- Jul 18, 2002
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I recently installed the Magic Lantern firmware hack on my t2i, which will mainly benefit the video-shooting crowd. It's really amazing what you can do with it. Here are a few useful features I have learned about so far:
Monitor Audio Levels - You can monitor your audio's decibels to make sure you're not clipping your audio. Such an amazing feature to have with an external Mic.
Changing Audio Levels - Magic Lantern allows you to change your analog and digital gain. I personally stay light on the digital gain so that I don't distort the audio.
Monitoring Audio Through Headphones - You can use the stock USB to RCA cable that comes with the t2i, convert the two audio RCAs into a minijack, and hook your headphones up to it. You'll be able to hear the noise coming in to make sure it's clear. Combine the headphone monitoring with monitoring the visual audio levels on the screen and you'll be getting some nice audio.
AGC Off/On toggle - AGC (I think it stands for Automatic Gain Control) is a huge piece of crap that Canon's stock firmware doesn't let the user turn off. AGC introduces a ton of noise by turning up the digital gain during quiet periods of recording. The audio is completely unusable paired with an external mic. Magic Lantern lets you turn AGC off and it makes an incredible difference. With AGC off, the audio will be silent when it's supposed to be and all the crappy noise will be gone. Your audio will actually be usable in productions.
ISO levels - You can change your ISO numbers to things like 460, 420, etc... Basically just smaller increments. I'm sure it could be useful in certain circumstances.
Rack Focus - I really think this one is sweet. You can set a far point and a near point for your focus and the speed of your focus. You then press record and some other button (not sure of which button yet, as I have only seen vague demonstration videos of it), and the camera will focus from one of those focus points, to another without you even touching the focus ring. It is pretty cool how the programmers coded it and are able to access the focus ring manually via the autofocus motor. This really comes in handy for still video clips on a tripod where you want to start with a far focus and then focus near until the foreground object is in focus. Normally if you tried using just your hand, you would bump the camera around which would ruin your shot. This rack focus hack eliminates the need for a follow focus in some cases.
I love this firmware so far. It's really amazing and I thought it was at least worth mentioning here if it hasn't been already.
Monitor Audio Levels - You can monitor your audio's decibels to make sure you're not clipping your audio. Such an amazing feature to have with an external Mic.
Changing Audio Levels - Magic Lantern allows you to change your analog and digital gain. I personally stay light on the digital gain so that I don't distort the audio.
Monitoring Audio Through Headphones - You can use the stock USB to RCA cable that comes with the t2i, convert the two audio RCAs into a minijack, and hook your headphones up to it. You'll be able to hear the noise coming in to make sure it's clear. Combine the headphone monitoring with monitoring the visual audio levels on the screen and you'll be getting some nice audio.
AGC Off/On toggle - AGC (I think it stands for Automatic Gain Control) is a huge piece of crap that Canon's stock firmware doesn't let the user turn off. AGC introduces a ton of noise by turning up the digital gain during quiet periods of recording. The audio is completely unusable paired with an external mic. Magic Lantern lets you turn AGC off and it makes an incredible difference. With AGC off, the audio will be silent when it's supposed to be and all the crappy noise will be gone. Your audio will actually be usable in productions.
ISO levels - You can change your ISO numbers to things like 460, 420, etc... Basically just smaller increments. I'm sure it could be useful in certain circumstances.
Rack Focus - I really think this one is sweet. You can set a far point and a near point for your focus and the speed of your focus. You then press record and some other button (not sure of which button yet, as I have only seen vague demonstration videos of it), and the camera will focus from one of those focus points, to another without you even touching the focus ring. It is pretty cool how the programmers coded it and are able to access the focus ring manually via the autofocus motor. This really comes in handy for still video clips on a tripod where you want to start with a far focus and then focus near until the foreground object is in focus. Normally if you tried using just your hand, you would bump the camera around which would ruin your shot. This rack focus hack eliminates the need for a follow focus in some cases.
I love this firmware so far. It's really amazing and I thought it was at least worth mentioning here if it hasn't been already.
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