T2i Magic Lantern for 550D in progress!

Can there be a visual representation for the current display number ? (eg. disp1, disp2 and so forth)
 
Mar 24 build:

My experience with the display profiles is that when I set the menu for 4, the 4th (3) is a completely blank display (LCD is working and I get what's coming TTL), regardless what I set in LiveV. There is no display of either Canon or ML at all. However, half-pressing the shutter button brings up the ML display settings, with the Canon bottom bar for a moment, then it returns to blank display.

ClrScreen is set to "when idle" (i.e. nothing displayed unless you press some buttons).

As a general comment, I haven't been running ML long enough to know, but I'm getting a lot of thermometer icon indicating a hot cam with this build. Battery getting pretty hot.
Certain features (like zebra, focus peaking, magic zoom) use a lot of CPU power.

Another observation is that motion detection turned on, doesn't seem to write to the config file, even when saving manually. It still is off on reboot. (and I have no idea what to do with it ;)
There's no point in having it always on. (just like with intervalometer)

Mar 14 build

Since I'm reporting, I'll mention that I took the Mar 14 build out on two commercial shoots last week (one video and one stills) and had a fair amount of locking up of the camera requiring battery removal to get out of.
Can you find a way to reproduce the lockups? What were you doing when it was locked, and which features were enabled?

Can there be a visual representation for the current display number ? (eg. disp1, disp2 and so forth)
See the bottom bar display.
 
ClrScreen is set to "when idle" (i.e. nothing displayed unless you press some buttons).

That was it, thanks! Suggestion: alerting users to this functionality early on in the manual so that they are aware that they may be inadvertently configuring presets as they poke around the controls.

Can you find a way to reproduce the lockups? What were you doing when it was locked, and which features were enabled?

I will keep an eye on it, Alex and report back. I feel fairly confident that I cut the number of lockups in movie mode by turning off movie mode remap, but I did no real testing of this.

I'm late to the ML game, and spent the last long day reading through hundreds of wiki posts, just to get a feel for the process behind this fantastic project. I've been through the manual three times, but as with anything else, I have to make all of the mistakes first before I really grasp it. Impressive work. Aside from the vastly improved functionality, you've made using the T2i addictive.

The only interface issue I face is that, because I use a Hoodman loupe that I've velcroed to the LCD frame, the LCD sensor as button feature is not something I can use effectively. I really want to use the sensor as button, so I have to work on it.
 
I have some questions/concerns about magic lantern, I feel like I'm capable of installing it but want to know some things before I do....

1. is it possible to completely brick my camera doing this?

2. with ML can I still access all the normal Canon menu's? ie. could i still use the camera as normal with ML installed.

3. does ML have any effect on the photo side of the camera or is it only visible in movie mode?

4. how prevalent are the lockups? do they do any harm to the camera? can they corrupt the footage? and is it just a case of taking the battery out and putting it back in to fix them?

I just want to be sure before I go ahead with it because I've just put $1500 into all my gear and don't want to mess anything up....

the main things I want ML for is the AGC disabling and the crop marks as I'll be cropping my stuff to 2.35:1 (in conjunction with the cinemorph filter)
 
I am by no mean an expert in ML but I do have some knowledge and I will answer with my knowledge gathered so far.

1. Most likely scenario where this could happen is having a SD card bootable with no ML.exe on it can cause the camera the go into a loop that could burn up the processor. Easy prevention is never loading a card that is bootable that does not have ML on it.

2. Yes and I'm pretty sure.

3. Yes

4. The only lockup I ever had were before I installed ML and had the Canon only firmware and it happened 3 times. Mine still works. Footage that was recording when it locked up was gone, all others where there. Yes, take battery out.

You will use more then the AGC disabling but that is huge.
 
I have some questions/concerns about magic lantern, I feel like I'm capable of installing it but want to know some things before I do....

1. is it possible to completely brick my camera doing this?

I'm not the best person to answer this question :Drogar-Dum(DBG):, but from the manual:

• If you encounter a “locked up” camera, quickly remove the battery. Otherwise the ARM
might be in a tight-loop and get very hot, very quickly. Your battery will run down and
your LCD might show some discoloration.
• When in doubt, remove the battery and reboot.
• And, remember that this software can damage or destroy your camera.


I think it's important to be monitoring your camera when running ML at this point. I wouldn't be inclined to set it up to record for a long period unattended.

2. with ML can I still access all the normal Canon menu's? ie. could i still use the camera as normal with ML installed.
I'm not sure what you are asking here. You have access to all the Canon menu's, and for example, if you have used the ML menu to dial in an ISO of 160, you can then go to the Canon ISO button and change it, which would override the ML selection (until you change it again from the ML side).

More to the concept of using the Canon firmware only, ML installs on the card, not the camera, so you can just use a card without ML on it. There is also a great feature that allows you to easily boot to the camera's firmware by holding the shutter key half-pressed when turning the camera on.

3. does ML have any effect on the photo side of the camera or is it only visible in movie mode?
ML has wicked enhancements for the functionality of the still modes too!

4. how prevalent are the lockups? do they do any harm to the camera? can they corrupt the footage? and is it just a case of taking the battery out and putting it back in to fix them?
See above, and I have had no lockup issues that weren't corrected by taking out the battery. No battery no, power, no continuation of the lockup.

I just want to be sure before I go ahead with it because I've just put $1500 into all my gear and don't want to mess anything up....
I have read this thread, and the appropriate threads on other forums. I have also gone back to September in the ML wiki and read hundreds of posts there. Oh, and I read the manual... three times, which was the most valuable thing I did. My suggestion is to read the manual completely if you have concerns, so that you will have good idea what you are getting into.

But, I don't see what trouble you could get into by installing ML on one of your cards so that you can be trying things out as you read about them in the manual. I say, go for it!

Pretty much, most of your questions are more than answered by Alex in the manual.

the main things I want ML for is the AGC disabling and the crop marks as I'll be cropping my stuff to 2.35:1 (in conjunction with the cinemorph filter)
And so it begins. :2vrolijk_08:
 
thanks guys, i did a bit of looking around and found some of the answers elsewhere as well....lol...sorry if i seem like i'm paranoid....

i'll definitely give the manual a read through.... but i do think I'm going to give it a shot....

EDIT: one more question....

on the wiki's install page it says

# Download this release: magiclantern-0.2.0.rc1.550d.fw109.zip.
# Read this discussion thread for more info.
# You may want to get an updated build

so when I first do it do I have to install the "magiclantern-0.2.0.rc1.550d.fw109.zip" build and THEN update to the newest one? or can I just do my first install with the latest build, which is "magiclantern-2011Mar24.550d.fw109.tweaks.alex.zip"?

EDIT 2: another one....

in step 1 of the install tutorial it says "Once the drive light has gone off and stays off for a few seconds, remove the battery.", does that mean turn the camera off and remove the battery or just remove it without turning the camera off? i'd presume you'd need to turn it off first, right?
 
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1. is it possible to completely brick my camera doing this?
Yes.

There are two recent issues with the camera frozen with mirror up (sensor visible even when battery is out). I'm not sure if this problem is caused by ML or not. As far as I know from some astrophoto sites, the camera can't maintain the mirror up without power applied, which makes me think it's a mechanical problem with the shutter.

2. with ML can I still access all the normal Canon menu's? ie. could i still use the camera as normal with ML installed.
Yes.

Even more, if you don't want ML for a shot, you can hold the shutter button half-pressed when starting the camera, and it will load the original firmware.

3. does ML have any effect on the photo side of the camera or is it only visible in movie mode?
Yes, quite a lot :)

4. how prevalent are the lockups? do they do any harm to the camera? can they corrupt the footage? and is it just a case of taking the battery out and putting it back in to fix them?
A few builds are unstable, but the latest ones seem to be fine. It can freeze if you press REC too fast. If it freezes while take a picture, that picture is lost. If it freezes while recording a video, what was already saved on the card will be fine (at least this is what I've noticed on my camera).

I just want to be sure before I go ahead with it because I've just put $1500 into all my gear and don't want to mess anything up....
You will do this at your own risk, like the warnings on the wiki say :)

P.S. At the beginning, I was afraid to install ML on my camera, too :)

P.P.S. You can do the first install with any build (the installer is the same)
 
New build:
- Ability to start/stop recording by half-pressing the shutter

Very very cool.[FONT=Courier, Monospaced]
[/FONT]
 
Finally found a good opportunity for a used T2i.

Is it advised to remove the lens when installing Magic Lantern ?
Actually I don't have a lens yet, just want to know if I can install and run it now without a lens on.
Wondering if there is any special warning about this case...
 
Finally found a good opportunity for a used T2i.

Is it advised to remove the lens when installing Magic Lantern ?
Actually I don't have a lens yet, just want to know if I can install and run it now without a lens on.
Wondering if there is any special warning about this case...

You can keep the lens on. It doesnt matter. :)
 
Thank you for you reply.

Hm... Maybe I wasn't clear but I think there was some misunderstanding.
Here is the full story :
I will have a canon lens tomorrow, I want to install ML right now so that tomorrow I can put the lens on and go.
Add to that that I would appreciate to see how it works on the cam, menus etc... before I get to use it.
Oh and also I just can't wait to use it, I can't deny that :)
 
Thank you for you reply.

Hm... Maybe I wasn't clear but I think there was some misunderstanding.
Here is the full story :
I will have a canon lens tomorrow, I want to install ML right now so that tomorrow I can put the lens on and go.
Add to that that I would appreciate to see how it works on the cam, menus etc... before I get to use it.
Oh and also I just can't wait to use it, I can't deny that :)

not sure why you think there was a misunderstanding... ML has nothing at all to do with the lens. Its a camera thing- with or without a lens, and with or without Magic Lantern, you can boot the camera and fiddle around with the menus. However, just like a regular camera, you can't really do anything without a lens. ML does not magically grow a lens, if that is what you are implying?
 
Haha, no that is not what I was implying, it already grows a lot of things.
I know that ML does read and display lens data, depending on how and when these data are read it could have issues with uncommon cases. Actually I considered my question as being uncommon enough to ask here...

Thank you for your answer !
 
The question is fine, since ML has trouble installing if a battery grip is attached. It may "marry" the camera to that grip (don't know why it happens).

I'm not aware of any issues regarding presence/absence of lens.
 
Hi Alex, I wanted to bring something up that may already have been addressed.
Tonight I was shooting some fast moving action and switched over to 720 60p and then turned off the camera.

The camera wouldn't come back on. At all. No lights, no mirror snap, no nothing.

Switched through all the dial settings, dropped the card in and out, took off the battery grip, nothing.

Then for whatever reason, it cranked back up and I saw the "video" look on the LCD and went into the menu to switch back to 1080 24p.
Since that I haven't had any more power outages.

I recalled that ML isn't optimized for 720 but I thought I would put this incident out there in case anyone else runs into it.

Other than that one time incident, it's been operating like a champ!
 
Which build were you using?

It may be related to the bug which caused ERR80 when taking raw pictures in burst mode (it may have side effects at shutdown, too).
 
Newbie here. Trying to install ML for the first time.

I tried unsuccessfully to download EOScard.exe and bootcf.exe (error message below) so I can make my 8G SD card bootable. Is there any other way to make a SD card bootable on a PC? Will Trickcard do the job?

Thanks for the help.


This webpage is not available

The webpage at http://pel.hu/down/EOScard.exe might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.
 
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