The testing phase for Magic Lantern 2.3 is over. Magic Lantern 2.3 release version is now here and the creators say it’s no longer a “hack”. We can safely say it’s no longer a hack, but it’s strongly heading towards a solid piece of engineering that you can trust. We have worked a lot on bug-fixing and usability improvements and we sincerely hope you will find it a great companion for all your shooting sessions – from hobbyist to professional.

Some promising news comes from the Magic Lantern website today. Feature highlights of the upcoming version: – First full support for 5D mark II – Supports latest Canon firmware for 5D mark II, 60D, 600D and 50D – Advanced ISO control (ISO 80, improved highlight rolloff, ISO 51200…) – Advanced FPS control (24.000 FPS and 0.2 FPS possible) – High speed operating through shortcuts (read more) – New menu design – Much improved stability (read more) This is what they wrote: As promised last week, we are very close to the 2.3 release. We’d like to run a release candidate testing first (RC1), so we’ll start this today. As a special gesture to the donors and contributors to the ML project, we would like to thank them by giving them access to the release candidate in the forum section accessible to contributors and supporters. Currently we match donors and forum members by hand, so if we miss any of you, please contact me or Bart via PM. For providing testing feedback, you will have to complete a small quiz. Your feedback will help us fix any remaining problems and announce a release date for the stable v2.3, which will be available to those who donate at least 10 euro to keep us running. After three weeks, this version will become free for everybody. ML 2.3 RC1 works on Canon 5D Mark II 2.1.2, 550D 1.0.9, 60D 1.1.1, 600D 1.0.2, 50D 1.0.9 and 500D 1.1.1. via MagicLantern.fm

Dave Dougdale from Learning DSLR Video posted this nice video in which he looks for the perfect exposure settings in snowy conditions. Dave is using a 550D/t2i with the very convenient histogram from the Magic Lantern firmware hack. via the Learning DSLR Video blog

Dave Dugdale from learningdslrvideo.com brings us a very nice Canon camera comparison once again. This time around he compares the 5D mark2 allstar hdslr camera to the 3 times more affordable Canon T2i (550D). So can the 5D’s video mode justify it’s price over the T2i? Dave doesn’t think so. What do you think? [polldaddy poll=5331617]

One of the nice things about Dave Dougdale’s videos over at learningdslrvideo.com is his honest attitude. Dave looks at the stuff from a non professional standpoint and shares his experiences and observations while “learning dslr video”. This time around he compares the video capabilities of the relatively new Canon T3i / 600D with it’s flip out monitor to the older Canon T2i / 550D dslr camera. One of his notes: Very interesting; watch the comparison at the beginning at full screen and then look at the aliasing on my sweatshirt on the left (T3i), why is the T3i worse? The Canon T2i is currently $699 The Canon 60D is currently $999 See Dave’s post on learningdslrvideo.com

We’ve reported about the Teradek cube before. It’s almost a “cube” with a hotshoe below it so you can mount it on your camera and stream hdmi directly to your iPad or another network capable device. In this video the Cube people show how it works as a directors wireless field monitor. Great, and at $1199 a great affordable deal. However there is a lag, so you should be careful about using it as a monitoring device to control focus or your camera. With the new firmware update the device now won’t cause trouble on hdmi switching cameras like the 5D or T2i. This is the model you want to use with your iPad, but there are several other models which you can see here or on the Teradek Cube website itself. via Vincent’s blog

This time I’ve got a sports pick for you. You like this is a mountain biking film by Taylor Loughran that was shot on 7D, 5D, T2i, Red One and a cineflex camera (see below). The thing that stands out in this sports movie is it’s cinematic approach with lots of very beautiful helicopter shots and the fact that mountainbiking is taken very literally: In fact, during the course of this movie we follow several people who really start out at the very top of different large mountains and then work their way down at full speed. The action and camera angles might be a bit repetitive after a while, but the watching the fast mountainbiking and landscape heli shots was really intriguing for me. I hope you like it too, it’s definitely one of these pieces that stand out and can give us new inspiration and ideas for our own next projects. Here’s the full 24 minute video that Taylor made available on vimeo for free. Enjoy Taylor Loughran: From October to late April we battled every kind of weather you can imagine from rain to snow to hail and the Canon 7D took every bit of abuse I could throw at it from using it in cable cams, jib arms to having it exposed to the elements it never let me down during 8 months we where shooting ‘You Like This’ Rate these videos on the videolog. Teaser Full 24 minute film

Redrock Micro has announced a new electronic viewfinder for HDSLR cameras. This is the EVF we have been waiting for for some time. The RRM EVF was designed from the ground up with the HDSLR shooter in mind. It is quite heavy at eight ounces with a 15mm rod mount system that will work with all existing RRM rigs. The EVF LCD will have more resolution than the LCD on the back of the camera. There will also be options to have frame lines and audio monitor levels right in the EVF. The RRM EVF will retail for around $600 US. **UPDATE: The Redrock Micro EVF works just great. The LCD is bright and crisp. It has a diopter adjustment for the EVF. The EVF version that I used ran on one nine volt battery. It has a power switch and one HDMI input. A HDMI splitter is needed for use with an on board monitor or director’s monitor. I will try to get a release date this week if possible. Thanks for all the comments.