Student helps adapt, develop firmware to expand camera capabilities
Less than a year ago, Andrew Coutts discovered his calling.
It requires him to notice intricate details and possess a sense of technical knowledge, though he is not on his way to a medical degree or a mechanic's certificate.
The Ohio junior is working on a custom camera firmware, initially developed for the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, automating and porting its features to fit his camera, a Canon EOS Rebel T1i (500D).
He took the relatively regular camera and helped exploit its potential far beyond its abilities out of the box.
Currently, the firmware supports several types of Canon cameras including the EOS Rebel T2i (550D), the T1i (500D), and the 60D.
Coutts, as well as others across the world working on the firmware, uses a custom firmware called Magic Lantern, developed by Trammell Hudson.
Hudson, who is currently the vice president of Two Sigma Investments, LLC, a finance and technology firm, developed the firmware for independent filmmakers.
“Hudson noticed the potential of 5D Mark II for filmmaking at a much lower price than professional video cameras and tried to overcome the main limitations of the standard firmware, the most glaring one being lack of manual audio control,” said 28-year-old Romania native Alex Dumitrache.
Dumitrache is developing Magic Lantern for 550D and 60D, and is also assisting Coutts in working on the firmware.
“I speak to Alex on a daily basis,” Coutts said. “I’d be nowhere if he didn’t answer all of my questions.”
Coutts discovered the firmware on a developmental forum online, started by a developer nicknamed Chuchin, and since then has attempted to convert it to his camera’s body.
To date, the thread is now 80 pages long, with Coutts’ updates and builds on codes for more than 2,000 followers.
With his first update, Coutts said there were at least 100 downloads of the code.
“I started looking into helping out with the developing, but gave up a few times when I couldn’t figure out how to make the source code compile,” Coutts said. “I can easily spend 10 hours straight on it.”
He said when he first started getting into the code, he did not sleep for four days in a row.
“It’s really time consuming,” he said, “And that is an understatement.”
The firmware features multiple functions. One example is magic zoom, where the camera shows a magnified section of the image on the screen to help with focusing. The firmware also features bit rate control, which either lets you “double” the card capacity or bypass the 12-minute recording limit.
The firmware also features Kelvin White Balance, a feature which removes unrealistic color cast from available light, and clean ISO values, which reveal how fast a camera reacts to light, on cameras that do not have such features in standard firmware, Dumitrache said.
Additionally, the firmware includes a trap focus function. This feature allows the camera to take the photo when the subject is in focus and offers motion detection, which is useful for photographing lightning and birds.
Coutts said he is constantly working on codes, testing and seeking errors to maintain the firmware's development.
