5d MkII Hackability
 

So as the 5d's street date finally approaches, I'm wondering: what if Canon never adds 24p, 25p, or any manual shutter/ISO concessions? I think most of us can agree that it's something they COULD do with a firmware update, but they have plenty of reasons not to (chiefly the viewpoint that they'd be cannibalizing video camera sales, which is something I disagree would be the case, but regardless).

How likely do people think it is that the 5d MkII could be hacked to add those features and possibly more? Something along the lines of what the CHDK people have done with the Powershots? Maybe even adding an external controller of some sort? I have more experience with prosumer video cameras than I do with DSLRs, so I'm wondering what those of you with more DSLR knowledge think. Thanks!

Only time will tell what the answers to your questions will be, but since we're on the eve of delivery, there's no doubt that we'll have very long to wait for some enterprising folks to tackle these issues. I'm pretty sure that external control is already built-in over the USB output. It's probably just a matter of porting that code to a PDA application.

(Not to mention, Camera > USB > Wireless transmitter > Wireless receiver > USB > PDA).

One Canon DSLR (350D) was hacked to open up features of higher models. I'm sure this horrified Canon and I doubt it will be doable again.

The 5DII is clearly restricted in features that Canon will offer on higher-end models. It's likely that the only reason 24p, 25p and full manual control aren't not part of the feature set is that Canon doesn't want to sell that capability at the price of the 5DII.

Instead of a PDA, a netbook running win XP is more likely candidate to remotely control the 5DII. There are several control programs available other than DPP for Canon DSLRs. I recall that DPP won't control movie mode. Perhaps the third party control programs can be adapted to movie mode. But another possibility is that Canon is intentionally blocking remote movie operation.

Canon is in uncharted territory with the 5DII. This situation is typically not where Canon is particularly good or comfortable. So what Canon will allow or offer is "up in the air".

That's it? What the big deal then...

Wink wink, tee hee.

There is a similar thread elsewhere and the view there was pretty much the same - probably possible, but difficult as hell; perhaps meaning "breaking" a camera or two to make it work.

john

Nothing worth doing is easy, though. What is the price of the cheapest full-frame interchangeable-lens HD video camera right now? The RED ONE is $17.5k (at least double that to actually shoot), the Sony F35 is $200k, and both are Super35-sized. The Ikonoskop is Super16-sized and $10k. A full-frame 1080p sensor for $2,600 is such a game-changing proposition that it'd be worth ruining a couple of bodies if you could sell a $1k modification as a result. Filmmakers could take a modded 5dMkII and outfit it with rails, a mattebox, filters, followfocus, and some decent manual lenses for less than a stock Sony EX-3. And they get a great dSLR out of it to boot.

I guess that was all obvious. I just wish I had the skills to mod hardware/firmware myself...