The card LED will blink every second, until the screenshot is taken.
Don’t click me!
Don’t click it:)
Stability tests…
This option runs various tests to make sure Magic Lantern is stable and will not crash. You can use it to test your particular configuration.
If it crashes, report an issue.
Show tasks…
Displays the tasks started by Canon and Magic Lantern.
Save CPU usage log
Saves a log with the CPU usage for all tasks.
Free Memory
Displays the amount of available RAM.
Shutter Count
Displays the number of shutter actuations (number of pictures taken plus number of liveview actuations).
CMOS temperature
Displays the internal CMOS temperature, in raw units.
Ambient light (5D Mark II)
Displays the value from ambient light sensor (under LCD display), expressed in EV steps. The scale is arbitrary (not calibrated in any way).
Battery level (60D and 5D Mark II)
Displays battery percentage, estimated time remaining and battery discharging rate.
For accurate readings, wait until the percentage indicator decreases by at least 2% since powering on.
FAQ
General
What is it?
Magic Lantern is an enhancement atop of Canon’s firmware that frees your Canon DSLR, allowing you to use many useful features. It is an open (GPL) framework for developing extensions to the official software.
Does Magic Lantern completely replace Canon firmware?
No. Magic Lantern runs from the card, as an add-on over standard firmware. You will still be able to access all Canon functionality.
To go back to Canon firmware, you may:
• Press and hold SET at startup to bypass ML only once (for the current session).
• Format your card in the camera and choose to remove Magic Lantern.
• Disable the bootflag (this will uninstall ML from the camera; to do this, run Firmware Upgrade and follow the instructions).
Is Magic Lantern only for video?
No. Early versions were developed by independent filmmakers and tailored for video production on 5D Mark II. Things changed when Magic Lantern was ported to smaller (APS-C) cameras, like 550D, 60D, 600D and 500D, which attracted developers interested in both still photography and DSLR video.
Visit the gallery for photo examples.
Is it legal?
This is a “clean room” / “black box” reverse engineering effort and as such should be OK. Frequently asked questions about reverse engineering addresses the legality question; producing an interoperable product is one of the explicit allowances enshrined in law.
Magic Lantern does not contain any Canon code. Furthermore, we do not distribute any copyrighted code or cryptographic secrets, neither from Canon nor from any other third party. All the knowledge used for development was obtained by analyzing ARM code from the firmware, by experimenting, and from lawfully obtained documentation.
Is it safe?
No. Magic Lantern was created by reverse engineering an undocumented system that controls hardware. Therefore, we can’t be certain that it’s 100% safe.
Magic Lantern does not replace Canon code (which is stored in ROM), but it does change the settings (which are saved to a non-volatile memory). If Magic Lantern would set incorrect values for certain settings, this may cause the camera not to boot (even without ML).
The same risk is present if you use third party software for USB remote control. These programs use the same API for changing camera settings (properties), and Canon code does not always check the validity of the settings before saving them to NVRAM. Here’s a proof.
Even developers of USB control software, who use Canon’s own SDK, agree with this.
Imagine that your config file gets corrupted and you can’t just delete it and start from scratch.
We consider this a design flaw in Canon software. We did encounter such problems during development, but we were able to recover from them. For technical details, see Unbricking.
Probably the safest way to run Magic Lantern (or any third party camera control software) is to use custom modes - in these modes, Canon code does not save user settings to NVRAM.
In practice, we are doing our best to prevent these situations, and thousands of users are enjoying it without problems. However, this does not represent a guarantee – use it at your own risk.
Actually, using Magic Lantern we have successfully unbricked a 5D Mark II damaged by a USB remote controller app.
Does it void my warranty?
A Magic Lantern user posted this on dpreview:
I’ve spoken to canon Cps (pro service in UK) and they’ve advised me that it’s quite possible to downgrade firmware from new version to older version BUT they advised me to send it in to Canon for them to do it and test. Small service charge would be involved but could be done while I wait.
Interestingly enough, they also advised me that Magic Lantern firmware would not invalidate my Canon Warranty as it’s not a hardware modification. Though I’m reluctant to find out for sure:-)
And another user posted this on t2iforum:
I contacted Canon Support Portugal about using ML, the answer was the following:
Quote (…) the use of custom firmware or any other third party accessory with our equipment will void the warranty of the product IF PROVEN that the malfunction of the device was caused by the use of those. Canon respects the rights that their customers have to decide what accessories or firmware to use, although we do not recommended their use, and we are not responsible for any damage to the equipment.
The Magic Lantern firmware is distributed with NO WARRANTY and NO GUARANTEES are provided. It might work. It might not. It hasn’t destroyed any cameras yet, but who knows.
How will it interact with future upgrades from Canon?
We have updated it to work with the latest version of Canon firmware on all supported cameras. This is a manual process to find the symbols in each new version, although tools like patchdiff2, Gensig/Finsig and GPL Tools/match.py make it much easier. Each new version must be statically linked against addresses in the firmware ROM as if it were a library, which requires locating the entire set of symbols.
Despite this tight integration, Magic Lantern software does not contain any Canon code. It is entirely a clean-room implementation that runs along side the official Canon firmware as a separate DryOS task.
Installation
How do I install it?
Follow the install guide. You will have to copy Magic Lantern files on your card and run Update firmware from the menu. The running firmware shuts down, loads the file into RAM and starts it running. Rather than reflashing the ROMs, this new program starts the DryOS boot process to install itself.
What happens during installation?