Modified firmware, looking for users

[ADemuth]

The high cost of replaceable batteries is a factor in people using devices with disposable batteries instead?

$90 for a new battery is nothing compared to $500 for a new iPhone when it's battery goes.

Boggles the mind…

No, my comment is about how camera manufacturers seem to mess up power management. The issue being directly addressed is not being able to power your camera directly from USB-C (two replies above the one you quoted). This is only a minor inconvenience that, in and of itself, nobody would say that it in particular is why they use their phone instead of an ILC, but one has to admit being able to use and charge their phone at the same time is really convenient. People use their phone over an ILC because phones are so convenient, and minor inconveniences like this add up to casual users. This also affect serious users - for instance if you want a long time lapse. Powering the camera from USB-C is not out of the realm of possibility and I can think of several uses that I alone would take advantage of. @Gibba suggested that it is intentional so as to sell more batteries, which may be true, but even more batteries doesn't address long timelapses or a studio setting.

Apple will replace your battery for 50-70 USD and I'm sure there are cheaper services out there. I'd say that's hardly disposable, and cheaper than an OEM camera battery by your pricing, especially when you consider somebody will have take your phone apart to replace the battery. People may use the aging battery as an excuse to get rid of their phone, but that's consumerism at work. You and I both know that there are camera users out there that will get a new body because their easily replaceable batteries are getting old under the same premise of "it would be nice to upgrade". It may be less prevalent, but it definitely happens.

 

[jageanke]

Hi All, been a while since I was here, but have enjoyed the custom firmware update posted here (thank you!).

On the E-M5 II, with the HLG8 grip, you get a new front wheel, that makes the previous front wheel redundant. Olympus don't let you reprogram this, as it replicates on both "front" wheels (aperture/shutter for me).

With custom firmware, is it possible do you think, to have three separate wheels? I would kill for an ISO wheel with the grip in place! Thanks for all your hard work

 

[Driehoek]

Here's the version 4.6 for E-M1: e-m1_v46.rar

Hi Abel, as I am new on this Forum that goes 'around' your fantastic work for modifying firmware for EM's......I read most of them and because I have the first EM1 and now bought also the first EM5.....I wonder if you or someone has focuspeaking on his EM5.1? Gives your firmware version for the EM5.1 that feature? Or is that impossible? Noticed that you did not much on this forum in 2019/20 mayebe to give more time to your family etc. Or moved to another camerabrand......Hope I get a reaction anyway...from you or others.

 

[Driehoek]

Hi there,

I've made two small hacks in E-M5ii firmware v.4.0.
1. An arbitrary autofocus lens can be used for the in-camera focus stacking.
2. The video recording time limitations increased from 29 minutes. Now the recording is limited by 5 MOV files the video can be split into (the detailed description is in the bottom of this message).

A couple of proof pics for the first hack:

Spoiler

View attachment 671273
View attachment 671274

The stacking was already tested with Oly 45/1.8, Leica 15/1.7 and Oly MZ 9-18.

The same modifications are available for other cameras (the focus stacking will only work in E-M1, E-M1ii and E-M5ii, of course). Here are the links to the firmwares:

• E-M5ii
  • e-m5ii_v4.rar, video duration limit removed, focus stacking works.
  • e-m5ii_v41.zip (courtesy of @PhotoDmiK), video duration limit removed, focus stacking works.
• E-M1
  • e-m1_v44.rar, video duration limit - does not work, focus stacking works.
  • e-m1_v45.rar - not tested yet.
  • e-m1_v46.rar, video duration limit - does not work, focus stacking works.
• E-M1ii
  • e-m1ii_v21.rar, video duration limit removed, focus stacking works.
  • e-m1ii_v22.rar, video duration limit - not tested yet, focus stacking works.
  • e-m1ii_v23.rar, video duration limit - not tested yet, focus stacking works.
  • e-m1ii_v30.rar, video duration limit removed, focus stacking works.
• Pen-F
  • pen_f_v3.rar, video duration limit removed.
  • pen_f_v31.zip (courtesy of @PhotoDmiK), video duration limit removed.
• E-M10ii
  • e-m10ii_v13.rar, video duration limit removed.
  • e_m10ii_v14.rar - not tested.
• E-M10iii
  • e_m10iii_v12.rar - video duration limit removed (up to 13 parts of video supported).
• Pen E-PL9
  • pen-e-pl9_v11.rar - video duration limit removed (up to 13 parts of video supported).

To install the firmware, you'll need to:

Spoiler

* Make sure the battery is fully charged.
* Extract the firmware file from archive into a folder called "DCOLYMP" on your SD-Card.
* Put the SD-Card into your camera. Start the camera while holding the OK button pressed. The focus assist LED should turn on - this means the firmware is installing, and you can release the OK button.
* When the installation ends, the focus assist LED will start to blink. Now you can switch the camera off, and then on again. That's all.

It's also possible to revert to the original firmware.
The files and the instructions can be found here.

Some details on the video recording limitations.

Spoiler

1. With the original firmware, you cannot record video more than 28:59.
2. If you try to make a long enough video in high quality, it will be split into several separate MOV files. This was made because of 4Gb file size limitation imposed by FAT filesystem used in the SD cards. In the most of the cameras it's only possible to have 5 such "splits", while E-M1ii, E-M10iii and Pen E-PL9 record up to 13 parts of a video.

My modification only removes the first of these limitations, so you can go beyond 29 minutes, and the video duration is only limited by the max number of MOV files.
With the modified firmware, E-M5ii shows the following max recording duration depending on the video quality:

• FHD All-I - 0:36:14.
• FHD SF - 0:53:49.
• FHD F - 1:34:09.
• FHD N - 2:38:49.

The durations can be different for other camera models.

Hi all, just 'updated' my firmware for EM1.1.....now focusstacking on zuiko 14-150, 12-50 macro, and panaleica 100-400!!!!
Thanks for all this work on this forum.

 

[emudojo]

Just thinking how to get started on this tour of work I would live to backport a few things from the mark 3 to the mark 2

 

[ibd]

Just thinking how to get started on this tour of work I would live to backport a few things from the mark 3 to the mark 2

I was also thinking about that. It would be very difficult. You basically have to work at the instruction level. I can imagine that injecting a lot of new code would be especially difficult: you'll have no tools to monitor and debug it.

A good place to start would be to forward port some of the earlier hacks to the latest firmware.

 

[emudojo]

I was also thinking about that. It would be very difficult. You basically have to work at the instruction level. I can imagine that injecting a lot of new code would be especially difficult: you'll have no tools to monitor and debug it.

A good place to start would be to forward port some of the earlier hacks to the latest firmware.

yep, but is there any information if at all on how to do it ?

 

[ibd]

yep, but is there any information if at all on how to do it ?

Here's what I have.

The stuff that is mentioned can be found easily if you dig around a bit
(oly fw tools, mn103 ida module, mn103 instruction set, ida itself).

 

[Driehoek]

Simply go to the first page of this thread........Abel had put it all there...as said I did v46 for my EM1.I with success following the instructions!

 

[Priest]

I want to have a go at modding the Em5 iii firmware but unable to download it from anywhere that I can find

 

[todd phillips]

I don't shoot video with my Oly but silly me sure would like the 8min LE cap removed or extended (EM10ii).. Also would like shorter Live Comps that half second as I saw others mention...

 

[Michael Meissner]

I want to have a go at modding the Em5 iii firmware but unable to download it from anywhere that I can find

Lightsnowdev.com does not have the 3 newest cameras (E-m1 mark III, E-m5 mark III, and E-PL10). Now, with the E-m1 mark III and the E-PL10 there have not been any firmware releases, but the E-m5 mark III did have release 1.1. Because I only use Linux (and I don't use WINE to run windows binaries), I had to go on to my wife's Windows machine to update my E-m5 mark III to version 1.1 of the software. For the other cameras, I would just wait a few days, and pick up the firmware from lightsnowdev.com.

I sent mail to the contact at lightsnowdev.com and I don't recall getting any reply. I suspect it may be going on auto-pilot, and the site owner of lightsnowdev.com is no longer tracking new Olympus cameras. Or possibly he/she relied on somebody from within Olympus to give the directory name, and that person is no longer employed by Olympus.

The site is pulling in the newer firmware releases for the cameras it already has (like firmware 1.2 for the E-m1x), but it is not picking up the new cameras. I suspect there is a manual step where the author has to add a new directory to search for each new camera.

One way to possibly find the site is to trace the network traffic when running the OI update software. Plug in an E-m5 mark III running 1.0 of the software, and see what site and what directory on the site is used when the update software does the version check. Possibly stop the process before it actually installs the firmware, to make sure you have the right directory, etc.

Alternatively, disassemble the update software, to see if you can find the site and directory manually.

And in case you haven't noticed, ABel who created this thread and did the modification for the other cameras, has not posted since June 2019.

 

[jerry_click]

Needed my E-M5.2 to record longer then 29 minutes. Did the patch with the 4.1 version and it worked like a charm! Recorded over 1 hour in one session. 4 .mov files. Thank you so much for this good work!

 

[dbateman]

I wonder now with Olympus sold if this work could come back to light. There have been firmware updates for both Em1mk2 and Em1mk3.
I never got around to testing focus stacking with and without the firmware hack. Has anyone? Have you seen a difference to support why Olympus doesn't support any lens?
Just some thoughts.

 

[dravida]

Does this Firmware Support Focus stacking with thirdparty Lenses in the EM-10ii, or will IT only remove the recording Limit?

 

[toshische]

I've made modified E M1-II v3.4 firmware based on Abel works. It enables focus stacking for all AF lens and removes 30 min video limit.

 

[ibd]

I've made modified E M1-II v3.4 firmware based on Abel works. It enables focus stacking for all AF lens and removes 30 min video limit.

Great, thank you!

I've wanted to try to remove the "ProCapture L" restriction to certain lenses. But the process of reverse engineering is not easy.
Did you follow the same basic procedure as Abel, using Ida?
What is the correct ROM offset for the main entry point?

 

[toshische]

Did you follow the same basic procedure as Abel, using Ida?

Generally speaking, yes.

What is the correct ROM offset for the main entry point?

I don't know. I've cut small peaces of files by hexeditor, basing on signatures of places modified by Abel. Then, disassembled this peaces, guessing entry point (it takes 1-2 tryes each time). ROM offset was set to 0, these modifications doesn't requires absolute addresses change. And, then modified firmware file by hexeditor.

 

[Priest]

I've made modified E M1-II v3.4 firmware based on Abel works. It enables focus stacking for all AF lens and removes 30 min video limit.

You would make a very old man happy if you had the time and did this for the E-M1 Mark III 1.2 Firmware thanks

 

[toshische]

You would make a very old man happy if you had the time and did this for the E-M1 Mark III 1.2 Firmware thanks

I'll try, but have no such camera to test it.