p.2 #1 · Hacked 300D Firmware Enabling Some Custom Fns?
vkbhaskar wrote:
If the 300D is not less than at least 300$ from the N70, I can't see anyone who would choose 300D over N70, unless one has substancial investments in Canon lenses, in which case also they are more likely to buy a 10D to the least and more like 1D mkII or 1Ds.
p.2 #2 · Hacked 300D Firmware Enabling Some Custom Fns?
This does not appear to be in violation of the DMCA and neither does this thread (though I will be the first to say that just about everything is illegal in that stupid thing).
Publishing ways to circumvent a copyright(s) is illegal in the DMCA, but what copyright is being circumvented here? There is no copyright law being broken. This is akin to overclocking a computer. Granted if Canon has some lawyers that know anything they can probably get this thing banned (in the US at least) and sue the person who created thanks to some very poorly worded paragraphs in the DMCA.
Now, if the firmware was encrypted in any way and they had to break an encryption scheme, that would fall under the DMCA and it would be illegal (where breaking encryption for ANY REASON is illegal). But I highly doubt Canon would spend the time to encrypt their own firmware on their cameras.
The link above gives the best examples of terrible misuses of the DMCA. This is what happens when lawmakers write laws about technologies they are not aware of.
p.2 #3 · Hacked 300D Firmware Enabling Some Custom Fns?
It is legal to do this only if you do not change the original. OR use the original intellectual property ie. (employees/stolen code) from canon to develop this. This has been tested in many industries so I am sure it extends to here. Only reason for pulling a thread would be implied damages if you hurt your camera.
p.2 #4 · Hacked 300D Firmware Enabling Some Custom Fns?
By DMCA, if it was THIS COUNTRY, the hack would be illegal, as the reverse engineering of copyright protected software, is illegal.
If this were really true then you would have to shut down Microsoft, The US Military, Adobe, and goodness knows how many countless other organisations including the entire US Federal Government (which judging by recent posts on this board some might find a blessing).
In general sometimes the only way to find out how things work is to "dissassemble" them.
Whilst the USA has certainly centres of Engineering excellence -- a lot of the stuff comes from simply refining products invented by others and building them cheaper and better than anybody else -- No offence here intended BTW.
These laws are really only for benefit of the lawyers -- I'll bet that very few of you remember when the PC first appeared in its present form the original BIOS was copyrighted by IBM in ROM and it took a lot of "reverse Engineering" by such companies as AWARD to lead to the explosion in the PC market that benefits us all even today.
But BE CAREFUL if you fiddle around with the firmware as Peter says -- it could be an expensive mistake if you get it wrong.
p.2 #8 · Hacked 300D Firmware Enabling Some Custom Fns?
I tried it too... no problem... I do not know if it is an impression, but it is like the time needed by the cam to get out of stand by mode is now reduced...
It seems to work perfectly well, except that I start to think that the hack is not sufficient... it is also possible that some of the 10D features are not mechanically possible: the mirror lock does not seem to work, however, are we sure that the firmware hack is sufficient to allow for a mirror lock, can't it be that some hardware is missing in the 300D to allow for it?
Anyway, with my 1GB CF I can now record 160 RAW pictures rather than the 140 before... just for this the upgrade is worth it :-)
p.2 #9 · Hacked 300D Firmware Enabling Some Custom Fns?
are we sure that the firmware hack is sufficient to allow for a mirror lock, can't it be that some hardware is missing in the 300D to allow for it?
That is exactly the reason why lot of 10D custom functions won't work on the 300D/digital Rebel. Don't expect too much of this kinds of firmware add ons. It would be much more interesting is someone developed firmware with different dataprocessing algorithms which gave different/better image quality, different white balance, or things like that.
p.2 #10 · Hacked 300D Firmware Enabling Some Custom Fns?
Can you roll back this firmware upgrade? If not, then this is going to affect the resell value of 300D cameras sold on ebay. There are now two classes of 300D, ones with legal firmware/upgrades and those with illegal firmwares. Those cameras that will have to sell cheaper because I doubt very much Canon would ever fix or even touch a camera that has an illegal firmware on it.
Talk about boxing one in the corner, these camera are really throw aways!
p.2 #11 · Hacked 300D Firmware Enabling Some Custom Fns?
Peter de Weerdt wrote:
It would be much more interesting is someone developed firmware with different dataprocessing algorithms which gave different/better image quality, different white balance, or things like that.
Peter
No-one is going to go to that level of reverse engineering for a camera that will be discontinued in another year or two. I would be willing to bet some serious money that all the patch does is to circumvent a test or a branch in the code that branches around some of the 10D features if it senses that it's running in a DR. After all it's only a 2 byte patch.
Quite possibly there may be other places in the firmware where this same test is done that could also be patched to give access to other 10D features. I have no idea, and less interest.
= Ed =
Edited by Edward Rotberg on Feb 05, 2004 at 03:32 AM GMT
p.2 #12 · Hacked 300D Firmware Enabling Some Custom Fns?
wcbert wrote:
Can you roll back this firmware upgrade? If not, then this is going to affect the resell value of 300D cameras sold on ebay. There are now two classes of 300D, ones with legal firmware/upgrades and those with illegal firmwares. Those cameras that will have to sell cheaper because I doubt very much Canon would ever fix or even touch a camera that has an illegal firmware on it.
If Canon actually provided firmware upgrades that would be a concern. Now it would only be a concern if there is some firmware update for a really annoying bug in the firmware that hasn't been discovered yet...
p.2 #13 · Hacked 300D Firmware Enabling Some Custom Fns?
What you suggest is sorta Canon SDK to develop firmware... why not... the digital cams of the future may become specialized computers (they already are actually...) but with programmable firmware...
Imagine: "Canon 9000D, powered by Linux"...
More seriously, the success of this hack and the upcoming D70 might push canon to release a new firmware with official access to functions such as the RAW+JPG definition.
On the other hand I read that our russian friends are willing to work further and to release new hacks with access to even more hidden functions... If they discover hidden parts of the buffer that will allow burst of 20 RAW... go for it buddy!!!
p.2 #14 · Hacked 300D Firmware Enabling Some Custom Fns?
wcbert wrote:
Can you roll back this firmware upgrade? If not, then this is going to affect the resell value of 300D cameras sold on ebay. There are now two classes of 300D, ones with legal firmware/upgrades and those with illegal firmwares. Those cameras that will have to sell cheaper because I doubt very much Canon would ever fix or even touch a camera that has an illegal firmware on it.
Talk about boxing one in the corner, these camera are really throw aways!
Bill
I have read over at dpreview that those who have tried rolling back to official Canon firmware have been successful.
It seems you have to clear the custom parameters and the take the battery out for a while (or something similar) )after rolling back the firmaware to be completely successful.
p.2 #16 · Hacked 300D Firmware Enabling Some Custom Fns?
Hi guys,
Ok, so it is illeagle to hack copyright software.
Hands up all those happily using their hacked copy of Adobe ACR (the first version) with their Canon 10D.
At the moment Canon firmware is user-updatable, so I suspect that it would be difficult to stop you loading whatever version you like?
It may be much more difficult than what is being discussed here but, imagine for a moment, what if someone came up with a version of firmware which wrote the RAW files in an industry standard format instead of a proprietary one.
Some sort of TIFF or a Photoshop PSD format perhaps.
Would that be useful, I wonder?
Imagine being able to open up a PSD file directly in Photoshop without having to resort to extra software. (Ok, that would make it proprietary but I hope you see my point)
If someone mananged to do this for Canons and Nikons etc, imagine the advantage of using a single common RAW format, like JPEG for the processed pictures.
Yes, I'm sure people will say the information is going to be substantially different. But when all is said and done, it is only a block of data with a description of how to use it.
Being able to add new artistic functions could be another possibility to this.
p.2 #17 · Hacked 300D Firmware Enabling Some Custom Fns?
nanscombe wrote:
It may be much more difficult than what is being discussed here but, imagine for a moment, what if someone came up with a version of firmware which wrote the RAW files in an industry standard format instead of a proprietary one.
Some sort of TIFF or a Photoshop PSD format perhaps.
Would that be useful, I wonder?
Depends on a couple of factors. One of which is whether or not the CPU processing power exists in the camera. I would guess a lot of the camera functionality is done in hardware, which means that there might not be a need for a lot of processing power at all, and anything involving the processor might be dog slow.
So while it might be useful, it would probably be as useful as having a software package on your computer that understands all these formats...
p.2 #18 · Hacked 300D Firmware Enabling Some Custom Fns?
Hi Geir,
What I was trying to get at was, that if the file format was the same, you wouldn't need different RAW processing software for D60's, 10D's, 1DII, NEFFs etc.
And a few years down the track you may not have DVD's full of proprietary RAW files and nothing to read them with.
p.2 #19 · Hacked 300D Firmware Enabling Some Custom Fns?
I upgraded my 1D to the 1.4.0 firmware when it first became availble. Unsatisfied with the results, I "downgraded" back to the 1.3.0 firmware. It worked just fine. Since then, I have gone back up to 1.4.0. If it's possible to "downgrade" the firmware on the 1D, I would imagine it's the same for all these cameras. It'll just load the firmware you give it... new or old.
p.2 #20 · Hacked 300D Firmware Enabling Some Custom Fns?
nanscombe wrote:
Hi Geir,
What I was trying to get at was, that if the file format was the same, you wouldn't need different RAW processing software for D60's, 10D's, 1DII, NEFFs etc.
And a few years down the track you may not have DVD's full of proprietary RAW files and nothing to read them with.
But we already have software that deals with D60s, 10D, and all these nice things...
What you are looking for would take an act of cooperation between the manufacturers of these cameras to agree on a common format. Hacking to get that to work probably won't get you too far...
