Just when it had been hacked, Canon to unbrick the 5D Mark II next month:

Re: Just when it had been hacked, Canon to unbrick

woo hoo! ; great news.
 
You guys have got me going now. I have only had my 40d for about 18 months now, but unless something else comes along that I like better, I will be targeting the 5DMKII as my first Full Frame DSLR when I am ready to upgrade.
 
Awesome. ; The timing of this couldn't be better. ; In three days I'm off to a science fiction convention. ; There won't be a great deal of reason to shoot video, two major events and possible minor shots of events as they happen, and really I might end up letting the camera choose exposure settings anyway, I'll need time to learn to use the full manual options, but.. now I have the option if I choose to use it. ; Excellent.

I am surprised at this. ; I thought it was a very deliberate move by Canon to cripple the video functionality to keep the Mark II was competing against their own HD video cameras. ; I saw all the complains and petitions being made to try to convince Canon to change this, and I figured it was futile. ; I mean we had the same situation with the original Digital Rebel. ; It was partially cheaper hardware, with less buffer space and a lighter plastic shell. ; But it also had deliberate crippling in the firmware that prevented control of some features and disabled others to leave the 10D with an edge. ; The famous Wasia hack showed that the camera was not only capable of using those features, they actually were in the firmware, just sort of blocked off. ; The initial Wasia hacks didn't add the features, it just enabled them.

Canon certainly didn't uncripple the D-reb. ; They just released a new model with less crippling. ; I figured that's what we had coming with the Mark II.

I've only got one day left to get used to the new functionality now, I'm helping set up some stuff at the convention on Thursday, that might take most of the day.

Time to get busy harassing my cat. ; She's always where I point the camera if I need something to shoot for testing purposes.
 
I agree Dan. ; I always thought that they didn't want full control because that was going to be the hallmark of the 1DMkIV for photojournalists. ; Since that is where the next logical step is.
 
So along these lines, are there any hacks for the Rebel XT firmware? ; Just thought I would throw that out there. ; Thanks, this has been interesting to read and learn.
 
Re: Just when it had been hacked, Canon to unbrick

downloading and installing now... ;
 
"PolynesianMedic" said:
So along these lines, are there any hacks for the Rebel XT firmware? ; Just thought I would throw that out there. ; Thanks, this has been interesting to read and learn.
Click to expand...

I see one for the original Rebel, not really for the XT.
 
First off, on hacks. ; I haven't seen anything for the XT, and really this oughta have it's own topic, but I'll just bring it up here:
http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK

Hacked firmware for a bunch of Digic II (and possibly later) based P&S cameras. ; A bunch of features, among them ability to record RAW files. ; Of course the usual caveats apply, user beware, it could break your camera, etc. ; Kind of makes me want to look for a used copy of one of the capable cameras. ; Maybe it's time to track down a cheap S3.


Now then, on to the new firmware for the Mark II. ; It seems to more or less do what it's supposed to. ; I remember reading that there may have been some weirdness about the shutter speeds, that they didn't match up to the still exposure times. ; That may still be the case, I'm not anal enough to do motion blur tests to see.

But now the Mark II has a capability in video mode (and perhaps live view for still shooting, I didn't think to test that) that it doesn't in normal still shooting mode. ; If you set the ISO to auto you can set the aperture and shutter speed to whatever you want and the camera will try to adjust the ISO to make the exposure work. ; In real time, as you're shooting if the brightness of the scene changes. ; I just think it's funny, I'd read gripes from users saying that they wanted Canon to add such an auto ISO functionality, and now it has it in live view mode only.

The only limitation that I can find is that you can't set any sort of exposure compensation, so you're stuck with whatever the default exposure ends up being.

If you do the same thing with live view off the ISO seems to lock at 400 if it's been set to auto. ; You have to take it off manual before the ISO auto adjusts.
 
I thought Canon had added the Auto ISO ability already. ; The Mk3 had the first version of it....
 
Yes, but only in a limited form. ; I don't know quite what Nikon has, but I was under the impression that theirs was more advanced and possibly customizable.

Specifically, the Canon A-ISO function as it exists on the MKII does not allow you to manually pick both the aperture and shutter speed, and have the camera choose an appropriate ISO. ; Except, now, in video and possibly live view still mode. ; I don't know why, the inconsistency of this makes me wonder if this was an accidental feature added in when they enabled full manual video control.
 
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