Andrew - EOSHD

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!

Sounds good @QuickHitRecordhave you made some interest progress so far. Does it run doom? 🙂 Claude Code and Codex are making a lot of things possible on the camera side, I have a Sigma FP hack in the works as well. This runs on a known Japanese OS (T-Kernel-family RTOS), so patches and features can be run from the SD card. No risky firmware hacking required!

Hopefully S1 II sensor not S5 II!

Really looking forward to this. If it has all the missing stuff... Articulated screen, IBIS, built in EVF, Sony-level autofocus, then I'll be getting one. A lot to pack into an Fp sized body but if anyone can do it, Sigma can. And $2500 would be absolutely fine for something like that with internal raw and a unique form factor that goes after the FX5 and gives it a good mauling. All without shareholder money too... Well done Kazuto san.

By the way, the GH2 was one of the last Panasonic cameras to have unencrypted firmware and then even when encrypted with an update, Vitaliy found a way to decrypt it and make the hack possible. I've been looking into a possible further hack for the GH2, with Claude on the job and making decent progress. LUT -> Custom Photo Style might be possible and a lot of other things!

It looks like our favourite GH2 hacker has shut up shop, personal-view.com is no longer active and the domain points elsewhere. I'll miss it

Dalsa... that rings a bell https://www.ebay.de/itm/128092962391

Very tempting. Do I read this correct... 4/3rds CCD?? https://www.ebay.de/itm/275742776320 Ah no 4/3 inch These are cheap... https://www.ebay.de/itm/157847196101 The hunt for machine vision cameras is officially on 🙂

I'd be happy to help you test it, I'll join the group later today. Have about 25 android phones!!! I can imagine how difficult it is on Android to test on so many OS and hardware combos, the number is just insane. I am actually working on a stills camera app for Android and iPhone at the moment. So have been learning the ropes for just over a year now