It’s been just three days since the public release of the new Magic Lantern 2.3. For those of you who have never heard of this term, it’s a free firmware, primarily aimed at DSLR videographers, that enhances the performance of Canon DSLRs. Among other things, it adds better ISO settings (when shooting video it’s best practice to use multiples of 160 as they’re far less noisy, see here for yourself), the ability to shoot HDR video, timelapses (either with an intervalometer, otherwise missing in Canon DSLRs, or low-fps video mode) and extremely long exposures for astro photography. Besides, I like its Magic zoom and Focus peak options that allow me to quickly check focus as well as Time indicator and Movie restart (to display remaining time of the Canon DSLRs’ 4GB video recording limit and to start recording again automatically a few seconds after this limit has been reached).
I’ve already installed Magic Lantern 2.3. on my EOS 600D and so far it’s worked flawlessly! It seems a super stable version.
If you have any issues installing or using Magic Lantern, visit their new website, forums, install guide, user guide, FAQ & best practices.
Also worth noting that for the new Magic Lantern to work you’ll first need to update your DSLR to the latest Canon firmware. EOS 600D / t3i users can download 1.0.2. here > Windows 7 / Mac OS X. 5Dmk2 users will require version 2.1.2, 50D 1.0.9, 60D 1.1.1, 500D 1.1.1 and 550D 1.0.9. The update is done by copying the downloaded .fir file to your SD card root folder and selecting the update firmware option from your camera menu.
Also, because the directory structure is different than in previous Magic Lantern releases, it’s recommended that before installing the new version you perform a Low-level card format IN YOUR CAMERA menu, choosing the option to delete Magic Lantern firmware as well. Then, copy the downloaded 2.3. version files to your SD card root folder and select the Update firmware option from your camera menu once again, this time installing Magic Lantern on top of the Canon firmware.
For more details on installing Magic Lantern you might want to watch this video as well.