Andrew - EOSHD

Progress report The GF1 in a world first is hacked and runs apps automatically after boot-up, with an autoexec.bin file on the card. Onto the GH1 and GH2 next. Efforts for the GX80 are ongoing.

I've resurrected the GH1, GH2, GF1 hack project today and aim to port ptools to Mac OS. I also want find out if apps and code can run off the SD card like it does on Canon's cameras with autoexec.bin If so, we can go far beyond just patching firmware parameters for bitrates! Also looking into GX80. I can enter service mode on my GX80 and G9 II but they are much, much more locked down than the GH1 was. After the GH2, Panasonic went ape shit and tightened everything up - much more so than Canon and Sony did. It might also be possible to flash custom firmware, that enables an app store type thing - running code off the card with modded firmware. This is riskier as flashing buggy firmware still in development to test it in-camera does risk a bricking moment. That's why it might be necessary to make an emulator first or at least use an ARM emulator to test stuff on the Mac before flashing to the camera. It helps to understand the risks clearly, for all camera hack projects. Here they are from least to most severe: [NO ALARM BELLS. Least risky] - The Canon stuff is lowest risk, the official firmware has an official Canon feature that runs code off the card in-camera, the only firmware adjustment is a parameter to set it to do so (its like setting a Lumix into service mode with a key combo, but writes a flag via the firmware updater). This is a lovely way of doing custom camera features - but labours under the misconception of the uneducated users who think that it's illegally hacked custom firmware - in fact it's more like an app store for a phone. [JUST A FIRE DRILL. A bit more scary but rare] - The risk of crashing a camera mid-EPROM write, cameras might update or save menu settings to the EPROM and if you're extremely unlucky and your app running in the background for some reason crashes the camera during that brief moment you could end up with corrupted ROM data. This is what Magic Lantern warn about but its never happened to me in all of 15+ years, seems very rare for others too. Also add to this category - probing shit via USB. [QUIET ALARM BELLS should be ringing especially if using a lower-tier LLM for the modded firmware or code] - The in-between solution - small changes to the firmware machine code, a recompiled binary flashed to the camera to enable some path in like a service mode or auto-execution of code from the card. That does require a customised firmware flashed to the camera and so needs real care not to fuck it up. [BIG FUCKING LOUD BELLS. Not something I would try on an expensive camera, but I would experiment this way on a beaten up old one] - The all-out custom firmware route - all the mods and apps are flashed to the firmware so they run from the ROM, it's very risky as anything buggy that might interfere with the booting of the camera might lock you out-forever and need a re-flash of the firmware ROM at an official service centre, or even a mainboard replacement.

There's a difference between a hack and a piece of software and I don't agree that there's a blanket legal problem with selling third party hacks anyway. There's a lot of naivety and bedwetting when it comes to the legal side. If you get a DMCA from Canon, so be it. Nobody in their right mind is going to come fishing in my bank account with a $5000 per hour lawyer just to get my last £1.50 which I spent at Greggs. The Nintendo Switch emulators use a private key that's property of Nintendo to break encryption, which does make them illegal. Booting software via existing camera system features is not the same at all. If you stay away from the illegal stuff like bypassing firmware signing, distributing private encryption keys, it helps!

An update on the Sony RX10 IV side... It's able to run scripts! This was a small test C script. Next is to get it to automatically run code off the card at normal boot-up without service mode or USB tethering.

How dare they be able to pay the rent and eat!!

GH2 hack project could be coming back soon without a dirty russian... stay tuned.

I have never been more disappointed with the new generation and their pathetic social media conditioned brains. Can only hope Gen Alpha might be better and be more curious to understand how things work again, getting back some of that punk spirit people used to have rather than them being absolutely zombified consumers. It's weird - they have grown up in a gilded age of tech but some of the GenZ lot are the worst luddites imaginable! The internet is fucking broken in every sense, in the community way, in the commercial way. Was making great progress until it came time to release stuff online... I don't fancy putting fliers on lampposts and leaflets through doors, so online it is... It was like stumbling out into a post apocalyptic hellscape of anger, bots and gatekeepers, so different to how it was in the 2000s and 2010s...

What a fucked up insight it is into software dev and releasing stuff I've had so far in 2026. Seems that influencers have conditioned everyone to expect everything for free, you just can't charge money for work any more even if it is a cutting edge NLE, they expect open source, free, and zero copyright so they can clone the source code and offer their own. Dark days ahead. It seems partly a generational thing not just social media (I hope not) but the internet crowd is tough to please for the camera hacks too. The Mario 64 stuff went nowhere. On reddit even outright hostility - a mix of luddites and anti-AI. A lot of the younger folk who have grown up without computer skills (phone conditioned) don't seem to appreciate the technical side at all, or have that nice pirate outlook on it. They have gone from punks to a "why would I risk bricking my valuable possession" mindset, and I don't remember this being the case in 2013 with Magic Lantern and the 5D Mark II raw video mod, even pros we using it. The internet needs sorting out. It's a cesspool.

Today, a slightly goosed Sony RX10 IV arrives from MPB (well... it might do) I've got Claude waiting behind the door with a scythe. The plan is to use a file called "bootin.elf" This little elf (or goblin?) is the Sony equivalent to Canon's famous autoexec.bin I'll see where I can get with it. The Panasonic hacking is hitting a bit of a dead end but more hopeful with the Sony cameras - I don't want to go down the old Android PlayMemories route either - got to be something to offer the new cameras not just the A7R II or A6000! Reversing tool is here if anyone fancies having a go on their A7 III or newer... https://github.com/ma1co/sony-pmca-re

Some more progress with Mario 64 on the EOS R5 The camera has a GPU hidden away with OpenGL. Software rendering is out. Mario is now rendering on the GPU which means the Nintendo 64 of cameras just got a significant hardware bump. The previous version ran only in software (ARM CPUs), the GPU version looks identical at the moment but with much more headroom to go gangbusters on frame rate, resolution and 3D rendering techniques. It would wind up being useful for photography and filmmaking apps if it had OpenGL general compute capabilities, still exploring that bit. Meanwhile I have my film emulation app that started on the 5D Mark II working on the EOS R5 (and soon R8). They are beasts of a camera, let's hope it doesn't over heat

I have also been looking at the Panasonic cameras for Canon style Claude opportunities. My S9 is very bolted down and not getting very far. My G9 II takes the ROM dump service mode key combo (AF-ON + PLAY + POWER ON) but the ROM dump options are like your G81 - they dump meta data and camera settings not a firmware dump from RAM so Claude can't take a look at the unencrypted ROM binary. The S9 doesn't even take the key combo which is odd as G9 II and S9 are same gen. The other avenue in USB PTP commands to trigger a deeper service mode of some sort, but one of these commands crashed my G9 II so I backed off after that. Might be worth probing on a throwaway camera though. After the GH1 and GH2 hack I think Panasonic bolted down the hatches! Still hopeful it can be figured out though.

Made something that GenZ can appreciate.

A lot of amazing stuff is happening and very impressed with what folk are doing with the Fp, a lot of world first stuff - weirdly though I've noticed a strangely cynical and downbeat response on social media to the R8 stuff. Has hacking jumped the shark and are the social media click weasels and photographers all now much harder to please than in 2012 with raw video? Maybe the Gen Z photographers don't consider it impressive or newsworthy, because they don't know how a computer works let alone a camera hack 😂

Yeah i'm doing a version for the SteamDeck, and someone has already reported it works on a Legion Go 2 under Windows. I got my force feedback wheel working with it today, supporting the haptics API via SDL3 on Windows, and that works on Linux too I think! There's a funny anomaly in the original GP2.exe binary for CPU cars / AI. Katayama is ranked the third best driver after Schumacher and Hill 🙂 Today I am also spending time on hacking the Lumix S9 so might port it to that as well 🙂

Great stuff... If you fancy trying it on your Mac just let me know and I'll send you the full version. I used to print out my lap records and distinctly remember the first one (F1GP) came on about 7 floppies for the Atari ST. So GP2 was a big step up. Never played it linked like you though... fancy It had a very nice hot seat mode where you took turns with a friend on the same pc during a race, separate cars and the AI would take over. Now the AI takes over quite a bit else as well!

This is really interesting and it does beg the question, how long can closed insular world of camera software and features continue before it's the norm to sideload all sorts I absolutely love what Behringer do with the bargain knock-offs, don't know how they do the prices they do. I just bought a UMC204HD for recording some analogue sources into my Mac and for 60 euros it's ridiculously good and works straight out the box with anything. I even had Claude knock up a DAW for it! Sigma Fp-L... I've been down the Canon rabbit hole but deffo going to take a look at it more this week. It's ridiculous how much I am getting done with a bit of help from the deep learning version of Kryten. Here's my Grand Prix game if anyone wants to give the free demo a spin. It's a graphics engine that ports an old classic (Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix 2) to modern hardware and adds a lot of new features on top. www.gp2rev.com I am also making progress with film mods for the G7X II and EOS R8. The ones for dslrs are now so common from the clickweasal community that there is practically no point competing though! If this shit gets too easy, the software landscape is going to be.... interesting, to say the least.

I definitely did not get one delivered from a Japanese ebay seller after watching that video in 2021 And have absolutely no plans to go picking it out of the cupboard to see if it works with the PS2 to USB PC adapter I definitely didn't just order. There is absolutely no chance of me being distracted by getting claude to hack up a PC version of the PS2 Densha de Go ROM in a reverse engineering session and making it work on my Windows machine. I don't get sidetracked by things like that any more. And it certainly won't be coming to the EOS R5 later next month. Also no chance of a USB C experiment on that camera with joypads, that would be extremely silly.

Has someone been watching a lot of Techmoan again? 🙂

I need to get myself an S5IIx but can't afford one 🙂 I am more tempted to give the S9 a go and have it be the first camera to run snake!

ALL ABOUT IT: https://www.eoshd.com/news/eoshd-backrom-hack-mario-64-on-the-canon-eos-r8/

Absolutely brilliant.

I think it looks like a good deal to me. The articulated screen is a big plus over the original cameras. L-LOG too (interesting that they took Leica's rather than make their own Sigma LOG or use Panasonic's). ProRes RAW is to SSD. Internal 8bit Cinema DNG seems to have gone away. All cameras need an HDMI port - far better it be full sized than micro. Autofocus is a big improvement too, as is the open gate sensor, much less rolling shutter, higher resolution recording, bigger battery (the original used the same battery as the GH2!!) I'd rather have one of these over the Z6 III, it only lacks IBIS and internal raw. But as any GH2 owner will tell you... You don't really need either 🙂

Is that list from DPReview, it's wrong... internal L log is there and 10bit and 32bit audio. No Cinema DNG though? Looks like same sensor as Nikon Zr. It's a pity about the lack of IBIS IMHO.

Good write up here on the cine side: https://www.fdtimes.com/2026/10/23/sigma-fp2/

I went on DPR today and they have still not sorted their design out. There's still the massive negative space (holes in the design) and big fan shitty ads. For a cameraholic like me this is cultural vandalism 🙂 But I have a plan to do something about it Here's how it looks like today: The entire 16 inch Macbook display has just 4 lines of editorial content on it - a headline and a short paragraph. I think this is probably a purposeful decision to make you scroll so that more ads appear. But honestly, it's one of the most backward looking website designs I've ever seen. Worse than had it been made in the 90s. If it's worth the effort for you guys I can make a browser extension that revises the design, to get it looking closer to how the original did and use u-block origin to get rid of the ads. It'll take a bit of effort, but if enough people want I'll make it 🙂 Make DPR Great Again!