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Nikon Patch 1.7

Just released Nikon Patch version 1.7, a minor update for D5100 users only.

Two changes added the ability to choose

  • Lossless NEF compression

  • Fixed Uncompressed NEF option to allow changing shooting mode in the settings menu.

These two options are mutually exclusive.

Comments:

Sbojnik 2012-11-22 21:48:42

Absolutely astonishing work.

Just looked at the code myself and compared the d5100 firmware to the d7000.
Very similar i must say, it would be great to take addition features from the d7000 and adapt it to the d5100. features such as manual movie control.

screenshot comparing binary files of d7000 to d5100 regarding manual movie control on and off:

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/brn-LYMAttJIbzK1c4Cza2lsVMYvtBM_cSWy0dxnTOU?feat=directlink

Keep up the great work!

Simeon 2012-11-22 22:15:37

The work I’ve done here is turn on features already present, but hidden. This is not the case for everything. But yes the end goal is to be able to inject real “new” features into the system be that features written by us or from “other” platforms (aka higher models).

Bo 2012-11-23 14:53:57

Glad to hear that u are still at the ball :) very nice work and thanks a lot for the recordinglimit-eleminating patch for my D7000!

Greetings from Germany

Enzo.Kin 2012-11-23 22:16:08

Hi, Simeon. There is a problem with the Patch 1.7 ,the raw files can not be edit in ViewNX, it turns into a mess and it also can not be opened by Photoshop or Camera Raw. Maybe you can try it by yourself. The JPEG is ok.

Simeon 2012-11-23 23:40:35

Hmmm, I just opened NEF lossey, NEF lossless & NEF uncompressed files in Lightroom 3, and browsed the EXIF tags with exiftool.

Enzo.Kin 2012-11-24 00:43:24

I just find that if you choose both big jpeg and nef lossless and remove the time limit ,you may get the mess even in the nef editing inside the camera. youcan try this and see if there is any problem .And what is the different between the nef c-off and nef lossless. Thanks.

Enzo.Kin 2012-11-24 00:55:22

When i get the mess ,i can find a little sign in the review in camera.In the full review style(all the information is on the screen the photo is on the top-left …) and on the bottom-right of the screen beside the RAW ,there is a sign ：sagittate in a rectangle .The sign is in cyan.

Enzo.Kin 2012-11-24 01:00:26

May I ask that is it possible to add the k mount control in whitebalance.It occurs in D90 AND D7000.

Simeon 2012-11-24 01:34:50

I will try this combination, and see what happens for me. Thanks for the details.

pixelpeeper 2012-11-24 05:29:16

Hello. Great work on the video hack.

I would like to suggest some improvements for the d5100 that would make it on par with the d7000 for still photography. The image quality of the d5100 is excellent but the feature set lacks sophistication required by more serious photographers. I am thinking the mods would be easy, just a matter of manipulating the current commands to alter the feature set, or splicing in code from the d7000.

The first thing would be some kind of gridlines in the viewfinder.

d5000 had on demand gridlines, d7000 has them, but for some reason, they skipped this crucial feature in the d5200. This is extremely important for low light photography. Supposedly the gridlines in the liveview were supposed to alleviate the need in the viewfinder, but there is a fatal flaw in that approach.

Liveview is not capable of displaying a dark scene, all you see is blackness, so there is nothing to align the LCD gridlines to.

The viewfinder illuminates the scene well at night, so the gridlines in the viewfinder make more sense than LCD screen, especially because you don’t need grid lines to align a scene to the frame when there is plenty of light any way.

And in a bizarre twist of fate nikon made the black marks around the focus points almost invisible on the d5100 so you cant even try and use those to eek out a level image.

If there is a hardware limitation that prevents the standard illuminated nikon gridlines to be displayed in the d5100 viewfinder, could some other kind of lights be displayed in the viewfinder to create some straight lines?

Perhaps even a setting that would turn on all of the existing autofocus points simultaneously to create a crosshair to align the image to?

Also, the menu surfing for accessing the ISO is kind of annoying in the d5100.

I noticed the zoom button does not do anything unless one is in display or live view. Perhaps that button could be pressed once as a short cut to the iso setting, and the thumbdial could be used to SCROLL through the isos, and when correct iso is reached, zoom button could be pressed again to set new iso value. That would be much quicker and easier than the current architecture.

The only thing preventing the d5100 from being a very affordable solution for still photography is the IQ. In fact it’s articulating screen would give serious photographers a creative edge when composing with the d5100 that even d7000 owners don’t have.

One other aspect of the d5100 people find annoying for tripod work and or for exposure bracketing, one must press the FN button EVERY SHOT to set the camera in to timer mode.

Usually if one is in timer mode, they want to STAY in timer mode. Like for the entire rest of the the night. So pressing that ackward button between every single exposure is extremely annoying.

I know there are many people who would love to see some firmware mods to improve the d5100 as a still photography camera. Perhaps they have a couple ideas too. It would be great to make the d5100 in to a very affordable solution for the pro and serious hobbyist alike.

Thanks for your time, and consideration.

Keep up the great work.

:-)

sbojnik 2012-11-25 10:42:39

Weird, just tried tweaking a few things on the uncompressed raw files in viewnx2 and some of the files went corrupt and some of them ended up with a chunk of the image missing.
I will see if this problem persists through normal use and how it reacts to the lossless nef compression.

Simeon 2012-11-25 15:30:02

Thanks for all the idea’s. The best place to post idea’s is over on the Feature Request section of the Nikon Hacker’s site

Simeon

Goran 2012-11-28 14:29:29

Hope D3100 will reach those possibilities soon.

Greetings,
Goran

Moshe 2012-11-29 08:01:29

You can already set the timer button under the flash release to be used to set the iso with the thumb dial. I find that the D5100 is already a great camera for even PRO’s. All that is really required for a camera to be considered a pro camera is instant access to aperture, shutter speed and ISO which the D5100 already has.
Oh and someone who knows what they are doing behind the camera.

Arlix 2012-11-30 11:00:52

Is it possible to get 60fps video at 720p on the d7000?

Jos 2012-12-02 16:19:50

I can confirm this. Just reflashed the original firmware, problem solved.
In my case, the RAW files didn’t even open correct in Windows Photo Viewer. Loading of the image starts fine, but it turns into junk. Image. I actually had to take a photo of the screen. Uploading a screenprint was impossible, I always got an incomplete image of no image at all on the site.

PixelPeeper 2012-12-04 04:38:24

“Oh and someone who knows what they are doing behind the camera.”

Can I ask how old you are? because making statements like this to someone who has not attacked you in any way, is definitely the behavior of a child.

“You can already set the timer button under the flash release to be used to set the iso with the thumb dial.”

Gee I did not know that

A couple things come mind. The first is…that sure is one conveniently located button for something as frequently used as ISO settings. I honestly don’t think they could have come up with a more convienient place for it.

Perhaps you would also cheer for nikon if they required me to take a boat to Japan to press the ISO button.
Because everyone knows that professionals have no need or want for a dedicated ISO button.

Secondly, how shall I set the TIMER then? Oh, I guess MORE MENU SURFING. Did you read the part where I said it is extremely annoying to have to put the camera in to timer mode for EVERY SINGLE SHOT?

So you are suggesting that in addition to that poor design, I should actually have to surf the menu to set the timer between every single shot?

You dont understand the point of my post, the goal is to make the workflow EASIER. Get it? Not MORE difficult.

Most importantly, why did you completely gloss over my MAIN point, and try and find fault with the point which was lowest on my priority list?

I notice you had ZERO to say about the gridlines.

Yeah, it sure is pro to have a NONFUNCTIONING GRIDLINE system for night photography. That’s real pro.

Do you understand the paradox that Nikon has created here?

You clearly don’t “know what you are doing behind the camera” enough to understand this basic concept:

D5100 has been designed so that the gridline function is now exclusively handled by the LCD in live view.

Have you ever seen what a night scene looks like in live view? I will tell you what the LCD displays in live view… NOTHING….PITCH BLACK.

Now. Explain to me, with your infinite photography genius that you claim to have:

How does one align gridlines to a PITCH BLACK representation of the scene? Are you psychic? Does god tell you WHICH of all black pixels to align the grid to?

So apparantly, you AND Nikon are not even capable of understanding a simple concept that little old me was able to figure out.

Also here is another basic concept you do not understand:

The PURPOSE of hacking the firmware of a camera is to create a NEW and MORE DESIRABLE feature set.

If everyone was already content with the IQ and feature set of every camera as it came from the manufacturer…THIS WEBSITE WOULD NOT EXIST, neither would Nikon hack forum.

So your suggestion that I simply be content with the camera as it was sold, rather than suggesting changes, is absolutely retarded in this context of this webpage.
You should go post on a website where the theme is “Lets leave all firmware alone, and don’t change it”

I doubt such a webpage exists. I am sure you could convince someone who works for Nikon to create such a page. Or maybe YOU work for Nikon. Who knows. :-)

“All that is really required for a camera to be considered a pro camera is…”

Go look up the definition of subjective.

Because there are PLENTY of pros who think it is VERY IMPORTANT to be able to EASILY and accurately align the frame to the scene.

Apparantly you disagree.

Simeon 2012-12-04 13:30:09

Relax PixelPeeper, the people that might/will implement those requests understand you.

Random strangers on the internet can safely be ignored.

PixelPeeper 2012-12-04 15:19:31

“random strangers on the internet can safely be ignored.”

Lol. You are absolutely correct about that. I recognize the value of your temperance. I admit however, that it is one of my few weaknesses.

It’s in my dna to battle belligerance whether anonymous, or otherwise. I just can’t help myself. I really cant. :-)

Incidentally, I am more relaxed than my writing suggests. I use capital letters not to shout, but simply accent certain words, and imitate the different inflection I would use on those words if I was speaking in person.

If italics, or even bold was available to me to accent words, I would use that instead of capital letters. If one replaced the capital letters in my post with italicized text the same post would read much more relaxed than it currently does.

Any way, thanks again for the innovations you and others like yourself are doing tp benefit the users of these cameras.

In my opinion what you guys are doing is much more important than simply satisfying peoples wants.

What you are doing is keeping corporations honest, and forcing corporations to design things reasonably, and holistically, rather than the planned obsolescence and intentional handicapping of their products.

The world will be a better place when corporations start to design products with the intention of maximum benefit, rather than the intention intentionally witholding features, and handicapping products.

I honestly do not mind paying more for a piece of equipment that costs more to produce, or is intrinsically more expensive. I am not out to simply get free stuff.

For example I do not believe in a pirated software free for all, because programmers need to get paid, otherwise we will not have amazing software such as photoshop.

I believe the type of hacking you and others similar to yourself are doing, is not only ethical, but absolutely necessary for the healthy functioning of society as we move in to a world where we are increasingly dependant upon, and immersed in technology.

Thanks again for everything you guys are doing. It is super kick ass and awesome!

:-)

Hazzatori 2012-12-07 05:39:46

I would sell your D3100 quickly before the price drops and pick up a D5100 or D7000 the jump in features as a standard will be enough of a reason to invest, but the possibility of D3100 getting as much support as the more popular, D5100 & D7000 is doubtful.

While a fantastic SLR the D3100 is a beginners model.

@ Simeon keep it up mate its very much apprecitaed and I am looking forward to seeing what comes in the future!

Goran 2012-12-14 05:24:27

Unfortunately, selling D3100 and buying another dslr is not an option for now. It would be awesome to have D7000 (or D5100), I know. D3100 firmware is quite similar in architecture to mentioned cameras. I think that most of the hacks to come are posible to implement in D3100 firmware. As far as I`m concerned, af-tuning and high quality jpeg - nef are more than enough for photographer, considering already astonishing quality of pics taken with this camera. And yes, you`re right, the price will drop ( I live in damn Bosnia, can`t do much about it, money = problem).

Best regards,

Goran

Simeon 2012-12-14 12:20:46

The main problem here is that I didn’t add these features to the D5100 they were already there, just turned off. I unlocked them. We are not at understanding level yet to add new features.

Reza 2012-12-27 03:08:00

Thanks for all your efforts… But I’ve got a silly question, how should I actually patch D5100 firmware? How can I access my firmware .bin file?

Simeon 2012-12-27 04:15:58

Hi Reza,

You don’t access your current firmware, you download the firmware from Nikon’s website then choose that file for the patch tool to work against.

G. S. 2012-12-28 17:37:23

Hi,
I tried to patch my D5100 but after finishing the update process nothing happened there was no new options! the camera still has its original firmware?! I followed the instructions step by step!
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

Simeon 2012-12-28 23:02:40

Yes there is no visually feedback that the patch has been applied. However if you chose the RAW or Jpeg patched the size of the pictures show when using the info screen to change them will be larger, and if you chose the video patch, then time remaining will be longer.