally the user would expect it to exit the image review dialog.
[...]
Interpreting a double-click could also be an option.

Short press: Exit image review.
Long press (0.5 s?): Show overlay
Possible?

If we decide to hook this key, I'm pretty sure there will be others who will ask for the previous behavior (or, at least an option to turn this off).

Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!

[a1ex]

Long press is only possible to detect on some buttons - half-shutter, SET on some models (not all), direction keys (likely all models), zoom in/out (most models, but not all). The Play button is not among them.

A double-click should be easier to detect - that is, a single press could return to LiveView after a timeout, and a double press could trigger some special functionality.

A three-state toggle is also doable, e.g. LiveView --(PLAY)--> Image review --(PLAY)--> Image review with ML overlays --(PLAY)--> LiveView.

Though, it probably makes a lot more sense to hook the INFO/DISP key (normally used to toggle Canon review modes), and that would also be consistent with LiveView (press INFO until selecting the ML screen). Disadvantage: this particular key might require hardcoding yet another model-specific address, which I'd prefer to avoid. Reasons: I cannot test the image review mode in QEMU yet, to validate that address, and I'm no longer sure whether I can get tester feedback on all supported models. With fully generic code (without model-specific bits or assumptions), it's much easier to test - if it works on 2 or 3 cams, it will very likely work on all other models.

[Kharak]

Light button does bring Overlays over images, but no RAW information. Only information from the generated JPEG. Still good for quick checking focus with the Focus Peaking.

Thanks a lot, I can't believe I didn't know this all this time.

[a1ex]

Indeed, RAW information is only available right after capturing a picture (so-called QuickReview mode).

It can be done in regular image review mode as well, but it's not very easy. It was requested here as well - if anyone is looking for hints.