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Luca: Hey man, it's been a few days now since I ordered two NX-L and haven't heard anything since the order confirmation from the site or your email with the project.  Did the order somehow not go through?  It all seemed like it worked on my end. 

Probably not too difficult.  It seems that ihkim didn't go so far as to get the focus commands for NX, though he has all the boot info.  I hope to have this in the next few weeks though, going to do some logic analyzing. Even if you had the money though, Luca's thing is for with EF lenses, not NX. 

Rather than being a criticism I'm just saying that information is sparse and video doesn't mean much in terms of optical quality.  My experience with these has as I said been with cheaper ones like the Opteka, Polaroid, and no-name ones floating around.  I assume one that they charge a thousand for will be better.  I just don't know how much better.  You don't need to try and convince me, I will see if I can search out sample raws or the like.  This kind of thing is also difficult because I don't always know the lens used, I gave your adapter the benefit of the doubt since I know that lens isn't good to start out with wide open, so to me the performance is still a bit of an open question. 
On the Canon front, I have acquired a 400 f/2.8 already (used, for significantly less than the 300 f/2.8 you mentioned).  Even at no loss of light the Samsung is an f/4.2 equivalent, so with the adapter it works out as a 405mm f/4.2 equivalent, right between my f/5.6 and f/2.8 lenses at just about the same focal length.  Which is quite nice so long as the quality of the adapter is as good as I would like, the price also falls in between.  I could try it, I guess the only risk is the shipping cost back to B&H or the like if I don't find it satisfactory.  I don't really need it though (aforementioned Canon lenses).  Might be worthwhile for Marco depending on the how good it is. 

The other thing that always makes me worry is that most of the people reviewing are doing video, and the video shown was 720p.  1080p is only ~2 MP.... how can I review critical sharpness at that?  4k, is still only ~8 MP, my intended output in this case is 28 MP... so I think you see my reason for skepticism when I have nothing to evaluate these properly.  For lenses DXO usually gives me at least a relative idea if I can't find one in store, but discussion of these adapters is still too sparse for my liking.  Might bite anyway eventually. 

And hella expensive, lol.  I've always been a bit skeptical of these front mounted ones.  It's true there is no loss of f-stop though you will lose some t-stop (hopefully quite minimal).  I guess just most of the ones I've seen are pedalled cheap on Amazon and E-bay as a long range panacea but are actually of horrible optical quality.  I know a few of the camera brand names have made some that are purported to be quite good, but they weren't in the filter sizes I wanted as they were made for particular cameras, sometimes even being the same size but with a different thread pitch.  It's not often that I come across any concrete information on these so it has been hard to separate the wheat from the chaff.  This product and the Raynox DCR 2025 Pro both seem to be quite well reviewed though.  What makes the HDP 9000EX so much more expensive?  Is it almost entirely due to the size (fitting 62mm threads for the 2025 and 72mm for the 9000) and lower demand? 
I'll look into these Raynox ones a bit more but will be continuing my other project anyway, I'm having fun with it and I already have a bunch of Canon lenses.
 

Ah, I misinterpreted your video, I thought you had it working like the metabones adapter.  I'm going to disagree here though, my goal is to have true AF by the camera body controlling the lens.  I agree that the other project is great for video shooters, probably even much better for them than what my goal is, but I am primarily a stills shooter.  I'm kind of tempted to order one anyway, this is the conversion kit alone right?  So one would need to buy the Apurture DEC separately, correct?  My Italian is non-existent :P  If you could manufacture a smart adapter it would let me focus on the firmware, as is the crudeness of my adapter takes too much time from coding.  I don't have any nice tools for making it, relying on epoxy and soldering from parts entirely taken and sawed apart from macro extension tubes putting them into a dumb adapter for now.  Actually, the part from the NX macro tube fits beautifully into the dumb adapter, but the Canon side is problematic.  Just having something with contacts on the NX and Canon side, with corresponding contact points on the outside of lens such that a logic analyzer can be place in between would be pretty awesome, even more so if it can be done to an NX-L. 
I put in for two NX-L adapters, how should I send you my shipping info and phone numbers, I didn't see a place to enter it, just send it to your email listed there? 

Luca: Don't tease us man, are you declaring victory, progress, or extremely early prototyping code that's been tested with only a handful of lenses?  In my own case I managed to get electronic control of the aperture on a Canon lens today, the 40mm.  IS.... seems to want to run all the time the camera is receiving commands on my lenses (e.g. 28-135) that have it, even when the switch is off on the lens.  Probably the lens passes the switch state to the camera but the camera makes the ultimate decision, is my guess so far.  Progress has been slower than I hoped in part because i was too cheap to buy the logic analyzer.. hard to debug early stages here.  My colleague is working on getting the nano to act as a logic analyzer, probably going to be faster than waiting for one to ship from China.  Anyway, give us the gritty details!  On a side note, this video is super cool:
 

Luca: Don't tease us man, are you declaring victory, progress, or extremely early prototyping code that's been tested with only a handful of lenses?  In my own case I managed to get electronic control of the aperture on a Canon lens today, the 40mm.  IS.... seems to want to run all the time the camera is receiving commands on my lenses (e.g. 28-135) that have it, even when the switch is off on the lens.  Probably the lens passes the switch state to the camera but the camera makes the ultimate decision, is my guess so far.  Progress has been slower than I hoped in part because i was too cheap to buy the logic analyzer.. hard to debug early stages here.  My colleague is working on getting the nano to act as a logic analyzer, probably going to be faster than waiting for one to ship from China.  Anyway, give us the gritty details!  On a side note, this video is super cool:
 

Luca: Don't tease us man, are you declaring victory, progress, or extremely early prototyping code that's been tested with only a handful of lenses?  In my own case I managed to get electronic control of the aperture on a Canon lens today, the 40mm.  IS.... seems to want to run all the time the camera is receiving commands on my lenses (e.g. 28-135) that have it, even when the switch is off on the lens.  Probably the lens passes the switch state to the camera but the camera makes the ultimate decision, is my guess so far.  Progress has been slower than I hoped in part because i was too cheap to buy the logic analyzer.. hard to debug early stages here.  My colleague is working on getting the nano to act as a logic analyzer, probably going to be faster than waiting for one to ship from China.  Anyway, give us the gritty details!  On a side note, this video is super cool:
 

Not good news :P  First I tried with Canon 40mm pancake, the lens wasn't responding at all, I suspect that the protocol has expanded a bit.  Spent that weekend trying to get any kind of response to no avail.  Good-ish news, during the week I tried the 28-135 and there is definitely movement in the lens, but I've had no time to explore further.  It seems like I might need to get a logic analyzer to have a shot at it working with newer Canon lenses.  If anyone wants to leapfrog me, there is someone that claims to have made such a working adapter for basic manual control using buttons on the adapter for focus and aperture, and was actually using it on NX. 
Scroll way down to the post by a Peter S on January 2, 2012 at 14:15
https://pickandplace.wordpress.com/2011/10/05/canon-ef-s-protocol-and-electronic-follow-focus/
Need to adapt that code to Arduino Nano when I get a chance, very similar microcontroller used in his project. 
http://blueringlab.com/2016/03/canon-ef-lens-aperture-control-test/
It's too bad he didn't post that code, the answer to his unresolved precise aperture setting is in Peter's post. 
http://howiem.com/wordpress/index.php/2016/07/07/motion-control-canon-ef-lens-hacking/
Is an informative post, he also has code available, but it is a bit different, being driven from a connected computer rather than a microcontroller, etc.. but still possibly useful. 
In my searching about, it seems that almost everything the public knows about the EF protocol originates from this German thread:
http://www.dslr-forum.de/showthread.php?t=649529&page=61
Which is unfortunately a jumbled mess and all the useful compilations of the info some members made seem to be defunct.  Still, it's worth combing through. 
The next step for me I think is to re-verify the physical integrity of my connections, then start working with the 28-135 instead of that obnoxious 40mm.  Not sure 100% about the logic analyzer yet... but since I'm thinking it will be needed eventually I'm starting to feel like I should order one soon.
The NX side is easier and harder.  I think I have quite a bit more concrete information on the protocol, thanks in part to rockymountain's blueringlab site, but this side likely involves fooling the camera about certain aspects of the lens and spoofing lens responses. 
Luca: If I want more than one focal reducer should I donate that number of times?  <- in bold because the site is merging my posts and I thought this should be separate. 

Eeeh?  Even for Metabones 10k is chump change.  10k won't get you a single good developer for 6 months.  I'm certain that at least a few people worked for quite some time on that.  That said, progress would be much faster if I had a 40 hour week to work on this instead of maybe a handful of hours every other weekend or so. 

Not good news :P  First I tried with Canon 40mm pancake, the lens wasn't responding at all, I suspect that the protocol has expanded a bit.  Spent that weekend trying to get any kind of response to no avail.  Good-ish news, during the week I tried the 28-135 and there is definitely movement in the lens, but I've had no time to explore further.  It seems like I might need to get a logic analyzer to have a shot at it working with newer Canon lenses.  If anyone wants to leapfrog me, there is someone that claims to have made such a working adapter for basic manual control using buttons on the adapter for focus and aperture, and was actually using it on NX. 
Scroll way down to the post by a Peter S on January 2, 2012 at 14:15
https://pickandplace.wordpress.com/2011/10/05/canon-ef-s-protocol-and-electronic-follow-focus/
Need to adapt that code to Arduino Nano when I get a chance, very similar microcontroller used in his project. 
http://blueringlab.com/2016/03/canon-ef-lens-aperture-control-test/
It's too bad he didn't post that code, the answer to his unresolved precise aperture setting is in Peter's post. 
http://howiem.com/wordpress/index.php/2016/07/07/motion-control-canon-ef-lens-hacking/
Is an informative post, he also has code available, but it is a bit different, being driven from a connected computer rather than a microcontroller, etc.. but still possibly useful. 
In my searching about, it seems that almost everything the public knows about the EF protocol originates from this German thread:
http://www.dslr-forum.de/showthread.php?t=649529&page=61
Which is unfortunately a jumbled mess and all the useful compilations of the info some members made seem to be defunct.  Still, it's worth combing through. 
The next step for me I think is to re-verify the physical integrity of my connections, then start working with the 28-135 instead of that obnoxious 40mm.  Not sure 100% about the logic analyzer yet... but since I'm thinking it will be needed eventually I'm starting to feel like I should order one soon.
The NX side is easier and harder.  I think I have quite a bit more concrete information on the protocol, thanks in part to rockymountain's blueringlab site, but this side likely involves fooling the camera about certain aspects of the lens and spoofing lens responses. 
Luca: If I want more than one focal reducer should I donate that number of times?  <- in bold because the site is merging my posts and I thought this should be separate. 

Just two or three, on the edge there, so it's not a big deal for me to do it more than once. 

Not good news :P  First I tried with Canon 40mm pancake, the lens wasn't responding at all, I suspect that the protocol has expanded a bit.  Spent that weekend trying to get any kind of response to no avail.  Good-ish news, during the week I tried the 28-135 and there is definitely movement in the lens, but I've had no time to explore further.  It seems like I might need to get a logic analyzer to have a shot at it working with newer Canon lenses.  If anyone wants to leapfrog me, there is someone that claims to have made such a working adapter for basic manual control using buttons on the adapter for focus and aperture, and was actually using it on NX. 
Scroll way down to the post by a Peter S on January 2, 2012 at 14:15
https://pickandplace.wordpress.com/2011/10/05/canon-ef-s-protocol-and-electronic-follow-focus/
Need to adapt that code to Arduino Nano when I get a chance, very similar microcontroller used in his project. 
http://blueringlab.com/2016/03/canon-ef-lens-aperture-control-test/
It's too bad he didn't post that code, the answer to his unresolved precise aperture setting is in Peter's post. 
http://howiem.com/wordpress/index.php/2016/07/07/motion-control-canon-ef-lens-hacking/
Is an informative post, he also has code available, but it is a bit different, being driven from a connected computer rather than a microcontroller, etc.. but still possibly useful. 
In my searching about, it seems that almost everything the public knows about the EF protocol originates from this German thread:
http://www.dslr-forum.de/showthread.php?t=649529&page=61
Which is unfortunately a jumbled mess and all the useful compilations of the info some members made seem to be defunct.  Still, it's worth combing through. 
The next step for me I think is to re-verify the physical integrity of my connections, then start working with the 28-135 instead of that obnoxious 40mm.  Not sure 100% about the logic analyzer yet... but since I'm thinking it will be needed eventually I'm starting to feel like I should order one soon.
The NX side is easier and harder.  I think I have quite a bit more concrete information on the protocol, thanks in part to rockymountain's blueringlab site, but this side likely involves fooling the camera about certain aspects of the lens and spoofing lens responses. 
Luca: If I want more than one focal reducer should I donate that number of times?  <- in bold because the site is merging my posts and I thought this should be separate. 

Not good news :P  First I tried with Canon 40mm pancake, the lens wasn't responding at all, I suspect that the protocol has expanded a bit.  Spent that weekend trying to get any kind of response to no avail.  Good-ish news, during the week I tried the 28-135 and there is definitely movement in the lens, but I've had no time to explore further.  It seems like I might need to get a logic analyzer to have a shot at it working with newer Canon lenses.  If anyone wants to leapfrog me, there is someone that claims to have made such a working adapter for basic manual control using buttons on the adapter for focus and aperture, and was actually using it on NX. 
Scroll way down to the post by a Peter S on January 2, 2012 at 14:15
https://pickandplace.wordpress.com/2011/10/05/canon-ef-s-protocol-and-electronic-follow-focus/
Need to adapt that code to Arduino Nano when I get a chance, very similar microcontroller used in his project. 
http://blueringlab.com/2016/03/canon-ef-lens-aperture-control-test/
It's too bad he didn't post that code, the answer to his unresolved precise aperture setting is in Peter's post. 
http://howiem.com/wordpress/index.php/2016/07/07/motion-control-canon-ef-lens-hacking/
Is an informative post, he also has code available, but it is a bit different, being driven from a connected computer rather than a microcontroller, etc.. but still possibly useful. 
In my searching about, it seems that almost everything the public knows about the EF protocol originates from this German thread:
http://www.dslr-forum.de/showthread.php?t=649529&page=61
Which is unfortunately a jumbled mess and all the useful compilations of the info some members made seem to be defunct.  Still, it's worth combing through. 
The next step for me I think is to re-verify the physical integrity of my connections, then start working with the 28-135 instead of that obnoxious 40mm.  Not sure 100% about the logic analyzer yet... but since I'm thinking it will be needed eventually I'm starting to feel like I should order one soon.
The NX side is easier and harder.  I think I have quite a bit more concrete information on the protocol, thanks in part to rockymountain's blueringlab site, but this side likely involves fooling the camera about certain aspects of the lens and spoofing lens responses. 
Luca: If I want more than one focal reducer should I donate that number of times?  <- in bold because the site is merging my posts and I thought this should be separate. 

Not good news :P  First I tried with Canon 40mm pancake, the lens wasn't responding at all, I suspect that the protocol has expanded a bit.  Spent that weekend trying to get any kind of response to no avail.  Good-ish news, during the week I tried the 28-135 and there is definitely movement in the lens, but I've had no time to explore further.  It seems like I might need to get a logic analyzer to have a shot at it working with newer Canon lenses.  If anyone wants to leapfrog me, there is someone that claims to have made such a working adapter for basic manual control using buttons on the adapter for focus and aperture, and was actually using it on NX. 
Scroll way down to the post by a Peter S on January 2, 2012 at 14:15
https://pickandplace.wordpress.com/2011/10/05/canon-ef-s-protocol-and-electronic-follow-focus/
Need to adapt that code to Arduino Nano when I get a chance, very similar microcontroller used in his project. 
http://blueringlab.com/2016/03/canon-ef-lens-aperture-control-test/
It's too bad he didn't post that code, the answer to his unresolved precise aperture setting is in Peter's post. 
http://howiem.com/wordpress/index.php/2016/07/07/motion-control-canon-ef-lens-hacking/
Is an informative post, he also has code available, but it is a bit different, being driven from a connected computer rather than a microcontroller, etc.. but still possibly useful. 
In my searching about, it seems that almost everything the public knows about the EF protocol originates from this German thread:
http://www.dslr-forum.de/showthread.php?t=649529&page=61
Which is unfortunately a jumbled mess and all the useful compilations of the info some members made seem to be defunct.  Still, it's worth combing through. 
The next step for me I think is to re-verify the physical integrity of my connections, then start working with the 28-135 instead of that obnoxious 40mm.  Not sure 100% about the logic analyzer yet... but since I'm thinking it will be needed eventually I'm starting to feel like I should order one soon.
The NX side is easier and harder.  I think I have quite a bit more concrete information on the protocol, thanks in part to rockymountain's blueringlab site, but this side likely involves fooling the camera about certain aspects of the lens and spoofing lens responses. 
Luca: If I want more than one focal reducer should I donate that number of times?  <- in bold because the site is merging my posts and I thought this should be separate. 

Hey Caleb, I think they ship regardless, but I think Luca will clarify.  I think the earlier ship dates are less expensive to encourage earlier participation and try to build momentum. 

kidzrevil: What makes you say that?  Looks to me like what it is, about a 1.1x crop, far closer to FF than super 35. 

Thanks Marco, but it has only one SPI?  I think this project needs two off the top of my head.  Also my friend already has owns a Nano, which is why we went for it for now.  Finally, the Bluering code is written on the Nano and gives us a slight head start. 

Luca: Sorry, very busy week at work, there's a competition we're participating in so we've been trying to meet those deadlines.  I would look now but I don't have have the software for it on the WIndows side of this computer, promise I'll look before I sleep tonight though. 
carlic: I'm going to try, that's not a question of funding, merely of my free time, my colleague's, and if we have enough info to pull it off.  We finally have the parts to get started but he is sick so I'm not sure if we will take a look tomorrow or put it off until next weekend.  If all people need is aperture control, that is a much easier proposition than the full deal and I believe implementation is available online as code for something like an Arduino.  I have no intent of doing any manufacturing, if I am successful I will post the code, a full component list, recommended tools, etc... so that others can easily do it themselves.  I intend to modify a dumb Canon to NX adapter using contacts from the AF supporting macro extension tubes for both NX and Canon, so a screwdriver, small handsaw, some kind of hotglue or epoxy and those 3 cheap adapters should be all that is needed mechanically.  The whole thing should be doable with < 100 USD even if you don't own any of the tools at the start.  Miniaturizing components or packing it all neatly into a custom adapter body is a different story, maybe Luca would be interested in that portion if we reach that point.  Don't get your hopes too high though, we haven't even really started and it may be quite difficult, we'll see. It's also possible that we face lens by lens challenges, in which case it's not exactly feasible for us to go through every lens on or own, so we would post what lenses it is known to work with and put the code on Github or the like so that others can contribute parameters for their lenses if they figure them out. 

Luca: Sorry, very busy week at work, there's a competition we're participating in so we've been trying to meet those deadlines.  I would look now but I don't have have the software for it on the WIndows side of this computer, promise I'll look before I sleep tonight though. 
carlic: I'm going to try, that's not a question of funding, merely of my free time, my colleague's, and if we have enough info to pull it off.  We finally have the parts to get started but he is sick so I'm not sure if we will take a look tomorrow or put it off until next weekend.  If all people need is aperture control, that is a much easier proposition than the full deal and I believe implementation is available online as code for something like an Arduino.  I have no intent of doing any manufacturing, if I am successful I will post the code, a full component list, recommended tools, etc... so that others can easily do it themselves.  I intend to modify a dumb Canon to NX adapter using contacts from the AF supporting macro extension tubes for both NX and Canon, so a screwdriver, small handsaw, some kind of hotglue or epoxy and those 3 cheap adapters should be all that is needed mechanically.  The whole thing should be doable with < 100 USD even if you don't own any of the tools at the start.  Miniaturizing components or packing it all neatly into a custom adapter body is a different story, maybe Luca would be interested in that portion if we reach that point.  Don't get your hopes too high though, we haven't even really started and it may be quite difficult, we'll see. It's also possible that we face lens by lens challenges, in which case it's not exactly feasible for us to go through every lens on or own, so we would post what lenses it is known to work with and put the code on Github or the like so that others can contribute parameters for their lenses if they figure them out. 

Luca: Sorry, very busy week at work, there's a competition we're participating in so we've been trying to meet those deadlines.  I would look now but I don't have have the software for it on the WIndows side of this computer, promise I'll look before I sleep tonight though. 
carlic: I'm going to try, that's not a question of funding, merely of my free time, my colleague's, and if we have enough info to pull it off.  We finally have the parts to get started but he is sick so I'm not sure if we will take a look tomorrow or put it off until next weekend.  If all people need is aperture control, that is a much easier proposition than the full deal and I believe implementation is available online as code for something like an Arduino.  I have no intent of doing any manufacturing, if I am successful I will post the code, a full component list, recommended tools, etc... so that others can easily do it themselves.  I intend to modify a dumb Canon to NX adapter using contacts from the AF supporting macro extension tubes for both NX and Canon, so a screwdriver, small handsaw, some kind of hotglue or epoxy and those 3 cheap adapters should be all that is needed mechanically.  The whole thing should be doable with < 100 USD even if you don't own any of the tools at the start.  Miniaturizing components or packing it all neatly into a custom adapter body is a different story, maybe Luca would be interested in that portion if we reach that point.  Don't get your hopes too high though, we haven't even really started and it may be quite difficult, we'll see. It's also possible that we face lens by lens challenges, in which case it's not exactly feasible for us to go through every lens on or own, so we would post what lenses it is known to work with and put the code on Github or the like so that others can contribute parameters for their lenses if they figure them out. 

Luca: Sorry, very busy week at work, there's a competition we're participating in so we've been trying to meet those deadlines.  I would look now but I don't have have the software for it on the WIndows side of this computer, promise I'll look before I sleep tonight though. 
carlic: I'm going to try, that's not a question of funding, merely of my free time, my colleague's, and if we have enough info to pull it off.  We finally have the parts to get started but he is sick so I'm not sure if we will take a look tomorrow or put it off until next weekend.  If all people need is aperture control, that is a much easier proposition than the full deal and I believe implementation is available online as code for something like an Arduino.  I have no intent of doing any manufacturing, if I am successful I will post the code, a full component list, recommended tools, etc... so that others can easily do it themselves.  I intend to modify a dumb Canon to NX adapter using contacts from the AF supporting macro extension tubes for both NX and Canon, so a screwdriver, small handsaw, some kind of hotglue or epoxy and those 3 cheap adapters should be all that is needed mechanically.  The whole thing should be doable with < 100 USD even if you don't own any of the tools at the start.  Miniaturizing components or packing it all neatly into a custom adapter body is a different story, maybe Luca would be interested in that portion if we reach that point.  Don't get your hopes too high though, we haven't even really started and it may be quite difficult, we'll see. It's also possible that we face lens by lens challenges, in which case it's not exactly feasible for us to go through every lens on or own, so we would post what lenses it is known to work with and put the code on Github or the like so that others can contribute parameters for their lenses if they figure them out. 

Hey Brian, how much opportunity cost are we talking here?  I'm not going to back down from my 10k offer though I suspect that wouldn't exactly cover things, just a feeling, lol.  On the other hand it would be a bit irritating to pay it out and then find out it wasn't so hard after all (possibly, I'll have fun taking a shot either way).  I'm referring to the electronics of course though rather than the lenses.  Also, a question about that for you, is something like an Arduino Nano micro controller really fast enough to handle the spi at native speeds?  I'm going to prototype with one in either case, but if it's not then I may move to FPGA later if the Nano is functional and just sluggish. 
Luca, I would prefer to be one of those supporters, but I guess I'll have to wait for those first shots from others if you're not feeling up to posting two raws, same lens, same framing (tripod), same focus, same aperture.  I know you have video samples, but since I'm not much of one for video that's just not my evaluative area.

Hmm, Metabone's complaint about the space isn't totally invalid.  Their claim is that they couldn't make it fit and also be at the same quality as their other adapters (and I assume they mean while keeping down manufacturing costs as being sort of implied).  Anyway, I'm very interested in this, If we can get one allowing good AF with EF lenses.... speedboosted or even just adapted I would be willing to put 10,000 USD towards a manufacturing run.  In either case I would need to see the good performance in the prototypes first of course, for AF and optically.  The size of the prototype doesn't bother me.  For instance, if on the prototype an Arduino and external power, etc... are needed, so long as in the final production design it is constrained to being contained in the adapter (and here I don't mind quite a thick adapter).  Others can tell you I'm good for my word, I funded most of the burner NX500 for the firmware hacking. 
SMGJohn, we do know what tools they used, but knowing the tools doesn't give us their source code.  You can find the source for the camera OS and build instructions here: http://opensource.samsung.com/reception/receptionSub.do?method=sub&sub=T&menu_item=photography&classification1=digital%20cameras but it doesn't have the source for the camera app that runs at boot and really does everything camera related.  This kind of change and repackage the firmware approach has been done before on the NX300 (someone added encryption) Vasile's approach is much safer since once the base firmware is modded all other changes are done outside of that and should be reversible with no chance of bricking. 
Vasile, I'm just afraid if I fund your lens you will lose your motivation, or worse, spend all your time taking photos :P