[shoplink 16254]
[/shoplink]
The well known [shoplink 14826]GH1[/shoplink] hacker Vitaly (or tester13) asked me to make a support call on 43rumors. That is the text he sent me:
“As you may know, I have [shoplink 16254]GH2[/shoplink] firmware now. But it is encrypted, and uses compacts UPD format. It’ll require bunch of resources and expertise to try to dump compacts firmware and learn how encryption is performed. Please publish this info with bold request all engineers NOR flash (and especially LSI with NOR) experience contact me. I can guarantee anonymity if they want.”
If you can help him please contact Vitaly at the following address: info@pentax-hack.info. More info are available here: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?236360-News-about-GH2-firmware
And Vitaliy is also working on a hack for the [shoplink 16841]AG-AF100[/shoplink]. Here is the link to the thread: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?236194-Good-news-about-AF100-firmware
Thanks Vitaly for your great job!
11 Responses
I just linked to this page over @ dpreview.com for exposure
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1041&thread=37547777
Why do they bother encrypting it? It’s not like hacking the firmware hurts their sales at all.
It does hurt sales, who is gonna buy an AG-AF100 if they can get the GH2 to do the same?
Sorry, but I don’t agree that the GH2 can do the same as the AG-AF100. The AG-AF100 is designed for professional and semi-professional production. And it has the ergonomics for this kind of job.
I don’t think people in the target market for the AG-AF100 care about the price difference between the GH2 and the AG-AF100. They want a camcorder with the right ergnomics and AV-sockets.
These bastards don’t want us to improve for free the equipment they sell, neither will they bother doing it themselves. As someone else put it, firmware update does not generate income. But short product cycle does.
I would have encrypted the firmware, if it was my product.
While the “hacking” of the GH1 has been generating positive news for Panasonic, they have no way of knowing how any future “hack” will look. It could very well cause problems for users, or even ruin the camera.
While Panasonic cannot be blamed for the ill effects of using “hacks”, they would face public relations problems if the “hacks” led to problems for users. With no control over what changes people do to their firmware, it is better for them to just restrict this access.
=/
Bricking your camera and then complaining to panasonic about it is like sticking a contact cover on a book, then complaining to the publisher when you have bubbles underneath it!
I guess, one thing Panasonic could be thinking is this:
If someone’s smart enough to get through the encryption, then they’re smart enough to mess around with the firmware without fucking everything up.
I would like to say use hack fw is by owned risk and i will use it even with very little problem like camera hang 1 time in every 100x used! Must remember, the hack is imperfect not because of the hardware limitation, it is due to limitation of resources such as tools, pro engineers, tester, etc to completely optimize the camera performance!
All manufacturers are like that, they purposely limit the hardware performance. otherwise, how they generate revenue for their short cycle product 😀 try to think the old time, a 80gb hdd actually it can work as 160gb or 250gb. amd/intel chip can over clock faster (Mhz/$). Canon dslr-latern fw hack.
That’s planned obsolescence for you…
I would have used an open source firmware (Android based, may be)
I won’t buy a AF100 until it’s hacked.
I’m a happy GH13 user. I’m holding out until the AF100 is hacked to be better than my GH13.