Magic Lantern shines brighter…

The wiz kids over at Magic Lantern have released a new version of their now legendary (well if it isn’t by now it should be) firmware solution for Canon DSLRs. Once again, it’s free to download. Considering what this firmware brings to your DSLR, it’s incredible that it won’t cost you a thing. There is an option to donate a few quid on their site – we did, so should you, if you’re a Canon DSLR user and intend to run Magic Lantern on your camera (and double its value).

Some of the features of this new update include:

·         Full support for 5D mark II

·         Fast Zebras

·         Customizable menu and shortcut keys

·         Automatic HDR bracketing

·         Timelapse features

·         Advanced ISO control (ISO 80, improved highlight rolloff, ISO 51200…)

·         Advanced FPS control (24.000 FPS and 0.2 FPS possible)

·         New menu design

·         Image analysis tools in photo mode

·         Contrast and saturation adjustments for LiveView

·         Improved Stability

·         Very fast playback zoom

·         Compatibility with: Canon 5D Mark II 2.1.2, T2i/550D 1.0.9, 60D 1.1.1, T3i/600D 1.0.2, 50D 1.0.9 and T1i/500D 1.1.1

One of our favourite updates is the customisable menu and shortcuts – we no longer have to keep going to the Magic Lantern menu screen to adjust the various settings such as ISO and Kelvin, now we can tweak those using the shortcut menu without leaving LiveView mode so we can play with them while adjusting the aperture settings, making it much more intuitive when shooting and allowing us to be far more experimental in our settings.

We had the chance to try it out, along with our new Olympus lenses, in the field last weekend when shooting scenes for our feature project, All That Remains (working title).

Shooting on set with our Canon Rebel DLSR running the latest Magic Lantern firmware.
(Photo credits: Phil Pugh)

In many ways, it felt like we were using a new camera, and thanks to the shortcuts, we could set up shots much quicker - as we were constantly on edge about the weather (we had forecasts of heavy rain), we were truly grateful to the guys over at Magic Lantern!

You can download it at the new Magic Lantern forum (be sure to make a small donation too).

www.magiclantern.fm/

We'll be posting a few stills from the shoot mentioned above on this blog soon. In the meantime, you can read more about our filming over at the movie's official blog.