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Magic Lantern Firmware for Canon 5D

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King Cheung

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Dear All,
I have heard a lot of words of Magic Lantern Firmware for Canon 5D. Any first hand experience, please?
Thanks a lot in advance.
 
I think this is a DVXUser question.

Graeme
 
It's also a damned interesting question. I had no idea such mods existed - but then I've never contemplated using a DSLR for anything except stills.

Bringing it back on topic, has any discussion taken place about something similar for RED? Homebrew firmware mods or add-ons?

God knows Graeme & co are hackers of the first order, and I suspect RED are much better and faster at getting features into their firmware than a big corp like Canon, with all the big corp issues... (see recent EPIC firmware thread!) but still it's an idea; they can't think of *everything*. With many eyes, all bugs are shallow... and with many hands, even the most obscure feature requests get implemented...

Mike
 
Mike 'Fireman' Ross said:
It's also a damned interesting question. I had no idea such mods existed - but then I've never contemplated using a DSLR for anything except stills.

Bringing it back on topic, has any discussion taken place about something similar for RED? Homebrew firmware mods or add-ons?

God knows Graeme & co are hackers of the first order, and I suspect RED are much better and faster at getting features into their firmware than a big corp like Canon, with all the big corp issues... (see recent EPIC firmware thread!) but still it's an idea; they can't think of *everything*. With many eyes, all bugs are shallow... and with many hands, even the most obscure feature requests get implemented...

Mike
Click to expand...

Yes, those firmware updates for DSLRs make them semi-bearable to shoot with. lol. But yeah I have never tried the 5D firmware, and that is a question for another forum I think, but. Yes Mike, we have discussed this not long ago, on another thread that I cant seem to find at the moment. But it made sense that REDs design team would be more efficient at releasing official on camera tools to help. The hacking and coding of addons like Magic Lantern on a camera like RED is pointless seeing as the tools that ML implements are tools to try to make DSLRs like a cinema or video camera. I think Epic has that well in hand.

But I am totally down to suggest some features for the epic touchscreen in the future, but I will wait till I get my hands on one and see how I feel after that. ;)
 
Sam Eilertsen said:
Hacking RED firmware sounds to me like a terrible, terrible idea.
Click to expand...

Depends what you mean by 'hacking' :001_rolleyes:

Too many people think of the term in a negative light due to continual misuse by the media. If you want to know what a 'hacker' really does, go read the authoritative definition:

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html#what_is

Graeme and co. certainly hack the firmware every day; 'hacking', amongst other things, means making technology do things above and beyond what the designers envisaged. Now personally, I can't think of any piece of technology where you would have a harder time exceeding the goals of the designers than a RED camera, so it's not a strong candidate, but still...

The RED firmware itself is encrypted, so it's not directly hackable (probably a Good Thing; too much risk of breaking something). But the possibility may exist for adding extra functionality on top, as the Canon hackers have. I'm just floating the idea to get feedback on whether it's been looked at before - and if RED have either blessed or cursed the notion.

Mike
 
I'd not bless firmware hacking.

Graeme
 
sounds like a good way to absolutely void your warranty and a great possibility of throwing 50+ grand into the sewer system. if you're totally cool with that, good luck. alternatively, you could just email deanan with a feature request... hmm
 
The main reason to hack firmware is to enable the camera to its full potential, which has been crippled by the manufacturer for a multitude of reasons- mostly to control buying habits. RED are already firing on all cylinders so the subject becomes a moot point.

Unless its enabling previous frame overlay on the Fixed scarlet! ;)
 
Tim Hole said:
The main reason to hack firmware is to enable the camera to its full potential, which has been crippled by the manufacturer for a multitude of reasons- mostly to control buying habits.
Click to expand...

Best example of this actually working are the firmware hacks to the Lumix GH1.
 
Mike 'Fireman' Ross said:
Depends what you mean by 'hacking' :001_rolleyes:

Too many people think of the term in a negative light due to continual misuse by the media. If you want to know what a 'hacker' really does, go read the authoritative definition:

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html#what_is

Graeme and co. certainly hack the firmware every day; 'hacking', amongst other things, means making technology do things above and beyond what the designers envisaged. Now personally, I can't think of any piece of technology where you would have a harder time exceeding the goals of the designers than a RED camera, so it's not a strong candidate, but still...

The RED firmware itself is encrypted, so it's not directly hackable (probably a Good Thing; too much risk of breaking something). But the possibility may exist for adding extra functionality on top, as the Canon hackers have. I'm just floating the idea to get feedback on whether it's been looked at before - and if RED have either blessed or cursed the notion.

Mike
Click to expand...

I wasn't using hacking in a negative connotation. I'm a programmer and computer geek myself, I know what it would entail. I just think that it would be way too complicated and risky, I believe that RED pushes their cameras as far as is safe to do so. Messing with millions of lines of assembly code that control an $25K piece of machinery is just an awful prospect.

The firmware is encrypted? How does that work? Wouldn't the key to decrypt it have to be stored on the camera?
 
Tim Hole said:
Unless its enabling previous frame overlay on the Fixed scarlet! ;)
Click to expand...

haha! you would... but seriously. i really hope we get that, i don't like scribbling around on plexiglass and going through mumbo jumbo to match up a shot. but we'll live either way.
 
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