» Posts Tagged ‘firmware’
Canon recently announced a firmware update for the Canon 5D Mark III, and that led the way for the great folks at Magic Lantern to begin porting their hack. Already a big hit on the Mark II and other Canon cameras, Magic Lantern could open up specific features many believe Canon should have included in the first place. Chuck Westfall has said that the 5D Mark III and the 1D X might never get a full, clean HDMI, mainly because Canon (obviously) puts more money and attention into the video features on their expensive video-centric Cinema EOS line (though he also says they are always listening to consumers). Most of all, they want to keep the two product lines separate, and possibly the only hope for this feature (and others like it) is for something like Magic Lantern to unlock the hidden power of the camera. More »
As noted previously, RED has a new color science and gamma curve for their RAW-shooting cameras: REDgamma3 and REDcolor3. The new color science comes with a new camera firmware — version 3.0.0, which is a release build (not beta) for both EPIC and SCARLET — and there’s a new version of REDCINE-X as well. RED’s Jim Jannard explained the color science updates with the following — note that if you’re doing a full grade, your gamma setting will still be REDlogfilm, but you should expect to employ the new color science alongside that gamma curve: More »
Is real-time High Dynamic Range imaging, ala RED’s HDRx, coming to Canon DSLRs with the next version of Magic Lantern firmware? Well, yes and no — thus the asterisk. The system they’ve developed splits a 24p stream into two 12FPS exposures, one high and one low, and then interpolates the frames. It’s an interesting hack, demonstrated here: More »
I don’t own or shoot on a Panasonic GH2, but whenever I cover its hacked firmware releases the installation instructions always sound a bit daunting. Now EOSHD has released new patches and “film modes” for the camera, which offer similar functionality to existing GH2 hacks but (possibly?) easier installation. Says EOSHD’s Andrew Reid, “I believe them to be the most optimal patches and film modes for the best image quality currently possible on the GH2.” More »
The Panasonic GH2 is beloved by many because of its small size, small price, and, um, large hackability. It has always had 24p, but until now never had 25p or 30p. Thanks to a new firmware released by Panasonic, GH2 users will be getting one or the other (but unfortunately not both): PAL GH2 users can now get 25p embedded in a 50i stream, and North American buyers get 30p embedded in a 60i stream (both at 24mb/s AVCHD). Here are the rest of the details: More »
With all the news about the Canon C300 and RED SCARLET-X lately, it’s easy to forget that both of these cameras are out of the price range of most DSLR shooters. What many were looking for from either company was an announcement at the price point of the Sony FS100, which, though it has some ergonomic quirks, is a very nice camera for $5k. It looks like it will be getting nicer in early 2012, with a firmware update from Sony that makes it a global camera — adding PAL recording rates to the North American model (and presumably vice versa) — as well as some nice other free feature additions. Here’s the list of expected upgrades: More »
The Panasonic GH2 keeps getting better and better thanks to hacker Vitaliy Kiselev. Recently he enabled a extremely high bitrate, and now he’s bumped the ISO during video mode from 3,200 all the way up to 12,800. While the GH2 had high ISO modes available previously, they were only possible with a Panasonic lens in Shutter Priority mode. Now anyone using hacked firmware can crank up the ISO. Here are some video tests of the GH2 at 12,800 ISO: More »
Has anyone done an official dynamic range test of the Sony F3 with its amazing S-Log firmware enabled? I heard it was 13.5 stops, but now Sony is claiming firmware version 1.20 will add another stop by utilizing Exposure Index S-Log mode (more on this after the jump). Also, Sony will be coming out with two zoom lenses for the F3, making use of the camera’s zoom rocker. Plus, the CBK-3DL01 3D Link option will add the ability to link two F3s together for 3D use, but will apparently cost $5,500. While the F3 is a hell of camera, something tells me that if Sony wants to remain competitive in terms of pricing, after November 3rd they might want to think about their firmware pricing. If you want S-Log and 3D, that’s a total of $9,000 in upgrades on top of the camera’s $14,000 price tag. Then again, if the new S-Log mode does add another stop of exposure, that would put it even with the ARRI ALEXA — and that camera is $75k. More »
The Panasonic GH2, arguably the most aliasing-free, highest-resolution hybrid camera out there (pictured here with the $500 ReWo GH2 cage), natively records to a 24Mbit Long GOP codec. “Long GOP” means that redundant information is retained across moving frames, which is a very efficient way of compressing video, but can also leave behind compression artifacts. In addition to the original hacked firmware by Vitaliy Kiselev, a new hacker named Driftwood has managed to drastically increase the bitrate of the GH2, in addition to switching the codec to a 176Mbit intraframe codec, which could offer even better image quality with less artifacting. More »
Programmer Vitaliy Kiselev recently got ahold of a leaked firmware update for the Panasonic GH2 and has now hacked it successfully. This could lead to new features, as we saw last time around with the GH1 hack. While this brand new GH2 firmware hack is very much in beta, features that are at least working partially include the 30 minute clip length limit being removed (for PAL versions), a PAL / NTSC menu function, new audio bitrates, AGC selection, 720/25p, 1080/25p, and 1080/60p (the latter two currently freeze the camera). If you’re feeling adventurous or want to help with the further development of the hack, here are the installation instructions for PC users (Mac users are instructed to use this): More »
Sony has released version 1.1 of the F3‘s firmware, which adds simultaneous HD-SDI/HDMI output, ND filter color correction, Planning Metadata (file naming convention schemes), and other new features. They’ve also released the much-touted S-LOG upgrade, the tongue-twisting CBK-RGB01 paid upgrade, which adds awesome uncompressed output capability — for a price. More »
The legendary Magic Lantern firmware for the (itself legendary) Canon 5D Mark II hasn’t been updated in a long while, probably owing to the fact that codec Tramm Hudson has a life. Also, since Canon added 24p and manual audio controls to the official firmware, there was less need for ML. Programmer AJ Newman has come to rescue with a new version of the firmware, entitled AJ5.0, which is a ground-up rewrite with a brand new interface that offers some great new features. Here’s a look at what’s new in this branch of the ML firmware: More »
Panasonic has released their first firmware update for the AF100, and while it’s a minor one (fixing some SD card errors), the availability of such a file means that it can be dissected… and possibly hacked. Back in September when previewing the AF100 I asked, “who’s to say that an enterprising hacker won’t find a way to raise the bitrate of the AF100 in-camera, without requiring an external recorder?” Now the programmer behind the original GH1 hack is looking to do just that, deeming the AF100 firmware “definitely” hackable. More »
Late last week rumors started flying about a firmware upgrade to be posted January 1st that would allow the Canon T2i to shoot at 4K (4096×2304) resolution. All of the HDSLR and video blogs I follow posted the rumor, including ProVideo Coalition, EOSHD, Cinema5D, Philip Bloom, Robin Schmidt, and planet5D. There was just one problem with this firmware: it never existed. More »
Happy Chriskwanzakuh! Here’s a free present courtesy Tramm Hudson, who has released the much-anticipated Magic Lantern hacked firmware for the Canon T2i/550D, which allows for higher-bitrate h.264 encoding, live zebra stripe and histogram displays, cropmarks, and onscreen audio meters. There’s also apparently a version for the Canon 60D in the works (the original is for the 5D only; no word on the 7D at this time). Here’s a look at the T2i firmware version 1.0.9 (which is not “final,” but is a release candidate) from Renny Hayes: More »
Firmware genius Tramm Hudson, who gave us the original Magic Lantern firmware, has released a new version that allows 5D Mark II owners to increase the video bitrate of their DSLR to 76MBps (the default is 38). This should make a world of difference in the battle against those pesky compression artifacts. Word on the street is that 76MBps is unstable, but the slightly lower 66MBps is working in 24p. This is very much in beta and I haven’t had a chance to try it out myself yet. Here are the details from Tramm: More »
Ever since Canon released 24p in a firmware update, DSLR shooters look for significant new features anytime a new firmware is released. However, version 2.0.8 of the 5D Mark II firmware, which was released today, appears to offer only bug fixes — nothing on our wish list. If you’re curious anyway, or want to upgrade to the latest firmware, here’s their breakdown of the updates in 2.0.8: More »
Short answer: no. Long answer: the GH1 is now a viable tool for filmmaking, whereas before I didn’t view it as such. So, what is this hacked firmware? As I mention on the new Choosing a DSLR page of the DSLR Guide, the Panasonic GH1 recently got its own Magic Lantern-eque hacked firmware. As spotted at EOS HD, this firmware enables two very important features for filmmakers: More »
A quick heads-up for 5d Mark II shooters: there’s a new (seemingly minor) firmware update out there. Of the three listed fixes, the only one that piques my interest is the first: More »
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