Magic Lantern and Sony

[addicted2light]

If you don't know Magic Lantern, it is basically an hack for Canon cameras that manages to exploit a ton more functions of which the cameras are hardware-capable but firmware-limited by the manufacturer.

 

I've used it extensively on the Canon 5D mk II, and at the time it transformed a nice camera in a nearly perfect one.

 

I think Sony should hire the hole lot of the guys behind Magic Lantern, or at the very least should take a page or two from their book.

 

Specifically, features that Magic Lantern adds to Canon cameras and that I'd very much like to see in a future Sony camera (or in a firmware update...yeah, just kidding) are:

 

Magic zoom

A magnified view of the selected focus point that you can switch on and off just with an half-press of the shutter button. And yes, it works with legacy lenses as well!

 

Cropmarks

A simple bitmap mask, user selectable and user uploadable, that can show in the finder/lcd a different crop (16:9, square, etc.). Obviously shooting in RAW you will still have the ability to undo the crop, but it is extremely useful for compositional purposes.

 

Bulb timer

I think there should be a Sony app somewhere for this, but come on, the ability to go over 30s it should be built directly in firmware. With Magic Lantern you can select exposures up to a length of 8 hours!

 

Remote

Similar to the "Touchless shutter" Sony app that lets you wave your hand in front of the eye-sensor to start an exposure, with Magic Lantern you can trigger an exposure either:

• Optically: waving the hand in front of the eye sensor
• Audio: snapping your fingers; can be useful for shooting bullets piercing fruit
• Motion detection: this is awesome. The camera can be set to shot all by itself if it detects motion in the frame (or, alternatively, changes in the exposure levels). It works with legacy glass
• Trap focus: you focus where your subject should pass, and wait. When it will be in focus the camera will shoot all by itself. REALLY useful not just for sport, but even for street photography with MF lenses, given it works with legacy glass.

With Magic Lantern all this options are even configurable, so you can fine tune the sensitivity to your specific needs.

 

Stack focus

Similar to the system implemented by Olympus in the E-M1, and working obviously only with AF lenses, this will automatically calculate how many frames you need for sharpness front to back and it will then shoot them. You will still need to join the pictures in the computer, but it removes human error from the equation.

 

Auto exposure on zoom

This is awesome. Independently from the kind of mode you're into (M, A, S, P) the camera will temporary switch to A when you zoom in to focus. This way even if you're using an f/stop of 16, or the focus point is aimed at a location that is quite dark compared to the rest of the well-exposed scene, the camera will amplify the signal and focusing becomes a breeze.

 

Increase sharp contrast

Similar to the "Auto exposure on zoom", this will pump contrast and sharpness to the max to facilitate focusing only when you zoom in to focus.

 

I hope someone at Sony will listen...

 

[EVVK]

Magic lantern really shows the art of open source and reverse enginering. Like you mentioned it consists of hijacking into the stock firmware and run aside. But it's far from programming something from scratch, more like adding duct tape in the right memory adresses at the correct times and improving functionality. Still very impressing.

 

And all those phenomenal functions that Magic Lantern has given is much thanks to the open community. That anyone can read/learn/interpret and therefor contribute or give suggestions where the power lies of open source. So far Sony's camera departement have been pervs of properitary software so opening up more than needed is very unlikely. They actually dropped a bit source code on old cameras,  --> http://oss.sony.net/Products/Linux/DI/category01.html

But all that code is useless. They didn't release that infavor for that for the user community, only cause they had to without violating the orginal licenses of that source code. 

 

Luckily their phone department have woken up and gotten some sense about Open-Source. But thats the only department.

 

Neverthless it's highly unlikely that anyone from Magic Lantern would like to sign bunch of Sony NDA's and basically give any rights away to do any hobby related camera programming in the future. I doubt that the people coding ML are unemplyed, it tends to be a good thing to be active in an open source project for your CV.

 

It's just a totally other world. Sony won't listen or care as they are a closed company if they do not re-think their whole business model.

 

If you wan't an open source camera, (where actually ML devs have been helping in), then take a look at this: https://www.apertus.org/

 

Lots of the camera industry is software magic; low-level tweaking, for example noise canceling that the manufacturers would like to keep away from competitors eyes. Good and transparent low level noise canceling could for example is giving the impression that the sensor is better than the competitors and therefor an edge. 

[wedge]

OMG, Trap Focus would be epic with legacy lenses.  I often try to capture my dogs with my Minolta 58 1.4.  But they usually wont sit still long enough, especially the puppies!  My current technique is using the 11fps burst, and as long as I'm close to the right focus, then I'll usually nail one of the shots.  That would be so much easier with trap focus.

[glitterball]

Custom Crop Marks would be really useful; I used to use a custom rule of thirds with 2.39:1 crop marks bitmap when I used Canon gear.

My A7s doesn't allow me to show the marker display at the same time as a rule of thirds grid.

[Stein W]

As a "newbie" to the photoworld, at least digital cameras, I`m wondering about this Magic landtern.

Been using A77 (1,and 2) for a couple of years, before my A99 which I`m quite satified with. Now - a friend of mine is using a Canon 6d, with ML, and I have seen the advantages, particulary the "dual iso".

 

Please explaine a newbie, the advantages of ML on a A99, compared with the original software.

 

Thank`s in advance.

[addicted2light]

As a "newbie" to the photoworld, at least digital cameras, I`m wondering about this Magic landtern.

Been using A77 (1,and 2) for a couple of years, before my A99 which I`m quite satified with. Now - a friend of mine is using a Canon 6d, with ML, and I have seen the advantages, particulary the "dual iso".

 

Please explaine a newbie, the advantages of ML on a A99, compared with the original software.

 

Thank`s in advance.

 

 

Unfortunately you won't be able to use ML on the A99, because ML is an hack of the Canon firmware so it will work only on some Canon models.

 

Basically, these guys re-wrote the firmware used in some Canon models (5D etc.) to remove blocks put in place by the manufacturer to limit the functionality of their cameras (to push you into buying the more expensive model) and adding more functions to boot (but the hardware has to be able to run this functions in the first place).

[jonneymendoza01]

Ml features tend to favour video rather than stills though

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[addicted2light]

Ml features tend to favour video rather than stills though

 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

 

Yes, in fact these listed above are just a small selection of the functions that have as well a photographic utility. But there are many more "unlocked" by ML geared towards video; even if, to be fair, in this regard Sony cameras are already pretty complete compared to Canon ones.

[Vic Tor]

There was such project to hack NEX cameras, started 4-5 years ago by a group around Vitaly Kiselev (well known hacker of the GH2): http://www.nex-hack.info/

At the beginning there were a lot of enthusiasm and optimism about it but now... I didn't hear something new over last years... perhaps the success story of the A7 series can revive this project - a LOT of photographers would really appreciate it! Wanna start a petition?

[addicted2light]

There was such project to hack NEX cameras, started 4-5 years ago by a group around Vitaly Kiselev (well known hacker of the GH2): http://www.nex-hack.info/

At the beginning there were a lot of enthusiasm and optimism about it but now... I didn't hear something new over last years... perhaps the success story of the A7 series can revive this project - a LOT of photographers would really appreciate it! Wanna start a petition?

 

 

Thanks for the info, I didn't know of these guys! 

 

Unfortunately it looks like the last activity on their forum dates February 2015...let's hope they didn't give up in the meantime.

 

More than a petition my guess is they need good programmers, but hey it might be a good idea to keep an eye on them should they manage to make stride with the project