I've been using separate cards for photos and video but I haven't seen this issue mentioned anywhere before?

Features:

• Added new recording mode: "ZRAW (Bayer CFA)" - it's an old (true) ZRAW with Bayer RAW data, that can be used in our converter or original Z CAM ZRAW VideoSuite

• Original current ZRAW is now renamed to "ZRAW (HEVC)" - it still can be used if you need it

WARNING! Firmware is for E2-M4 ONLY!!! DO NOT setup it on any other camera models!

WARNING 2! IT CAN BE DANGEROUS! YOU USE THIS FW AT YOUR OWN RISK!

How to install the firmware:

1. Rollback your E2-M4 to 0.98.0 version (take image file from the original Z CAM website)

2. Prepare usb-stick/disk with our new image file (WARNING! ALL DATA ON THIS DISK WILL BE ERASED):

• connect flash to PC

• open balenaEtcher program (it's free, you can find it in the internet)

• choose zip file from this post (download zip file by link down there)

• choose your usb-stick/disk

• start process by pressing "Flash!" button and wait

• eject your usb-stick/disk after successful flashing process

3. Install FW to E2-M4:

• turn off your E2-M4

• connect your usb-stick/disk to your E2-M4

• press record button and power button simultaneously

• wait until you see Z CAM logo on the screen

• wait for 1-2 seconds and release buttons

• camera will update to our new firmware

If all is done correctly, after reboot camera will start using new firmware.

You can always rollback to the original Z CAM firmware without any problems.

BalenaEther can be found here (it's free):

https://www.balena.io/etcher/

Link to the firmware image with new features (that you choose in balenaEther):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18BHAqMg6at47HqWfkrDi-7cbxiMOozbV/view?usp=sharing

Facebook group with all info and links to ZRAW to DNG Video Converter:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/storyboardcreativity

To activate it set these settings:

• Resolution: 3696x2772 (Low Noise)
• Project FPS: 23.98/24/25
• WDR: Off

This mode triggers Sony IMX299 sensor readout mode "0" that allows 14-bit color.

If you use a firmware with old ZRAW (0.93 and older) or a hacked firmware with mode "ZRAW (Bayer CFA)", you can get a pure RAW DNG with 14-bit color.

Just purchased a pristine/mint Panasonic GF1 camera body from Japan with only 900 shutter actuations. However, I didn't realize that Panasonic cameras (at least the early models) purchased in Japan only have the Japanese language firmware (no other languages), and it is impossible to set to any other language.

After research, I found out about the Ptool3 hack that allows for a variety of improvements, along with being able to access various languages (in my case English). I followed all the instructions with the Ptool3, and saved the firmware with the next highest number (as described).

Problem is that no matter what I try, the camera (when I press Play) will not recognize the firmware at all, so at this point, I am unable to use this firmware hack.

Here is what I did:

I brought up the PTool, and loaded the latest GF1 firmware - which is GF1__122.bin

I then check marked "Version Compare."

I then check marked "Patches for End Users," and double-clicked on that and then from the drop-down menu, selected "Interface." I then clicked on "Interface" and check marked "All Interface Languages.?

I then saved the new FW as GF1__123.

I inserted the new FW on to the SD card (not in any folder) - and yes, it was formatted in camera first. I then inserted the SD card into the GF1, turned it on, and then hit the Play Button - but nothing. All I get is the Japanese phrase, telling me I have no images to view (or something like that). It just does not recognize the new hacked FW. I've now tried this a dozen times (at least), all to no avail.

The question now is that my camera looks like (perhaps) the latest version of the GF1 that was manufactured, before production on that model was ended. Do you think that they built in defenses to prevent FW hacks?

I can still use the camera and actually have it set up the way I want - but having the English language would have been ideal.

Thanking you in advance for anyone that can provide some assistance here.

Ben Herrmann Fuquay-Varina, NC

NTSC:
AVCHD FHD = 1080p24 3GOP superb detail in highlights and shadows / smooth looking motions / very high bitrates / spanning works very reliable
AVCHD SH = 720p60 3GOP with even higher bitrates (bitrates about 10% higher than in 1080p24) / IQ looks good, needs more testing as this mode was not primar target of the patch

PAL:
AVCHD FHD = 1080p25 13GOP looks good, needs more testing (bitrates about 60% of 1080p24)
AVCHD SH = 720p50 26GOP looks good, needs more testing (bitrates about 40% of 1080p24)

MJPEG (both in PAL and NTSC):
Integrated timelapse settings by Jordan Noblet / 2fps in "HD" 1920x1080 / colors 4:2:2 / It is ideal to use 1/2s exposure to get beautifully looking subject's motions in the blending frames, so strong ND filters are necessary in the daylight. Of course, shorter exposures are also possible- with sharper looking motions. In 2fps mode maximal file size (in MJPEG not avoidable) will be achieved after ca 1h25m. One can stop-and-start again the recording for longer recordings and edit later. For rendering is recommended to use Jordan Noblet's free software, you can download it on his website http://www.timelapser.net
All other MJPEG modes (WXGA, XGA, VGA) are also influented by the 2fps setting in HD mode, so rather forget them. File format after rendering in "Timelapser": AVI 1920x1080p 25fps

Bugs reports:
The released beta version of the "Varigop" runs in many situations stable, but it is regularly freezing if the object is well-lit grass or trees. All users of this setting should please keep me informed about observed bugs and feel free to post directly here. All those information will be very helpful for the development of the setting until the stage when "alpha" version can be released some day.

If you use this patch and like it, please don't forget who made all this with his tireless work possible and make donation to Vitaliy on the top of this page and support that way his hacking projects.

(beta-version released on January 30th, 2013)

Today @ma1co (https://github.com/ma1co/fwtool.py) released an update to his fwtool.py tool that allows you to extract gen4 firmwares. The tool only allows you to decrypt the firmware at the moment, but I am sure it will only be a matter of time till he updates it to encrypt as well.

The method below was discovered by @vitaliy_kiselev and can be found here: https://www.personal-view.com/faqs/sony-hack/languages

NOTE2: this method is not only untested, it will likely brick your camera. Proceed with caution.

Preparation (for macOS)

1. Download the full source fwtool.py from the link above
2. Download the actual firmware for your camera, in my case for the A7III it was (https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/e-mount-body-ilce-7-series/ilce-7m3/downloads/00015677)
3. copy the .dat firmware file from the dmg to the fwtool root folder
4. sudo easy_install pip
5. sudo pip install pycrypto
6. sudo pip install pyyaml

note: if at any point you found any of these steps confusing or indirect, you should stop and not do this

Guide:

1. python fwtool.py unpack -f FirmwareData_ILCE7M3V210.dat -o out (this is on macOS Mojave, your OS might require something different)
2. cd out/firmware.tar_unpacked/0110_backup/SYSASTRA-DSLR/TI
3. Swap the files of your current language (I have J1, see below list section as a reference. note that there are now 2 ALLLANG files one with CX62200 and one with CX62201 choose the one that corresponds to your camera language) with the All Language file (just rename them)
4. cd out/firmware.tar_unpacked/0111_backup_sum
5. edit 'backup.sum' in your favorite text editor

6. Swap the checksums with what ever language you have with the CX62200_ALLLANG bin file checksum

   0,ae35017d,00113eba,000001a4,00000000,000003e8,root,root,-1,-1,SYSASTRA-DSLR/TI/CX62200_ALLLANG.bin, 0,782ddbc1,00113eba,000001a4,00000000,000003e8,root,root,-1,-1,SYSASTRA-DSLR/TI/CX62200_J1.bin,

   becomes

   0,782ddbc1,00113eba,000001a4,00000000,000003e8,root,root,-1,-1,SYSASTRA-DSLR/TI/CX62200_ALLLANG.bin, 0,ae35017d,00113eba,000001a4,00000000,000003e8,root,root,-1,-1,SYSASTRA-DSLR/TI/CX62200_J1.bin,

7. Wait till we have a way to encrypt it. I just cant thank ma1co enough for making this possible up to this level! you rock. I will update this guide with results once ma1co releases an update.

List:

• Region ALLLANG .. I mean you should know what this means otherwise you should not do this.
• Region J1(JPN) supports Japanese only
• Region U2, CA2, AU2 supports English, French, Chinese,
• Region CEE2 (CEE) supports English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Russia, Sweden, Danish. Norway, Finnish, Poland, Czech, Hungarian.
• Region CEE4 supports English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Russia, Sweden, Danish. Norway, Finnish, Poland, Czech, Hungarian.
• Region CEE5 supports English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Russia, Sweden, Danish. Norway, Finnish, Poland, Czech, Hungarian.
• Region CEH E32, HK1, JE3, TW6 supports English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Arabic, Thai, Korean, Persian.
• Region CN2 supports English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Arabic, Thai, Korean, Persian.
• Region KR2 supports English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Arabic, Thai, Korean, Persian.

Links....

PTool: https://www.personal-view.com/gh1hack/ptool3d.zip

GH1 firmware: https://av.jpn.support.panasonic.com/support/global/cs/dsc/download/fts/dl/gh1.html

Finally, I managed to figure out all my code and make a hack with Panasonic-like recording indication based on firmware v0.93!

My first changelog:

• Added automatic non-switchable red Panasonic-like recording indication along the edges of the HDMI-output

All the source code of the added patches is here:

https://github.com/storyboardcreativity/Z-Camera-E2-Firmware-Hack

The instructions for self-assembly of the firmware are described by me in general form here:

https://github.com/storyboardcreativity/Z-Camera-E2-Reverse-Engineering

I draw your attention that this firmware is NOT OFFICIAL, and also remind you that you do any manipulations with the camera at your own peril and risk! From now on, I disclaim responsibility for possible problems with the camera if you decide to use the assembled firmware! Be extremely careful!

IMPORTANT! The hack is based on Z-CAM E2 firmware v0.93. Therefore, it will work ONLY in conditions where the official firmware v0.93 is running. For example, if you already have firmware v0.95 or higher on your camera, then installing firmware v0.93 (according to the assurances on the official Z-CAM website) is impossible! Consider this! The easiest way is to first roll v0.93 onto the camera, and then on top of it install my hack. So you can be sure that if the camera does not start after the first firmware installation process, this has nothing to do with the hack itself.

How to start using hack:

1. Your camera must be flashed to the official version 0.93.
2. Download the firmware file from the link.
3. Put the downloaded update.zip file in the root of your camera's disk.
4. Flash in the standard way as if it were an official firmware.

Custom firmware file link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GijjGMIjitrbCn3K4gdk3OxCYkQl__Sf

https://github.com/storyboardcreativity/zraw-parser/releases/tag/v0.3.4-alpha

It supports new ZRAW versions (extracts pure HEVC bitstream without reencoding) and old ZRAW versions (reconstructs Bayer CFA).

Code is very draft, but it works.

https://github.com/storyboardcreativity/ZRAW-Parser

Tony

I have a question (as a novice who's an idiot)

I hear a lot about frame rates and settings... But I just want to know what settings I should have this hack at in 24h smooth cinema mode?

On my GH2 the only settings I seem to be able to change when filming is through the scroll wheel.

Next to where it says cinA there's a yellow number that says 2.5? I'm not sure what this represents other than darkness or brightness or frame rate. But what setting should this be with this hack for optimum results?

When I push the scroll button in it also makes a 0 to +3 which makes the screen go darker or brighter... So I'm unsure where to set things?

Sorry for the dumb questions but I'm hopeless with this stuff and would appreciate any help. I'm so busy with a kid I just want a simple answer for filming without the hassles.

If someone wants to sell Z-CAM E1, I can buy it.

not sure if this was known yet, but I thought this might be useful for some people.

I found a way to enable recording video to a *.mov file format using higher bitrates on my Lumix GX9. Specifically recording 1080p (up to 60p) in either 50 Mb/s, 100 Mb/s (or even 200 Mb/s, which is not very useful though since the GX9's UHS-I SD interface only supports write speeds up to 104 Mb/s).

The method I used is very similar to the Cine-D trick for the GX80/GX85 back then. It shouldn't break your camera since it is only accessing hidden settings implemented in the camera anyway.

I did not compare the footage against the standard MP4 4k or 1080p modes provided by the GX9. In theory this should enable up to 4x higher bitrates when shooting 1080p, which I could confirm after analysing some test footage. The documented options from Panasonic only include 1080p recording up to 28 Mb/s.

Here is a html tool that you might use to try it yourselves. https://pastebin.com/mHG1T5Ph Just copy the code into a *.html file and open it using any browser.

I posted this on reddit already, but I thought its maybe better put here :) Enjoy.

After firmware v0.94.1 it's an AES-encrypted MOV-container-corrupted overXORred shit, that contains only HEVC bitstream.

Deal with it.

Thanks in advance!

Any advantages of the GH2 over the GH1 or vice versa, with respect to using the various available hack options?

I've made a draft version of full firmware repacker for Z-Cam E1 cameras.

Now you can simply unpack firmwares for E1, make any changes, and pack it back. Packed file will be ready to be flashed into the camera. This thing will help any researchers and reverse-engineers to make own firmware versions for Z-Cam E1.

WARNING! YOUR USE OF THIS UTILITY IS AT YOUR OWN RISK! INCORRECT USE COULD DAMAGE YOUR CAMERA!

Source code is here: https://github.com/storyboardcreativity/Z-Cam-E1-Firmware-Repacker

How to use?

After build you can use it as a terminal tool:

• To unpack: zcame1repacker -u {firmware_file_path}
• To pack: zcame1repacker -p {firmware_folder_path}

What do you get when you unpack firmware?

You get a folder with ".ini" file (settings) and next firmware parts (if they exist in source firmware file):

• Bootstrap

I have not met this part of the E1 firmware yet.

• Partition Table

I have not met this part of the E1 firmware yet.

• Bootloader

I have not met this part of the E1 firmware yet.

• SD Firmware Update Code

Code, that reads new firmware file from SD card, unpacks it and flashes the camera.

• System Software

The first OS (yes, E1 has 2 operating systems on board that work simultaneously on separate CPU ARM-cores). It's RTOS (Real-Time Operating System). It's used to process huge data through itself. All recording processes are started and finished here. In addition, RTOS draws video preview on screens (own and HDMI) while camera is on. RTOS is controlled from Linux, and DSP is controlled from RTOS. All settings for recording start/stop are located here (video resolutions, framerates and bitrates). All patches I've done before were made for this firmware part.

• DSP uCode

THE ROOT OF EVIL. DSP is a specific part of Ambarella's SOC. It processes all compression algorithms for images and video. In E1 it processes H.264 and MJPEG compression in realtime. But I can't do anything with this firmware part because DSP has it's own proprietary architecture (if we had any, even very tiny, data leak from Ambarella about DSP opcodes, we could set absolutely any video and compression settings).

• System ROM Data

RTOS filesystem. All files for RTOS lie here. Here we can find some fonts, SuperView warp tables (yes, like in GoPro LOL), color-correction settings and MCTF (Motion Compensated Temporal Filtering) tables (settings for noise-reduction).

• Linux Kernel

The second OS on E1. Linux kernel starts separately on single ARM core. Linux uses Qt GUI to draw and show all menus. In addition, Linux handles each button press and draws OSD on HDMI output through framebuffer.

• Linux Root FS

Linux file system (UBI FS format) with Qt binaries, bash tools and other "high-level" things. You can make changes to this part to change GUI, for example.

• Linux Hibernation Image

I have not met this part of the E1 firmware yet.

• Storage 1

I have not met this part of the E1 firmware yet.

• Storage 2

I have not met this part of the E1 firmware yet.

• Index For Video Recording

Filesystem (UBI FS format), but almost empty. At this time I'm not sure, what it is.

• User Settings

I have not met this part of the E1 firmware yet.

• Calibration Data

I have not met this part of the E1 firmware yet.

• Bluetooth Firmware

Seems like firmware for separate wireless chip. Have not checked yet.

I searched the forum and the whole internet for this problem, but didn't find any post or anyone having this problem, so I started a new topic for this and hope I didn't search for the wrong keywords... ;). I am using the GH2 for video shooting very short time and all I am doing these days is not really working well. I know that it should be easy to use firmware patches but for me it turns out not to be that easy as it maybe should. I used a few patches and tested around with each for quite a bit and tried to check wether the patch is working fine or if there are occuring errors while recording. I would need a very stable patch since I always need to record longer footage... not just 15min, but most of the time 2-3 hours. I found that SD card speed is a thing which is why I bought the SanDisk Extreme Pro with 95MB/sec. Used the Sanity 4.1 Patch which should be stable, but the cam stops recording video after some time (I couldn't specify when it does) without any error. It just stops recording and doesn't write the file completely to the card. Used the Quantum X SpanMyBitchUp and I get the same error. Also tried some other patches, some came up with errors that the card is not fast enough, some didn't... most of them didn't...

Since I can't tell why that is and I don't know how to find out why the cam stops recording I am not sure what to do next. Fact is that the patches really do enhance the quality which I would not love to miss ;).

Can anyone help me with this? All the best from Hamburg, Thomas

I know there is a lot of topic on this but I still can't make a clear decision. I'm going to film Podcast and concert, which of the 2 would handle these type of setting best?

Can it really be that there is no hacks for it yet?

"I am delighted by your progress on reverse engineering the Z CAM E1! We actually use this on a small UAV to take pictures, but we have found the firmware to be extremely janky and haven't found any time to do any reverse engineering work ourselves.

But you have discovered that the UI side uses Linux and Qt - which immediately implies that since Linux is GPLv2, aren't we legally entitled to receive their branch of the Linux source tree? I don't remember how far the legal requirement goes, but I know that Netgear had to go so far as to releasing their entire firmware kit to allow developers to build their own firmware for all of Netgear's Linux-based routers. Who knows what other open-source software they may be using as well that was included without a license.

It will not give us all the answers, but it may aid in further reverse engineering work."

What do you think? Is it possible? Is there any reason to write them letters and ask source codes? I don't have any experience in this things and I need your help.