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Canon Digital Rebel Hacked Into A Pseudo-10D
Reverb9 writes "When Canon introduced the Digital Rebel, the world's first entry-level Digital SLR camera, many remarked on its similarities to the 10D , its $500 more expensive big brother. In fact, the two cameras share much of the same technology and so Canon implemented a number of software-based limitations to avoid destroying sales of the professional-oriented 10D. Now, a new hack that restores a previously hidden menu along with a few additional tricks has added nearly all of those 10D features to the Rebel, with an arguably superior user interface to boot. Canon has so far said little on the hack but certainly cannot be happy with its potential effect on sales. This is, however, a reality that more corporations are having to confront. In an era where programming labour is relatively cheap and computer connectivity more frequent can artificial, marketing-driven, barriers between technology products, last?"
Yes, when they're enforced by the DMCA and jail sentences for those who reverse-engineer them. (Remember DeCSS? The outcry over DeCSS was just a preview; things are going to get a lot worse, not better.)
Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
I've been meaning to buy the Digital Rebel/300D ever since it was released, but somehow was held back by the lack of the Mirror Lockup feature. Now that this hack enables that feature, I think I'll go pick one of these babies up very soon. I already have a nice collection of Canon EF and EF L lenses that the 300D can take.
Some of the Sony Minidisc players had features disabled through software. I, for one, was able to get many new features on mine after enering the service menu.
This will be happening a lot in the future... it's a good thing though, if they can make a product more powerful for that amount of money than they should do so. Marking up the same hardware and because you don't have artifical barriers on it should be a crime...
Unfortunately, it's breaking these artifical barriers to make full use of hardware you paid for that a crime in our society.
I touch computers in naughty places
My Comcast cablebox (motoral model unknown, somewhere from c.1992) is a POS. I called Comcast for tech support because my volume was too low
Fast forward some months
This one feature was useful enough for me to keep two different codes for my one cable box on one remote.
I'm still searching for the CC button, like aztec gold.
In this particular case the hack involved restoring some capabilities, which while present in the hardware, had been locked or hidden by software. Certainly this individual deserves his due for circumventing the software barriers. However, in software products it is much easier to simply leave sections of code out of the finished build in the lesser versions. If the functionality is not there in the first place then no amount of unlocking will enable it. This incident raises important issues about the sale and marketing of technology products, especially in the digital camera market. It is my opinion that the industry has vastly underestimated the demand among consumers for more powerful "professional" grade digital cameras. It would probably make more sense from both a business and technology standpoint to offer the full camera at a price which is higher than the basic entry level model, but less than the full "professional" model since most of the work was probably in the design of the hardware and software and not as much in the manufacturing. People are generally willing to pay for a well built product as long as they know that the quality is there.
The best easter egg in a car I think is this one. Have not found the hidden launch control on my 10 year old rustbucket, though. I am taking apart the digital clock this weekend to find it.
This tale is all hearsay, and I've never confirmed it (please don't nitpick on my model numbers, but I believe it was the 8L/4L):
When HP orignally launched their Laserjet 8L, they were having trouble generating enough sales for the product. I'm not sure why, but perhaps it was because a lot of the desktop publishing market at the time belonged to Apple, who had the Laserwriter out on the market. That's neither here nor there, though.
The 8L could do, IIRC something like 10 or 11 ppm. So HP took the 8L, and through the use of a slightly different gearing, produced the 4L, which was nearly identical except for a slower print-rate, somewhere in the 5 ot 6 ppm range, which was still quite nice for the time. They sold the 4L for about half of what the 8L went for. All of a sudden, they were selling a huge amount of 4Ls, but there were also a ton of companies that realized that a 4L wouldn't be enough for their branch office, or whatever, so they purchased the "upgraded" 8L, instead. Enterprising users could, presumably, order the gear set (and whatever associated parts went with the actual 8L) and "hard mod" their 4L into an 8L.
Way back when, the local phone company shipped out these cheap caller ID boxes when you ordered new service. They sent the lowest end model, which only shows the name and had ~50 number memory.
:P
One day bored, I opened the box up and found that there was *1* soider point that would upgrade it to "name" caller ID, and 200+ more number memory.
The difference in price bewteen the 2 models was like $40.
Honestly, I don't think many people will do this change to upgrade there camera. Personally, I wouldn't becuase those damn things are expensive compaired to my $100 digital camera
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Name one example of this. Everything I've seen that you state is in addition to several other modifications. For example, the engine in the Gen 1 and 2 DSM's (Eclipse, Talon, and Laser) may have lower boost as compared to the Euro model of that engine, but it also has smaller intake and exhaust manifolds, a smaller turbo, different fueling, etc.
The Audi S4 and RS4 have the same engine, but the turbos differ, as do the heads, exhaust and intake manifolds, the entire intake tract, intercoolers, etc. Everything appears to be the same, but it's not apparent until you start taking things apart.
We get screwed here in the US. Most foreign car manufacturers detune the cars for the US market due to emissions regulations, insurance reasons, or whatever. But that detuning rarely involves simply changing software or boost levels for turbos/superchargers. Usually, major components of the engine are "downgraded" also because they don't need to spend the extra money to support the same amount of air or fuel flow as they do on the european counterpart.
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Saving $500 is quite a lot, I'll bet a number of normal people figure out how to apply this hack with detail instructions from message boards and the like.
I really thought it was odd of Canon to differentiate the software at all - they should haver just kept the price differential to a resnable cost for a sturdier body.
Both are really prosumer cameras, I think people shopping for one would be thinking about the other - like you say, the real difference is when you are going for a 1D or a 1Ds.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Many other photocopier models offering different speeds were identical except for the controller boards, and swapping those over wasn't uncommon either; in fact, at one stage the distributor used to officially sanction it because the manufacturer was screwing them over.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
I personally know 3 people who own this camera, all of them have applied the hack. They have been buzzing about it since folks started posting on www.dpreview.com a few weeks ago.
Despite what conceded slashdot'rs think, average camera nerds can indeed find links on the internet and are also capable of following simple instructions.
This will most certainly hurt sales of the 10D. Many people are more than willing to give up a metal body to save $500!
Software hacks and the price differential of a few hundred bucks are fairly irrelevant when the camera's power can really only be unleashed with pro lenses costing $1500 or $2000 (and up) rather than the cheap crap lens that comes with a stock Rebel unit. It's not uncommon for a serious photog to have tens of thousands of bucks invested in lenses. Do you really think that this sort of pro would balk at the 10D's price and get a hacked Rebel instead?
I also bought my 10D for reasons more than software/firmware capabilities. I knew the 300D (Digital Rebel) was crippled in some ways, including focus modes, but I still prefer the 10D for its overall build quality, the 10D has a magnesium-alloy body as opposed to the 300D's plastic body.
Other issues include the 300D's increased "mirror slap" which can cause some camera shake, not good for those long exposures. Also a slower shutter time and longer viewfinder blackout time.
This isn't to say the 300D isn't a good body, it's going to do wonders for those aspiring pros who can't quite afford higher end gear yet, but it still isn't a 10D.
------------ Ben Chroneos
It is to some people. My friend (still is my friend) drove over my Canon EOS Elan 7, which has a magnesium frame. the lens was toast and was ripped off the camera.
The camera, however, could still rewind the film and could still pop the flash out. When i brought it into the shop, they were amazed that not only did all the electronics still work and were calibrated, the film plane was still in alignment with the lens! One of the things that made the difference was it's metal construction: if the lens bayonet had been polycarbonate (as it is on the rebels) then likely the camera would have just pulled apart, but as it is metal, i lost a cheap lens.
try running over a rebel with a car.
Oh, one little complaint---The zoom ring on the 55-200 doesn't move as smoothly as I'd like, which can make it a pain to fine-tune the focal length.
Of course, take my remarks about the quality of these lenses with a grain of salt. I'm new to SLRs (film or digital) and I've only used these Sigma lenses on my camera so far, which doesn't give me a real point of comparison for their quality.
Find this lens on froogle
Hate stupid software on freshmeat? Laugh at