Magic Lantern is Back and Supports New Cameras Such as EOS 200D, 6D Mark II, and 7D Mark II

June 24^th, 20255

Magic Lantern is Back and Supports New Cameras Such as EOS 200D, 6D Mark II, and 7D Mark II

by Jakub HanJune 24^th, 2025

Magic Lantern custom add-on software for the Canon DSLR system is back with a new team, a new version, and support for new camera models – Canon EOS 200D (Kiss X9, Rebel SL2), EOS 6D Mark II, 750D (Rebel T6i, Kiss X8i), and EOS 7D Mark II.

The legendary custom add-on software that made the Canon EOS 5D Mark II so popular is now back with a new version after years of inactivity. What is going on?

What is Magic Lantern?

If you have never heard the term Magic Lantern (ML), it stands for an unofficial third-party custom firmware add-on for select Canon cameras. Originally written for the legendary Canon 5D Mark II in 2009, the software unlocks many interesting features that the camera’s hardware is capable of doing, but Canon did not include it in the official firmware. The newly unlocked features were especially interesting for filmmakers as Magic Lantern equipped Canon DSLRs with internal RAW video recording (although in a lower resolution and with occasional stability and overheating issues).

ML has always been available as open-source software and free of charge. Over the years, the software build was ported to various Canon DSLR cameras and one mirrorless model – the Canon EOS M (the company’s first-ever mirrorless camera). In fact, I recently mentioned the EOS M in my article about the Filmatura M-Lite REVO box-style camera conversion kit for the EOS M. Magic Lantern is the reason this tiny camera remains fairly popular until today.

M-Lite REVO housing with EOS M. Source: Filmatura

Magic Lantern reborn?

Despite the popularity of Magic Lantern, we have seen reduced activity around it in the last few years. In my opinion, this is due to several factors. One of the reasons is that many filmmakers moved to more recent mirrorless systems. ML only really works with Canon DSLR systems and the EOS M, which are both discontinued product lines. At this point, it is still unclear whether ML ever gets ported to any of the EOS R cameras.

Another reason is that in 2020, the Magic Lantern’s leading developer, who goes by the nickname “a1ex”, left the project. From what the new ML team writes, the documentation was fragmentary, and nobody understood the build system and ML code well. There was only a small number of volunteers who kept ML somewhat alive.

Magic Lantern 2025 – midsummer edition

A recent post on the Magic Lantern forum, however, might give new hope to the whole Magic Lantern fanbase and user community. It seems like a new developer with the nickname “names_are_hard” took over the role of a leading developer in the Magic Lantern project. He promises regular and tested releases for all cameras, which will be on the main website, not only in forum threads. He also claims that reported bugs will be fixed. Finally, the new lead developer promises that new cameras will be supported, and over time, the range of supported cameras will grow.

Support for new Canon DSLR models

Along with the promises of new future improvements, the new Magic Lantern core developer team (“g3gg0”, “kitor”, “names_are_hard”, and “WalterSchulzalready”) has already managed to launch a new ML build version that brings support for new cameras with DIGIC 6 and DIGIC 7 processors.

Canon EOS 200D (Kiss X9, Rebel SL2)
Canon EOS 6D2 (6D Mark II)
Canon EOS 750D (Rebel T6i, Kiss X8i)
Canon EOS 7D2 (7D Mark II)

The key thing, according to the ML team, is that the new software versions continue to work well with all the older camera models. The newly supported models do not yet have all their features unlocked. There are utility features available such as:

intervalometer
custom crop marks
shutter count
30 min LV powersave disable (good for HDMI out webcam mode)

The team further claims that the EOS 200D has working RAW video, with DPAF, and Dual ISO. The RAW video output is a bit quirky, but useful results can be obtained with patience. In the future, we can expect support for DIGIC 8 models as porting the software should now be easier with a solid framework to build on, according to the ML team. RAW video on the EOS 6D Mark II and EOS 7D Mark II should also come soon – the fundamental problem is a lack of understanding of EDMAC, as the ML team wrote.

The ML developer team now uses Git and codes on a modern OS with modern tooling, so they claim it is now easier to join the project as a developer. If you would like to improve ML, you can get in touch with the team and even join the ML project. The main thing needed is knowledge of the C programming language.

Do you still use a camera with Magic Lantern for your video work? Would you like to see ML ported to any of the EOS R series cameras? Which feature do you like the most? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section underneath the article.