550d_install-224x168Happy Chriskwanzakuh! Here's a free present courtesy Tramm Hudson, who has released the much-anticipated Magic Lantern hacked firmware for the Canon T2i/550D, which allows for higher-bitrate h.264 encoding, live zebra stripe and histogram displays, cropmarks, and onscreen audio meters. There's also apparently a version for the Canon 60D in the works (the original is for the 5D only; no word on the 7D at this time). Here's a look at the T2i firmware version 1.0.9 (which is not "final," but is a release candidate) from Renny Hayes:


Complete features are listed below. Keep in mind this is pre-release firmware and may still have some bugs:

  • GUI menus: press the ERASE button to display them
  • Bit rate control (QScale parameter) for the H.264 encoder
  • Zebra stripes for overexposed / underexposed areas
  • Spotmeter, histogram
  • Cropmarks (16:9, Cinemascope, Fisheye)
  • Simple intervalometer
  • Trap Focus: camera takes a picture when something comes in focus
  • Wireless trigger with the LCD face sensor & your own hand
  • AE bracketing (like on 5D2 ML)
  • Rack focus
  • Stack focus (Live View only)
  • Lens data computation
  • Onscreen audio meters
  • Manual audio gain, selectable input source, disable AGC and digital filters
  • Display time remaining during video recording
  • Debug functions (display CMOS temperature, screenshot, logging)

The "official" video from Hudson:

Link: Magic Lantern Wikia T2i/550D Wikia Page

[via Philip Bloom]