EOS-M Shooters Guide

[maxotics]

EOS-M RAW Magic Lantern "Alpha" VIDEO OVERVIEW

After extensive testing I can recommend the EOS-M as a good experimental camera.  However, it is not dependable. There is no indication Magic Lantern will ever see Beta, let alone a stable release for this camera.  Current problems include a "shutter bug", screen problems if you forget to turn off custom FPS in movie mode and the fact that the camera turns off audio when shooting RAW and doesn't turn it back on if you switch to H.264  (I keep forgetting and ending up with soundless video).

Last edit: 11/17/2013

The Canon EOS-M, in crop-mode, produces a "film"-like look in wide dynamic-range (14-bit color) 1280x720 24fps RAW video. 

Caveats:

• Unlike the 50D, 5D2, 5D3 and other non "hybrid focus" EOS cameras, focus pixels "pink dots" must be interpolated around in post-production.  An extra step.  These dots can also appear in clipped areas of the image and may need special post-processing to remove.
• There is a "shutter bug" where the camera will stop taking photos.  If you're aware of the workarounds, you can get the camera to take photos again.  The bug, like all good viruses, doesn't seem to affect everyone's camera/setup so has been difficult for the devs to cure. 

With an adapter (Canon or Fotodiox), the camera will work with all EF lenses.

Recommended lens, 11-22mm; however, not for sale in U.S. yet.  One can purchase from a store in Canada.  Hopefully Canon will release in the U.S. this holiday season.

Kit lens 18-55, is good, IS is great.

22mm lens also works well, but does NOT have image stabilization (IS).

10-20mm EF lens, using adapter, works very well. 

Here are some effective focal lengths with various lens in crop mode:

Lens   Effective 3x Crop
4.5    18mm
8.0    32mm
10    40mm
15    59mm
20    79mm
24    95mm
28    111mm
40    158mm
50    198mm
60    238mm
85    337mm

ACTIVE THREADS (they start at 1st page, use links above to get to later pages)

ML Development for Camera
http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=9741.0

The "shutter bug" is discussed here:
http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=8347.0

THANKS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: 1%, A1ex, Gary, Jerrykil, Malakai, RenatoPhoto, Mountain_drew, t0910 and others.

[maxotics]

INSTALLATION

To record RAW video you need a SD CARD that writes at least 40MBS (that's megaBYTES per second, not megaBITS).  I recommend the Sandisk 95MBS card.  Due to the camera buffer and other issues, it will never write faster than 40MBS.

I have put together a package of all the files I currently use (at my risk, would be your risk!).  A late ML build, the EOScard utility (please consider donating at http://pel.hu/eoscard/), various software utilities and CODECs.  Sorry I can't provide a lot of personalized assistance.  Reading these threads, and looking through these folders, should get you up and running.  Sorry, no MAC stuff in there yet, though someone is working on it.

http://maxotics.com/software/downloading.aspx?file=EOSM_MLStarterSet.zip

INSTALL AND RE-INSTALL OF EOS-M CAMERAS

INSTALL ML (1% Build)

1. Format card in camera (will put on DCIM and MISC folders)
2. Get latest EOS-M install.  Currently: http://ml.bot-fly.com/  (Thanks Jerrykil)
3. Copy this to a folder on your computer, and decompress (that way you can go back to the build if later it appears more stable)
4. Copy everything from the ZIP file (ML folder, autoexec.bin and EOSM_202.fir) unto the memory card.
5. Run EOScard utility, or Mac utility, and make card bootable. Forthe EOScard program, just click on the ML icon in the lower right, then click "save".
6. Camera in 'M' mode, last wrench, update firmware
7. When you have success shut down, re-start camera.


STEPS TO REMOVE ML FROM EOS-M

MAKE SURE MANUAL MODE ON...
1. Turn camera on in Photo mode (middle button top dial)
2. Press "Mode" box on touch screen, top, left
3. Press wheel left until you get to 'M' box (manual)
4. MENU, then First Wrench, then Format Card
   Don't tap screen to format card (keeping ML). Select and press OK
5. Goto last wrench, Update Firmware, pick latest version, SET (now that card's been formatted, it has no ML so camera will see nothing, and look to revert to factory boot)
6. GREEN ML screen should come up about BOOKDISK flag
7. Rotate dial to Movie mode
8. WHITE ML screen will now say "BOOTDISK flag is DISABLED"
9. Turn Camera Off
10. Format card in computer.
11. Format card in camera.

EOS-M SHOULD BE AS IT CAME FROM FACTORY

Other issues

o. Shutter-bug Issue
Camera may stop working; taking photos.  There are two workarounds: 1.) Power up, rotate lens to break connection with camera and rotate back. 2.) Power on the camera then power it back off and then back on before the SD light flashes. You get about a second, maybe two to do this.

Keep In Mind
o. When taking out the memory card, watch that your other hand, holding the camera, isn't hitting the power on/off switch.  Possible corruption issues if you remove/insert card during power on/off cycle.
o. The camera won't go into "Crop Mode" unless the top dial in on Movie mode!

[maxotics]

CONFIGURATION

First, in order for the camera to bring up the menu by double tapping the screen, you have to disable "Touch Shutter" in the Canon menu.  After ML install, you bring up the ML menu be tapping on the screen with two fingers.  You can then select menu items using the wheel on the camera, then a single finger selection on the screen (says Q), to bring up sub-menu selections.

1. Load raw_rec module
2. Set FPS (recommended 24)
3. Set "Crop Mode"
4. Set aspect 16:9
5. Set resolution 1280x720
6. Turn hacks on

ML now auto-boots.  Video is old, but mostly still relevant:

There is a shutter bug with the camera, where the shutter won't fire a photo.  There is a whole thread on this here:

http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=8347.new#new

From Malakai

o. Installing any version of Magic or Tragic Lantern can cause the shutter bug to occur with any EF-M lens.
o. There have been no reports that the bug effects lenses using the EF-M adapter.
o. Running with the bootflag enabled means your camera will boot Magic/Tragic Lantern first then Canon firmware and can cause the bug with EF-M lenses
o. Running with the bootflag disabled means your camera only boots from the Canon firmware. As Magic/Tragic Lantern is no longer running the bug wont exist.
o. Enabling and Disabling the bootflag is as simple as runnng the firmware updater again and changing the mode dial to enable or disable the bootflag.
o. There are two ways to clear the bug when running Magic/Tragic Lantern. Do a quick power cycle or just rotate the lens while powered to break contact between the lens and body.
o. There are some people not experiencing the bug while running Magic/Tragic Lantern with different EF-M lenses. This could be due to many factors.

From Jerrykil, on how to disable the bootflag

set the mode dial to the middle AKA the Still Photo mode.
hit Menu
select the   Set-up 4 tab
select the  firmware vers.: 2.0.2 AKA Firmware update and press the Set button
select Camera and hit Set
select OK and hit Set
wait until you see the green "Success!" screen of the installer
turn the mode dial to either Intelligent Auto or Movie mode (change the mode to disable the bootdisk)
wait for the camera to run the DisableBootDisk instructions. You will see "DisableBootDisk" and then the camera will eventually show you "BOOTDISK flag is DISABLED"
reboot the camera into an ML free state. I have never experienced a bug here.

SCREEN CORRUPTION IN LIVE VIEW
There are other problems, that can be worked around.  For example, if you change exposure with FPS configured in the RAW menu the screen will fritz out when the exposure is over or under.  You can fix this by turning FPS off. 

[maxotics]

BASIC USAGE

See ML Best Practices
http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=8286.msg75950#msg75950

Here are the aspect ratios and resolutions you can shoot in.  The green highlighted cells show aspect ratio/resolution combinations that would write under 40 megabytes per second (the limit of the camera).  These are ball-park estimates. However, each SD card, ML build, and settings you want to do, will make a difference.  You'll have to do some experimentation if you want to record at the highest rate your camera can do.



There are resolutions at aspect ratios that the camera will suggest that will not match values in the table.  Those combinations are designed to stretch.  For example, in normal mode, the camera might suggest 1600x542 (34.7MBS) that, when the 542 is stretched by 1.66x (to 903), results in 1600x903, which will fit a 16:9 aspect ratio.  You could then downscale that to 1280x720, or upscale to 1920x1080.

The calculations in this table may be off a bit, but should give you the general idea.



Wide angles are recommended because in crop-mode they become normal lenses.  For example, an 8mm becomes a 12mm when you factor in the sensor crop.  Then another 3x crop to avoid line skipping (moire) and you have 36mm.

[maxotics]

BASIC POST-PROCESSING

The EOS-M uses some pixels for its hybrid focusing system.  The pixels need to be interpolated around (fixed) before the image is de-bayered.  There is Java software, "Pink Dot Remover" PDR, just for this purpose.  At this writing, you need two version to handle both normal and crop mode RAW files. 

RenatoPhoto RAW Video Post Processing Guide
http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=5654.0

I created a Windows-only utility "Focus Pixel Fixer" that interpolates around the focus pixels in 1280x720 mode ONLY.

https://bitbucket.org/maxotics/focuspixelfixer/downloads

You drag a EOS-M RAW file onto it and it will create a copy without the focus pixels. 

[maxotics]

WHAT TO UNDERSTAND AND WATCH OUT FOR

Moire and Aliasing

First, recognize that in RAW video (and photography) each pixel does NOT start out with a full color.  It is either a red, green or blue pixel.  For every four pixels, two are green, one red and one blue.  These patters are in what's called a Bayer pattern, after their inventor.  Here is a photo of a real sensor.  The blues didn't come out well; they are the pixels that aren't green or red.


http://www.siliconimaging.com/RGB%20Bayer.htm

SHOOTING NORMAL MODE

In full sensor mode, video is generally captured by scanning pixels from a 5,194 by 2,903 (16:9 aspect) of the sensor.  The right way to do it, would be to down-sample all those pixels.  But for electronic/engineering reasons, the EOS-M doesn't read and sample all the pixels, but reads them every other line (The 5D3 does, BTW).  So it skips about 2.2 lines vertically and 7.2 pixels horizontally.  This is complicated by the fact that the sensor pixels each read either a red, green or blue value.  So two lines, if they don't have enough color information (because it's missing from the middle), will end up with a bright red or blue or green.  When the pixels get de-bayered (the full colors calculated) chromatic aberrations occur.  The bottom line is that all consumer cameras, in video mode, suffer from this "line-skipping" problem, to a greater or lesser degree.

In addition to chromatic aberrations, line skipping means that if you have a hard vertical or horizontal line in your image, and it falls between the samples lines, it appears as a jagged artifact.  They form ugly "moire" patterns.

What software is used to de-bayer the image, also has a bearing on the quality.  The distortions from line-skipping show up more in some software and less in others.  I believe Davinci Resolve is the best at dealing with it, but I have no direct experience. 

CROP MODE

In the 19:6 aspect ratio, the EOS-M, can create images from the center 1280 pixels long (wide) by 720 pixels high.  The reason that crop-mode videos do not suffer from moire is it doesn't skip lines, or pixels.  It uses the center-most 1280x720 pixels of the sensor.  The drawback, is that it taking an image from a small part of sensor and enlarging it, so to speak, which creates a zoom, long focal-length; that is, if a lens is 20mm normally, by taking the a center part of the image it becomes 79mm. 

[maxotics]

REFERENCES

RenatoPhoto Magic Lantern Guides:

Very good beginners-guide to ML RAW
http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=5520.0

How to record: -- RAW Digital Cropped Video 30/24fps on 5D3 & others
http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=5441.0

TECHNICAL

ADTG: http://magiclantern.wikia.com/wiki/ADTG

[maxotics]

ADVANCED USAGE

RenatoPhotoGuide
http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=5693.0

AETTR and DualIso
http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=8322.0

Very good ETTR Explanation

[maxotics]

ADVANCED POST PROCESSING

Windows

TO COME...


Mac

1: http://tl.bot-fly.com/misc/kit_hdrvideo.zip
This one converts HDR videos to avi's with ffmpeg and enfuse on mac os! you shouldn't need anything but this zip and a bunch of alternating ISO HDR clips. Everything runs in parallel, including enfuse, so this is pretty useful

2: http://tl.bot-fly.com/misc/kit_cr2hdr.zip
This one just includes the latest and greatest cr2hdr with dcraw and exiftool. I also threw in a script that allows you to drag multiple files into the terminal window to convert them from dual_iso to those purdy 14bit DNG files.

[maxotics]

DEVELOPERS

WISH LIST

o. Focus Pixel removal in raw2dng
o. An improved version of PDR that scans for bad pixels
o. A "shutter bug" fix, of course!
o. Better de-bayering in RAW to Cineform (or some choices in algos).

General ML Related
o. A return of the RAWanizer dev

1% Source can be found here:

https://bitbucket.org/OtherOnePercent

[maxotics]

WHY RAW?

Although showing 5D3 RAW, this article from Andrew Reid at EOSHD applies to all RAW cameras: http://www.eoshd.com/content/11395/real-difference-normal-dslr-video-5d-mark-iii-raw-video

If you want to understand video compression, as in the difference between 4:4:4 and 4:2:0.  Or why H.264 video does not make for good source footage, then start here: http://www.dvxuser.com/articles/colorspace/

Here is a frame from the EOS-M, when it is shooting native H.264 video.  You'll notice that the colors have been moved towards their primaries, and the primaries are brighter.  A lot of detail has been crushed to black.



Here is a frame from RAW.  All colors have equal brightness.  The case is black plastic, but here you can see its detail.  The image looks noisier, but that only because you're getting every pixel. 



RAW save the shadows, especially in low light.

RAW brings out color depth.

[maxotics]

FUTURE USE 3

[maxotics]

FUTURE USE 4

[maxotics]

FUTURE USE 5

[maxotics]

WHAT KIND OF COMMENTS TO LEAVE HERE:

Please leave only fixes/comments/videos/links that you believe should be included in above.  I will cut and paste them.  Thanks in advance for your help!!!

If you have questions, please go to one of these threads, or PM me directly.

[tr0910]

Did I miss in this otherwise excellent instruction, that I need to set the camera to disable "Touch Shutter"?  If its here, I missed it and had to be rescued by 1%.  Thanks

Here is the trick....

In order for the camera to bring up the menu by double tapping the screen, you have to disable "Touch Shutter" in the Canon menu.