Hacking the firmware of a Digital Rebel?

Isn't it possible to edit the firmware of a Digital Rebel to allow ISO
increments in 1/3 stops? Or customizable shutter timers (ie not
limited to 10-seconds)? These things are mostly just software
limitations imposed by Canon.

The original Digital Rebel (300D) had many of its features "enhanced"
by hackers editing its firmware. I don't understand why we haven't
seen similar hacks for subsequent models.

 

I can only imagine the 300D had a flaw which made it easy to reverse
engineer the firmware, while the others do not.

 

I believe that it's more the case that the firmware has all these
capabilities present, but simply disabled. The hack is not adding or
changing functionality, but rather enabling routines that are present
but turned off.

 

There is a Yahoo Group about hacking the 300D firmware - they talk
about hacking the firmware for other Canon cameras. I'd ask there.

jc

 

And newer camera models have those features enabled in the firmware
already, so there is nothing to hack to enable more features -
everything is already "turned on" from the factory.

 

The 300D had the same base firmware as the 10D, with several features simply
limited by options set in the firmware code (maximum ISO, for example). The
hacks didn't really CHANGE the coding as much as re-enable some thing that were
already there but locked out. Some of them are limited by the hardware.

 

More likely, newer cameras have their firmware coded specifically for them. The
300D's firmware was "borrowed" from the 10D; functions were disabled mainly to
accomodate hardware limitations.

 

But firmware is merely software written to access features of the
camera. Coding for a specific camera doesn't mean anything because it
can still have limits imposed within the firmware.

If the functions are not there, then the firmware "matches" the camera
and there is nothing extra to get out of the firmware.

My understanding of the wasia hack is that the camera had
functionality, but was suppressed or disabled in firmware. The changes
to the firmware to access those functions is what made it viable.

If the Canon XTi lacks spot meter capability, firmware hacks won't do
squat because there is no spot metere to access.

 

Of course it is possible.
Simply multiply the output from the A/D converter a bit and you
get 1/3 and 2/3 stops.

Probably yes.

Except for the A/D converter, yes, mostly.

Because there you had only to flip a switch and the switched-off
functionalities would appear.

Here, you probably have to write the code, that means you
first have to de-compile and reverse-engineer everything.
And understand it. And write the code, bit by bit per hand.
Building a house with just a toothpick for a tool is about as easy,
once you have managed to understand everything in the code.

For the kind of time and money needed, you could just as well buy
a couple 1D Mark II and a nice selection of lenses, in which case
you'd not need to hack the inferior hardware platform.

-Wolfgang

 

The 300D/Drebrel had the same internals as the 10D, but had functions
disabled in the firmware. The Wasia hack turned the 10D features back on.

The XT was a completely different camera than the 20D or 30D so there
wasn't any higher features to reactivate.