A programmer who goes by the name Turtius has managed to install and run a Minecraft server on a Canon SL2 (also known as the EOS200D) DSLR camera. Turtius was working on reverse-engineering Canon's network processor when he decided to try and see if it could be done.
When you hear the name Magic Lantern, you probably think of third-party Canon firmware. But long before there was such a thing as firmware, or Canon for that matter, there was the Magic Lantern projector.
Canon's original EOS M flopped as the company's first contender in the emerging mirrorless camera market, but now third-party hackers are working to unlock more of its potential. And they're making progress: using Magic Lantern, the EOS M is able to shoot 2.5K raw video.
One of the best April Fools trolls in the photo industry wasn't a troll at all... which made it that much better. Announced as a joke yesterday to many a rolled eye and "suuuure," Magic Lantern has managed to add Super 35mm 4K RAW video recording to the 5-year-old 5D Mark III.
Magic Lantern may soon release their most popular feature since RAW video. A few of the folks who constantly improve the Canon software add-on have just found a way to generate 14-bit lossless DNG RAW files in-camera!
Great news Canon lovers. That new 5D Mark IV you just bought won't be limited to the manufacturer firmware for too much longer. It seems the talented hackers at Magic Lantern have already managed to break into the new camera.
Getting started with Magic Lantern can be a bit daunting for a beginner. That's why computer science student and filmmaker Jake Coppinger put together this easy-to-follow step-by-step video guide that shows you how to (safely) install and use the powerful software add-on.
Unofficial RAW video functionality could be coming to a Nikon DSLR near you in the not-too-distant future. The Nikon hacker community appears to be making progress in using the live view feature of cameras to obtain RAW footage from the sensor.
Magic Lantern is being slammed online after pulling an "unfunny" April Fool's Day prank that gave DSLR owners a fake "Blue Screen of Death." The message on the screen contained phoney technical details and informed users that their camera was "bricked."
Magic Lantern is announcing that it has passed a new milestone in hacking DSLRs: making Linux run on Canon DSLR cameras.
The news was announced in the group's forums yesterday, and many people believed it to be an April Fools' joke, but it turns out the development was actually real (the joke was making it look like a joke).
The time-lapse above by photographer Colin Legg does a great job of showing off the power of Magic Lantern RAW video while capturing a cool astronomical phenomenon at the same time.
Lest you think that smartphones have the mobile gaming market all but wrapped up, the folks at Magic Lantern have decided to shake things up a little bit. In the spirit of the old Kodak DSLR that came equipped with Pong, ML's pravdomil has added the ability to play a stripped down version of the old 1980s brick breaker-style game "Arkanoid" on the Canon 7D.
Ever since the Magic Lantern folks unlocked the ability to shoot RAW video on the 5D Mark III (and, subsequently, a few more cameras after that) the DSLR world has been buzzing with excitement. The added dynamic range and detail seem make RAW video the easy choice over H.264 in any situation.
But is that really the case? In the video above, Learning DSLR Video's Dave Dugdale explains the pros and cons of Magic Lantern RAW over H.264, and when it might be better to just stick with the standard format.
A couple of days ago, to the delight of many a 7D user, we heard that Magic Lantern was working on bringing RAW video goodness to the semi-pro model. And now, only four days later to be exact, we have our first RAW video sample shot with the aging prosumer camera.
Yesterday, we shared the groundbreaking news that Magic Lantern's a1ex had managed to squeeze 3 more stops of dynamic range out of Canon's 5D Mark III and 7D by using a new feature dubbed Dual ISO. Today, we have a comparison that shows what RAW video shot on the 5D Mark III looks like taken both with and without the Dual ISO feature enabled.
All of the updates coming out of Magic Lantern's camp recently have been RAW video related. And while there has been news enough on that front to keep us excited, we were happy to see something new coming from the ML team today.
In the past month and a half, Magic Lantern has seemingly made the impossible possible by bringing high definition RAW video to several Canon cameras and turning the cinema camera world upside down. With how fast these most recent updates have come out, it's easy to forget how much work has gone into Magic Lantern over the years.
A1ex from Magic Lantern's main development team wanted to remind us, and so he created this video representation of the work that the team has had put in to go from humble beginnings to the hack's current level of awesomeness.
When the Canon 50D camera made its debut in August 2008, video capture wasn't one of the listed features available to buyers. Today, that's a different story, thanks to the Magic Lantern RAW hack that has brought video recording to the now 5-year-old camera.
Given the recent leaps Magic Lantern has been making regarding mind-blowing RAW video capabilities for both old and new Canon cameras, there are probably a lot of Canon owners out there who are thinking of giving the custom firmware a try for the first time.
However, before you go installing one of the nightly builds (the unstable ones that can actually do RAW video), we would suggest installing the current stable build and getting to know the ins and outs of Magic Lantern first. With that in mind, here's a quick tutorial put together by Dave Dugdale from Learning DSLR Video that walks you through the steps of installing Magic Lantern for the first time.
For some filmmakers, the arrival of the Magic Lantern RAW video recording ability has become a godsend. With increased sharpness and a remarkable improvement in dynamic range, it's quickly become a much talked about topic.
But how does the RAW footage fare when it comes to bumping up ISO in those low-light situations?
Installing custom firmware on your DSLR is becoming more and more standard. Like jailbreaking an iPhone, the new firmware often offers much more customization and features you couldn't otherwise have. Magic Lantern in particular has been on a rampage lately, unlocking RAW video in cameras as cheap as $500.
But before you jump on the bandwagon and install Magic Lantern on your Canon or Nikon Hacker on your Nikon, it would probably be a good idea to get in touch with those companies and find out if installing third party firmware voids your warranty. Thankfully, Udi over at DIY Photography did it for you.
The Magic Lantern team deserve some sort of award ... or a ribbon ... or at the very least a hug. That's because, lately, they've been making ground-breaking RAW video announcements almost weekly. From the very beginning of the story -- when they discovered a RAW DNG output in live view -- to the breakthrough when they began pulling in that stream at 24fps and full 1080p HD, it's been nothing but good news out of the Magic Lantern camp.
But get ready, because the celebration is only just beginning. Before now, taking advantage of Magic Lantern's RAW video capability would have required you to have a 5D Mark III or II, but EOSHD forum user Julian Huijbregts has demonstrated that the same is now possible out of Canon's 5-Year-Old $500 50D!
A couple of weeks ago, the Magic Lantern team announced that they had discovered a RAW DNG Live View output on the 5D Mark II and Mark III. At the time, they could only get 14 frames per second for only 28 frames before the camera needed to buffer, but the team was confident that they could eventually increase the speed to 24p and pull a true RAW video feed out of the camera.
In what may very well be the most exciting Magic Lantern development ever, the team has discovered a RAW DNG output in live view on the 5D Mark II and 5D Mark III. What this means is that, in the near future, 5D Mark II and III owners may be able to record crystal clear 2K RAW video that blows H.264 output out of the water and then some.
Back in October, Roger Cicala shared some first impressions of the Canon EOS M with us, and stated that he believes the camera is "a firmware update and a price drop away from being a great camera." While we haven't seen any major price cuts to the camera so far, a firmware update may be on the near horizon.
By "update," we mean "third-party firmware enhancement." Magic Lantern has announced that its firmware add-on will indeed work with Canon's mirrorless camera, and that they've begun the process of porting it.
After months of dedicated hacking, Magic Lantern has finally been released for the Canon 7D. The new alpha version of the firmware add-on introduces a slew of new features to the camera, including focus peaking, zebra stripes, magic zoom, spotmeter, liveview customization, image review tweaks, and much more.
For those of you who have never heard of Magic Lantern (or know it only as a 17th century image projector) as far as Canon HDSLRs are concerned, Magic Lantern is a firmware add-on that first appeared in 2009 for the 5D Mark II. Since then it has been ported to most Canon HDSLRS and, for years, it has been known as a hack that brave and/or curious Canon owners have added to their cameras in order to squeeze out more functionality -- in some cases a lot more. The risk, of course, was always stability.