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Firmware Hack for Fujifilm. Is it possible?

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Zeol1

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I was wondering around at the Canon Talk forum and found some guys have been hacking the firmware for Canon camera models. This is the text they show:

The CHDK fw is a hacked firmware for DIGIC II cameras. Currently supported cams are A610, A620, A630, A640, A710 IS, S2 IS and S3 IS (see the FAQ for a complete list).

The CHDK fw implements new features like RAW, battery indicator, live histogram (RGB/luminance), zebra mode (blinking areas of over- underexposure), DOF calculator, scripts (intervalometer, exposure/focus ... bracketing etc.), text reader, file browser, calendar, games and much more. New features get implemented frequently, so check the timeline for the latest changes, or the FAQ for a complete list.

The CHDK firmware does not touch the original firmware of your camera. It is an additional program which gets loaded into the memory of the cam. If you have a problem, just turn your cam off or remove the batteries, and the CHDK fw is gone.

This is the link to the thread:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1010&thread=23366253

Since many have been praying for a Firmware update on their Fuji Cameras, i wonder:

Is it possible to do a similar hack for Fujifilm cameras?

What change would you do to the firmware of your camera (please specify the camera model)?

Is there any programmer here up to the task?

--
My Fujifilm Arsenal
Finepix S6000fd for adventure
Finepix E550 all day camera
Finepix F20 wife's camera

Previews Cameras: Finepix S5200, A350, A303, 2650, 2600
Olympus D-100.
 
The CHDK is a really great piece of software.

I have been using the CHDK for over a month on my A620. The features I like
most are the live histogram and saving the raw pictures. I always get both the
raw and the Canon jpeg files. I don't have to process the raw if I find the
jpeg to be good enough. I didn't care about raw before I had a chance to
discover how much more color there is in the raw file than there is left on the
jpeg.

I found that with the help of the live histogram I can get well exposed raw
files with a lot of light in: that helps getting better pictures at high ISO
since I can expose in the right half of the histogram. And then, I found
that even if the raw is well exposed the in-camera processing may return
a jpeg file that looks overexposed. Here is an example of this,

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1010&message=23270567

I use an F20 and I would very much like to have the capability to save
the raw files. I suspect that even when an F20 jpeg picture looks a bit
overexposed, the raw itself is correctly exposed. So getting the raw would
help.
 
I asked the same question in this forum a few months back and everyone pretty much said it wasn't possible. Not sure why but it would be great if we could get some firmware hacks in the Fuji realm as well.
 
ChiSoxFan said:
I asked the same question in this forum a few months back and
everyone pretty much said it wasn't possible. Not sure why but it
would be great if we could get some firmware hacks in the Fuji
realm as well.
Click to expand...
If it isn't possible them Fujifilm wouldn't be able to release firmware updates for their Digital cameras. At least that's what i think. We might be just missing to ingredients: the knowledge and someone to apply that knowledge.

Answering one of my question, in my case, i would really appreciate to be able to set Auto ISO 400 and ISO 800 to my S6000fd. Also, i would bring the Raw option to the F Menu. For the F20, i would enable it to let me control shutter speed and aperture.

There are some other thing i would change. I will tell when i remember them.
--
My Fujifilm Arsenal
Finepix S6000fd for adventure
Finepix E550 all day camera
Finepix F20 wife's camera

Previews Cameras: Finepix S5200, A350, A303, 2650, 2600
Olympus D-100.
 
Should be possible, but lots of work to be done without any sources.

First on has to know, what CPU kernel is beend used. The binary firmware files probably are encrypted first of all.

Furtheron You have to disassemble the code and analyze ist inner workings.

Would certainly be easier if there where several well documented firmware updates available, so one could analyze the differences as an anchor point.

burkm
 
Well, I'd like to have at my S5200 RAW option at the F button and a battery meter...
 
On the 6x00 the useless 2x zoombutton can be made into a Raw selector... Live histogram would be handy as well (without having to press a button).
 
Thinking about it, it is possible that Fujifilm programmers didn't put the Raw option on the F menu because many users don't understand what is Raw and how it is processed. If this option is set in the F menu or in a special button, them there is a chance that an uninstructed user select this option and at the moment he tries to view or download the pictures, he might thing the camera has a fault or is damage.
--
My Fujifilm Arsenal
Finepix S6000fd for adventure
Finepix E550 all day camera
Finepix F20 wife's camera

Previews Cameras: Finepix S5200, A350, A303, 2650, 2600
Olympus D-100.
 
Probably not possible, and I speak as a professional programmer.

The main problem is simply that Fuji don't release information about the internals of the hardware and firmware, either directly or indirectly.

The Canon's have a facility to ADD software in the form of additional modules sitting on a memory card. The Canon hack is, in effect, just a set of programs that sits outside the firmware. The Fuji's don't, as far as anyone knows, support anything like this. The Canon hack does not permanently change anything - you can remove it simply by deleting a few files from the memory card. With the Fuji's it looks like you would have to permanently change the firmware, and that means no safety net for developers of a hack. Every time they tried a new hack version they could fry a camera - rather nasty.

Also, I think Fuji can sue you if you try and reverse engineer their firmware ( which is not what the Canon hack does, but a Fuji hack would have to ). I thin kit's part of their license agreement on the firmware upgrade - and one route to working out the hack would be by doing a firmware upgrade and monitoring what happens, so that's out.

All in all rather a minefield.

Which we would not need if Fuji would just modify a few settings ( like RAW on the F menu ) and maybe a customizable button on some models. The menus in particular are probably as close to a trivial software change as they could manage - although no software change is actually trivial. Adding RAW on the F30 would also seem a relatively small change for them to make, as the underlying firmware has to do it anyway and almost certainly uses the same basic source code as that on cameras that do support RAW. Still...

Are you paying attention Fuji ?

Nope. Didn't think so. :-)

--
StephenG

Fuji S9600
Fuji S5200
Fuji F30
Fuji E900
Canon A710IS
PCLinuxOS
 
While we're at the wish lists....

the F31fd already has an IR send/receive circuit. As it is now, it is almost useless to me. I'd like it to react to incoming IR signals and trigger the shutter and the pre-focusing cycle.

Would make it easy to do time series capturing with PDA as a programmable timer. Also, I'd prefer it to the 10 seconds self-timer which you have to activate on each new shot.

Probably not going to happen...
 
I would like for the s9100(s9600):

RAW option in the "F" menu button.
6mp or 7mp resolution option.
2 and 10 second timers that stay on until you turn them off.
Maybe better noise reduction without softening the picture.
A couple more preset auto white balance options.

And thats about it.
--
Fuji Film S9100
 
Very true! But a "custom" button WOULD be very handy! So instead of the useless 2x zoom button a user definable RAW/whitebalance/focusmode/whatever button I would sure love a lot!

One or more user/custom presets would be appreciated as well. Very easy to implement under the F button. User1=iso400/no flash/raw, User2=iso100,flash,1/250 sec. etc. That would be very very handy.
 
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