First 7D alpha released!

[g3gg0]

Finally, the first Magic Lantern release for the 7D is here!

It is still an early alpha version, so here are a few things you should know:

* it was primarily tested on one 7D, and a few days on three other 7D's;
* during those tests we took 1000 photos and gigabytes of videos;
* there were no crashes or strange behaviors during our tests;
* this release will not alter any data in your camera's permanent memory;
* this release will not directly alter any so-called "properties" (persistent camera settings);
* this means, some functions like HDR photos, HDR videos, bulb ramping etc will not work yet;
* it is not a firmware upgrade, despite the camera saying "Firmware update program";
* we have disabled all features that are not yet working perfectly;
* please don't beg for adding feature XYZ, it will be added as soon as it works without issues.

But:
* If anything goes wrong, we don't pay for repairs. Use Magic Lantern at your own risk!

Key Features:

* Audio meters while recording
* Zebras
* Focus peaking
* Magic Zooom (via half-shutter, or focus ring)
* Cropmarks, Ghost image
* Spotmeter
* False color
* Histogram, Waveform
* Vectorscope
* Movie logging
* Movie auto stop
* Trap focus
* LiveView settings (brightness, contrast...)
* Level indicator
* Image review tweaks (quick zoom)
* and some debug functions

Known issues:
* When using trap focus, opening card door won't shut down the camera. Simply power off using power switch.
* Formatting the card will also remove Magic Lantern files.
* You have to reload Magic Lantern every time you use it.
* video frame rates in LV are displayed too high (exactly 1.2x)
* make sure your battery is chipped, else canon firmware will abort "firmware update" (=loading ML)

Installation
1) Update camera firmware to 2.0.3
2) Format your CF card from the camera
3) Extract contents of ML .zip into your card's root folder
4) Run "firmware upgrade" once again
5) Voilà. Magic Lantern. (press DELETE for menu)

Technical Details
Why did it take so long to get Magic Lantern running on the 7D?

This is a long story. The workings of single-DIGiC cameras are already well understood.We know how to forge FIRs and we can execute code using this method.Our code gets executed without any interruption to the cameras proper function, we can hook into startup code and simply restart the camera or update the bootflag needed for execution of autoexec.bin.Same applies to autoexec.bin if the bootflag is enabled.

But not so on the Dual-DIGiC 7D cameras.

One DIGiC is called "Master" and the other "Slave." All ML related stuff like GUI, LV etc is running in Slave.The Master cares about focusing, lens communication and some other related technical stuff.So there are two processors that both load the (forged) firmware update program which contains Magic Lantern. But we could not simply reboot the Slave into normal firmware while the firmware update loader is executed. With some tricks like patching the original firmware updater, it was possible to enable the bootflag for autoexec.bin. But even running Magic Lantern in autoexec.bin failed silently. This was the point where our first investigation started stuttering.

After some deeper investigation with new methods like - lets call it "virtual flash patching" by manually patching the processors cache content - we found out that the Master is still running and waits for the Slave to send synchronization signals. If they don't arrive, Master is disabling the Slave where our code runs.Henceforward it was a job of just two weeks to find out what to do and make Magic Lantern start up cleanly and then another two weeks for updating all defines, macros and constants to get the important features running smoothly.

This alpha is a snapshot of what is working reliably enough to begin testing it widely.

Who was involved in developing Magic Lantern for the 7D?
Definitely everyone! As all the features in Magic Lantern came from the many developers contributing to ML.

Although, beyond the usual suspects, there are two key players for the 7D port: Hudson and Indy. They spent an extraordinary amount of time getting the bootflag enabled and building .FIRs that would run perfectly.Without their hard work, there would definitely be no 7D version.

What is still missing?
We can run Magic Lantern from autoexec.bin, but we still can not reliably enable the bootflag to execute it. This means, virgin cameras will only be able to run the .FIR version of ML for now. We know ways to enable the bootflag, but they would involve copyright issues. And that's something we want to avoid.

Also missing is the FPS override feature. We are not sure if this will be possible as it has been in other models.

All HDR features, bulb ramping, and features that require "properties" could possibly work as soon we enable them.For now we will keep the risk at a minimum and slowly test feature after feature - your feedback is important at this stage.


Troubleshooting
After starting the firmware upgrade, if there is only a black screen, but auto-focus works:
* reinstall the firmware v2.0.3 from the links on the right;
* make sure the 7D000203.FIR checksum is correct.
  7D000203.FIR checksum
    SHA-1: 613439A489A46D2691FB54F0DB22232F17E2AA8E
    MD-5: 29AF55CF2B404D2A60220BC9CC579EFD
    WinMD5: www.winmd5.com

The camera shows no magic lantern, but a standard firmware
* reinstall firmware again, format card and copy ML files again.

What is next?
We have to better understand what Master and Slave are doing exactly.Which one processes MPEG data, which one compresses JPEGs and what could Magic Lantern achieve by understanding this relationship?As the lens communication seems to be handled by the Master – maybe we can change the lens protocol so you can use lenses that have known bugs, or even lenses with a totally different protocol?Maybe we can read the level sensor at higher rates and embed that data into images for automatic leveling? Or even embed into videos?

But first we have to analyze the firmware. And for this we would love to buy a copy of IDA Pro with Hex-Rays Decompiler for ARM for our developers, and we cannot afford it easily without your help.

We gave our best, our time, and considerable knowledge. So please be kind and support our work!
Magic Lantern is a community effort, and you are now part of that community!

Click here to read this article!

Download
Magic Lantern for 7D alpha 1
Canon firmware v2.0.3

[RenatoPhoto]

Congratulations and thank youuuuu!!! 

[Stedda]

Congrats to all involved and thanks for you huge efforts!

[JoeNoPhoto]

wow. talk about timing. I just donated today! Thanks. Can't wait to give this jawn a try!

[exe]

Awesome work!!! It's prople like you that make a difference in the world and make it a better place! Congrats!!!!!!!!! you made a lot of people happy!

[ArturoKiwi]

Yuppie! Congratulations and thanks a lot!

[Stedda]

Works like a charm... no issues here.

Will be using my camera all day tomorrow... will report back if any thing funny happens.

Time to make another donation... pony up people... lets get these guys what they need to make these Canon cameras even better!

[Papa schulz]

THX IS WORK ^^

[ilguercio]

Nice job guys.
As for those prices... damn, i didn't know they were so high.
So let's say you get all this stuff, how much can it improve ML? Is that like the last 10% to discover all the good stuff that mother Canon doesn't want us to have?
I hope for more donations anyway, this porting and the upcoming ones should bring some money to your cause.

[g3gg0]

So let's say you get all this stuff, how much can it improve ML? Is that like the last 10% to discover all the good stuff that mother Canon doesn't want us to have?

well, it helps us to make our reverse engineering work easier.
there were days where i sat 10 hours in front of the computer, so many of the devs do.

this tool might reduce the time we need to analyze code by factor 2 or more.

[exe]

Is it possible for the 7d to brick if I use another phottix battery instead of the original canon one? Thank you so much waiting for a reply!

[Stedda]

well, it helps us to make our reverse engineering work easier.
there were days where i sat 10 hours in front of the computer, so many of the devs do.

this tool might reduce the time we need to analyze code by factor 2 or more.

With what you said, as I said before, I REALLY hope you guys decide to keep future releases to Supporters.

If others want it the least they can do is contribute the $10, otherwise wait for final releases like with ML 2.3

[g3gg0]

Is it possible for the 7d to brick if I use another phottix battery instead of the original canon one?

i dont think it will ever happen, but i cannot guarantee that.
the only thing i think will happen, could be crashes or lock-ups.

but please report, if something weird happens.

With what you said, as I said before, I REALLY hope you guys decide to keep future releases to Supporters.

we don't want to make ML smell like donationware.
we trust on the users (even first-time users) to first see what we've done, then come back and say thanks.

[feureau]

For now we will keep the risk at a minimum and slowly test feature after feature - your feedback is important at this stage.

I've been playing with my 7D ML for a while, and everything seems to be running smoothly. Any particular stuff you wish to point our attention to, O Master?

[gmfbln]

Congrats and thanks so much! Donated again.

Thank you!

[g3gg0]

Any particular stuff you wish to point our attention to, O Master?

just call me georg

as this is an alpha version, some features might work unreliable.
the best is - play with all the features. test them on HDMI. test on a SD monitor. test on a HD.
maybe you have some flash. test it. perhaps that causes ML to behave incorrectly.
or a lens that causes some weird behavior.

and if it works fine, also tell us. this feedback is also important.

[feureau]

just call me georg

as this is an alpha version, some features might work unreliable.
the best is - play with all the features. test them on HDMI. test on a SD monitor. test on a HD.
maybe you have some flash. test it. perhaps that causes ML to behave incorrectly.
or a lens that causes some weird behavior.

and if it works fine, also tell us. this feedback is also important.

Will do!

Btw, is the audio meter/monitor supposed to work only during recording? I find that if I have it on live view only, or switched to movie mode (but not recording) the audio monitor would just sit at 0.

[nanomad]

A similar behavior happens on the 600D with stock firmware, the camera probably powers down the audio IC when unneeded to save power

[g3gg0]

* Audio meters while recording

yes, only during recording

[feureau]

yes, only during recording

Okay, cool!

Still fooling around with my new toy! :3 Very solid release! Great job!

[GershberG]

1st, thanks for a great work!

2nd, I'm able to run ML with an original battery only.
when the camera is powered from external power source there's a "cannot communicate with battery"
message after loading the FW and the ML is not loaded.

3rd, since my main usage is video the very 1st impression was "where's the sound monitoring?".
having external HDMI monitor connected plugging in the AV cable with headphones turns HDMI off.

just my 5 cents, will play further.

[g3gg0]

"cannot communicate with battery" might be some issue because of firmware updating.
maybe the main firmware checks for a fully charged original battery.
thats sad, but i think theres nothing we can do. sorry.

you start the camera with HDMI attached, go into video mode and plug AV cable with headphones.
then the camera switches off HDMI output and retrns to LV display. right?
that does also happen when no ML is running, right?

[Digital Corpus]

First time I've played with ML. I've already noticed a bug with the display and leveling. When I have time (about to leave for work) I'll provide details. However, I do want to say that benchmarking a Sandisk Extreme 16GB card (60MB/sec rated) produced this:

(sorry, had to remove the white and make transparent)


However, this seems to be very solid and I hope it can be of some use to me on my vacation next week. Thank you very much for your work on this.

[cracky123456]

WOW ! really good ! works gr8 ! 

the audio meters works on live preview mode but only once...
i mean , in the first time i open the preview (after i load the ML), you see the meters running . and then i press rec buttun , they run...
but when i stop the rec, they stops running... untill i press rec again...

q: i dont have the monitor the chk this , the hdmi port can send a signal without the red dot ?

THANK YOY VERY MUCH !!!  we all love you !!!!

[GershberG]

some time ago we discussed with Alex the "cannot communicate with battery" thing
on a stable 2.3 and he found it possible to bypass. maybe this will help.

starting the camera w/o an external HDMI monitror -> starting ML -> connecting external HDMI
-> connecting AV (headphones) = no HDMI, no cam LCD

starting the camera WITH an external HDMI monitror and AV (headphones)-> starting ML =
HDMI dows work, headphones do work, realtime sound monitoring and levels on STBY.
pushing REC disables headphones. after cutting (pushing REC againg) - no levels, no headphones.