Need info on Magic Lantern

I am curious to know if anyone has ML on their cameras ?
Do you use it and find it a useful tool?
How easy was it to install?
I have been getting around and shooting and ran into a guy today while shooting some wind surfers and he told me about ML he said the add ons were great and the program is worth using. I would like some feedback to make an educated decision on if this is worth doing.

kcrunchone wrote in post #16110122
I am curious to know if anyone has ML on their cameras ?
Do you use it and find it a useful tool?
How easy was it to install?
I have been getting around and shooting and ran into a guy today while shooting some wind surfers and he told me about ML he said the add ons were great and the program is worth using. I would like some feedback to make an educated decision on if this is worth doing.

I've only used a few of the features but magic lantern is easy to install and it's free. It resides on your memory card so give it a try, if you don't like it just delete it

You might want to hop over hereand give the thread a read.

I am going to install ML for the HDR feature. I have noticed that only 3 exposures can not cover the DR in many cases on my 60D. Saw a youtube video from the maker of ML and he claimed that thousands of people have download ML but has never received even a single complaint about broken cameras

It has some benefits, but its one of those things I install only when I need it (its on a dedicated memory card)....otherwise I get annoyed as it, by default, overrides the normal camera operations. I used it to make a time lapsed video it extends the ISO range also. Its a bit clunky to use but does work.

I use it all the time on my cameras. The HDR preview (one of the image review options) is great. The intervolometer is quite useful, as is the bulb timer. Focus peaking, magic zoom, and other options make Magic Lantern very worthwhile.

Have the alpha dev version installed on a couple of my memory cards for my 6D. Haven't used it all that much yet, but I like the ETTR functions, auto white balance, infinite length bulb exposure modes, live view focus peaking and the possibility of scripting. I've written scripts for CHDK before, and would love to be able to program my SLR in a similar way.

I'd love to try the DotTune microadjust function, but I haven't gotten that to work yet.

I don't do video much, so the RAW video features aren't much use to me, but I'm interested to see how the "lightning trigger" performs on it. The "focus trigger" is another feature I'd love to try some time.

Naito wrote in post #16111016
I'd love to try the DotTune microadjust function, but I haven't gotten that to work yet.

This looks pretty sweet. Do you mean it fails to function (still in beta) or you're not convinced its effective - either by itself or vs other methods?

Love magic lantern on my 5d2, I am running a nightly build from 25th may and dot tune works great.

I have been playing with ML for a couple of years now, but usually the stuff they have is just slightly too inconvenient / too slow to enable to make these features truly useful in real life shooting. I played with things like HDR, focus stacking, Samyang 8mm Livew View defishing etc.

The first truly useful (for me) feature - dot-tune lens calibration - was introduced recently, and works really well.

Another very promising feature - full HD video recording enabled in my camera (50D) - is still not very interesting, unless they implement some way to sync the video with an external audio recorder (I purchased Zoom H1 recorder specifically for this purpose). It could be as simple as letting the camera beep every time you start video recording (so it'd be easy to sync video and audio in PP). Not clear if ML will implement this though. The developers are obsessed right now with RAW video recording on 50D, trying to get to full HD RAW at 24p. But who needs RAW video if it is too cumbersome to sync audio with video? (Basically, you always need an assistant with a clapboard.)

Once I get my first tablet with USB OTG capability (meaning I can use it as an external Live View monitor) - it is on its way - I will probably like a lot the "ghost image" feature of ML, for my photoshopped photos (levitation etc.). This will allow me to compose a sequence of photos very precisely, by being able to display an older shot in LivewView (half-transparent), while composing the next one.

You should definitely at least give ML a try - there are so many features, you might find one or more very useful in your work.

pulsar123 wrote in post #16111353
(Basically, you always need an assistant with a clapboard.

Or you can just put the camera down and step in front of it and clap.

Or just hold it in one hand and snap with the other.

Or point it at your lips and say something that is easy to sync to.

Of all the problems out there that need solving, this is a pretty simple one.

ElectronGuru wrote in post #16111052
This looks pretty sweet. Do you mean it fails to function (still in beta) or you're not convinced its effective - either by itself or vs other methods?

It seems to fail to function on my 6D. I'm not entirely sure whether it's because I'm using it incorrectly or if it's because it's in beta, but all I get when I try to run it is "Press Info to try again".

My lenses by and large seem to be focussing well enough on their own for now (knock on wood!!) so it's more of a nice-to-have-to-play-with feature when I have nothing better to do than an essential one for now.

Excellent.
So are there any photo advantage add-ons. I hear a lot of praise about the video advantages. I really want to try it but just getting the 60D I am reluctant to do anything that will screw up my baby. I still have the T3 probably use it as a second shooter or let my kids use it. I would prefer to rely on people here that have had an interaction with the ML itself rather than go by the views on the site.