⚠️ This module is now dicontinued, please refer to this thread ⚠️

Cinematographer mode

1. Purpose

Cinematographer mode is a Magic Lantern module helping to solve the following situations:

• We cannot use an external focus puller monitor because we're recording videos using crop modes, which are currently incompatible with the camera HDMI output
• We're recording videos as a single camera operator without the assistance of a focus puller and the sequence is too complex to deal with manual focusing

👉 Cinematographer mode provides then a way to easily record multiple lens focus points, so we can prepare a sequence including camera or target movements and subsequently replay them as we're recording videos, using a simple push button to switch to a point to the next one in the sequence.

Typical use case: I'm a single camera operator recording a video using crop modes and my sequence is a combination of a dolly-in movement (with a speed ramp) and a horizontal camera rotation used to keep an object at the center of the composition.

👉 While I'm rehearsing the camera track and movements, I'll record three or four intermediate focus points in a sequence with proper speed transition settings, so my targeted object is always perfectly focused and I'll replay the focus sequence while I'm finally recording the scene, going forward from a focus point to the next one by pushing a single button.

2. How to build ?

If we want to build the module ourselves, we basically need to follow these instructions if we're under the Windows 10 operating system, relying over WSL.

We need first to install a Linux subsystem, which can be done running the following command under PowerShell:

wsl --install

The first time, we will have to register some credentials and reboot.

To configure the Magic Lantern build environment, we will have to execute the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install make gcc gcc-arm-none-eabi mercurial gcc-mingw-w64 python3-docutils zip
sudo apt-get install python2

Then we have to clone a Magic Lantern repository, for example the one maintained by Danne containing the code base of the crop_rec_4k_mlv_snd_isogain_1x3_presets fork of Magic Lantern:

git clone https://bitbucket.org/Dannephoto/magic-lantern_dannephoto_git.git

To add and build the cinematographer mode module, we basically need to follow these instructions, which can be summarized with the following command sequence:

• Adding a "cinemato" module folder with one header and one source files:

cd magic-lantern_dannephoto_git/modules/
mkdir cinemato
cd cinemato
touch cinemato.c
touch module_strings.h

• Copying and altering a Makefile from an existing module:

cp ../ettr/Makefile .
sed -i "s/ettr/cinemato/" Makefile

Now we just have to replace both "cinemato.c" and "module_strings.h" file content with the one provided in the /cinemato/ folder of this git repository, then build the module using the following command line:

make

If all the planets are well aligned, we must see a "cinemato.mo" module file appears in the folder.

3. How to install ?

We can use the pre-built "cinemato.mo" module provided in the /cinemato/ folder of this git repository.

⚠ Please note this module was currently only tested on a Canon 5D mark 3 camera with 1.1.3 firmware (5D3.113 target).

To install the module:

• Copy the "cinemato.mo" module file to the camera SD card in the /ML/modules/ folder
• Start the camera and enter Magic Lantern menu (using the [trashcan] button)
• Go to the "Modules" menu and load ([SET] button) the cinematographer module
• Re-start the camera

We may have a new "cinematographer" option in the Magic Lantern's Movie menu.

4. How to use ?

To use the Cinematographer mode, we just need to start it by selecting the "cinematographer" option in the Magic Lantern's Movie menu.

Then, we may see the following display's overlay on the very left side of the screen (40pixels from the top):

[idle]

Which is indicating the Cinematographer mode is waiting to be enabled.

👆 In order to enable (or subsequently disable) the Cinematographer mode, we just need to press the [INFO] button.

⚠ Enabling the Cinematographer mode will hook a lot of camera keys (like the joystick) so we need to think about disabling it manually in some situations (like recovering other Magic Lantern functionalities).

👉 Note the Cinematographer mode is automatically disabled (both overlays and camera key hooks) when we're entering the Magic Lantern's menus.

When enabled we may see a new overlay content, depending of the current focus sequence mode (PLAY by default).

👆 We can toggle between PLAY and EDIT modes by pressing the [Q] button.

4.1. Lens focus change

In both PLAY and EDIT focus sequence modes, we can use the camera joystick in order to change the lens focus point:

• 👆 [JOYSTICK_UP] button will slowly (step by step) decrease the focus
• 👆 [JOYSTICK_DOWN] button will slowly (step by step) increase the focus
• 👆 [JOYSTICK_RIGHT] button will quickly (step of 10) decrease the focus
• 👆 [JOYSTICK_LEFT] button will quickly (step of 10) increase the focus

Using Cinematographer mode the lens itself must be in autofocus mode and we need to always take care of:

• never do manual focus operations
• never doing autofocus (half-press shutter, in most of the cases)

In both cases, Magic Lantern will lose its internal relative focus step reference and focus sequencing will be fucked up.

For convenience, we can use the 👆 [JOYSTICK_CENTER] button to (de)active the focus change by joystick, typically in order to recover native Magic Lantern's functions attached to the joystick.

When activated, we can see a "{focus}" indication displayed on the screen overlay, e.g.:

[edit] 0 < 450mm (fastest) {focus}

👉 Note also the [ZOOM] button will be our best friend here, allowing us to temporarily get a magnified vision of the scene that is precise enough to visually ensure our focus is perfectly positioned.

4.2. Edit mode

Each time we're switching to EDIT focus sequence mode, the focus sequence itself is reset and the camera display overlay will look like this:

[edit] 0 < 450mm (fastest) {focus}

Indicating:

• The current recorded point count {1}
• The current lens distance (mm) to be queued {2}
• The current transition speed to be queued {3}
• If focus by joystick is currently active {4}

Under the form:

[edit] {1} < {2}mm ({3}) {{4}}

The lens distance indication is dynamically updated regarding our lens focus change operations, providing an information about the point that will be queued next in the list, alongside the lens focus transition speed that will be used to go from the previous focus point in the list to this new one.

👆 Use the [SET] button to queue the current lens position and selected transition speed in the focus sequence.

👆 Using the [RATE] button, we can cycle around transition speed presets to select one before queuing: possible speed values are currently fastest, fast, medium, slow and slowest, corresponding respectively to the addition of a 0ms, 10ms, 50ms, 100ms and 200ms delay between two focus rotation steps during the focus lens transition.

4.3. Play mode

Each time we're switching to PLAY focus sequence mode, the camera display overlay will look like this:

[play] 3/3 200mm > 450mm (fastest) {focus}

Indicating:

• The current focus index in the sequence {1}
• The current sequence length {2}
• The current lens distance (mm) {3}
• The lens distance (mm) of the next focus point in the sequence {4}
• The transition speed that will be used to do the transition from current focus point to the next one {5}
• If focus by joystick is currently active {6}

Under the form:

[play] {1}/{2} {3}mm > {4}mm ({5}) {{6}}

👆 To run the focus transition between the current point in the list to the next one, we just need to press the [SET] button.

When reaching the latest position in the sequence list, it loops naturally to its very beginning, allowing us to retrieve our initial focus position (and repeating the sequence again).

During the transition, the camera display the following overlay:

[play] 1>2 870mm (slow)

Indicating:

• The source focus index in the sequence {1}
• The target focus index in the sequence {2}
• The current lens distance (mm) {3} that will dynamically change during transition
• The current transition speed in use {4}

Under the form:

[play] {1}>{2} {3}mm ({4})

4.4. Battery saver

👆 One additional feature we may want to use is the [PLAY] button that allows to quickly toggle the camera display on and off, disabling it being a huge battery saver, particularly when dealing with video in crop modes (the framed display really drains the battery).

4.5. Save and reload

Anytime we're adding focus points to the sequence or we're changing the focus index value, both data are saved to disk in a dedicated settings file (/ML/SETTINGS/cinemato.cfg).

When starting the Cinematographer mode, the settings file is reloaded, so you can continue to work in the exact same conditions as before the camera was shut downed.

5. Summary

👆 (A) [INFO] enable/disable the Cinematographer mode

👆 (B) [Q] toggle between PLAY and EDIT focus sequence modes

👆 (C) [JOYSTICK] increase or decrease lens focus point, use [JOYSTICK_CENTER] to (de)activate focus change by joystick

👆 (D) [SET] queue the current lens position and selected transition speed in the focus sequence in EDIT mode, run the focus transition between the current point in the list to the next one in PLAY mode

👆 (E) [RATE] cycle around transition speed presets

👆 (F) [PLAY] toggle the camera display on and off

6. License and credits

The Cinematographer mode module for Magic Lantern is provided under the GPLv3 licensing model.

Thanks to Audionut11 (from r/MagicLantern), WalterSchulz & ?❄? names_are_hard ?❄? (from Magic Lantern discord channel) and of course a1ex, Danne, thebilalfakhouri plus all the amazing Magic Lantern contributors for the hard work!