[secateurs]

I just found this on RiceHigh's blog, originally posted in a comment.

RiceHigh's Pentax Blog: Pentax K-5 Firmware 1.01 (w/ Hacks! And Upcoming New 645D Software for Tethering Support)

Interesting facts about K-5 firmware 1.01:

1) MODSET.505

2) Interesting parameters for SYSPARAM.TXT file:

2.a) Noise reductions: FORCENR, DISABLENR, DISABLE_HW_DPC, DISABLE_EX_DPC, DISABLE_BLACK_DPC, FORCE_LEXP_DPC, FORCE_EX_DPC, FORCE_HW_DPC, DISABLE_ALL_NR

(DPC == Dark Pixel Current?)

2.b) DISABLE_BULB_ALG == Disable Bulb Algorith? Forced noise reduction?

2.c) ENABLE_ROLLING_CAPTURE, ENABLE_ROLLING_STILL == Electronic shutter ???

2.d) DISABLE_V_SHADING_CORR, DISABLE_H_SHADING_CORR, ENABLE_SUPER_HIGH_ISO_NR, ENABLE_DARK_FRAME_TV_RATIO == Those are tricks to foll DxO and show less noise ???

2.e) DISABLE_BAYER_ALL_FILTER == woo hooo! It's a BW camera

2.f) ENABLE_SR_TRIGGER_26KHZ == Very interesting. Is it a Shutter Blur bugfix option? (to ommit data about 26KHz fluctuations from SR)

3) Face Detection Library is same as in K-7 1.10 == v.1.2.118.4, Copyright (c) 2005-2009 by FotoNation. All rights reserved

[buaobao]

Hmmm I guess ricehigh (the pentax lover, in a different way) strikes again. Pentax some kinna microsoft that users like to hack. Cant they hack nikon d7000 to really proves that nikon doesn't have of this what pentax have they're claiming pentax magic.

...bauobao

[nanok]

hmhh. if rolling shutter is electronic shutter, it might be interesting for higher speed sync (though i have no idea what kind of shutter speeds this sensor can achieve in "rolling" mode; some canon p&s's could go as high as 1/20,000 iirc, with the open firmware, so who knows); not much use if it will refuse to trigger the flash above 1/180 though .

in regards to bw: not needed, dcraw can do that (no bayer). that's not exactly b&w though (because the bayer filter was still there when shooting, so you don't have "grey" luminance on each pixel, instead each pixel will be biased depending where it lies in the bayer pattern). so you get a sharper image, but it will most likely look very strange.

interesting nevertheless. anybody tested any of this?

[tr13]

I added proper support fro K5 firmware to my tool today.

I suggest you to be very careful with all Rice posts.
As usually this guy do not understand anything that he writes.

[nanok]

what do you mean? he's the source of all knowledge pentax, right?

nice to see you're still around here, cheers! looking forward for your thoughts/findings

[inferno10]

Has anyone with a K-5 tried this and found the AF adjust screen? Not the one in the Custom menu, but the Debug-mode-based one?

- Jason

[jolepp]

As for hacking is there any information on the CPUs used on the Pentax cameras? Like, is this an ARM or some other architecture in general use?

[secateurs]

the Pentax PRIME-2 processor is a (possibly customized version of the) Fujitsu Milbeaut M5 processor

See this thread for more information, and a diagram of the processor architecture:

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-dslr-discussion/120535-larger-buff...ml#post1247155

[eigelb]

I added proper support fro K5 firmware to my tool today.

I suggest you to be very careful with all Rice posts.
As usually this guy do not understand anything that he writes.

How can i enter in debug Mode with the k-5

[tr13]

It is Fujitsu for certain.

[boardhead]

It is Fujitsu for certain.

I think you are probably correct, but unfortunately the K-5 firmware file seems to be encrypted. I wrote a Fujitsu FR disassembler that worked great for the K10D firmware files, but I get garbage when I run it on the K-5 files.

- Phil

[jolepp]

...but I get garbage when I run it on the K-5 files.
- Phil

Maybe it is compressed instead of encrypted? It might get extracted to RAM by a bootloader and run from there for speed/smaller amount of flash.

[nanok]

tr13 has software on his website to work with the pentax firmware. he mentioned above that he updated it to work with k-5. don't know exactly how much it can "extract" though

[boardhead]

Thanks. After some searching I found this useful post. Yes, the firmware is encrypted, but tr13 has figured out the decryption. Nice!

- Phil

Edit: Oops. That page is for the K20D, but if you follow the links you will find he has a tool to decrypt the K-5 firmware file too.

[rapptor]

The problem is, Pentax changed the filename oft the MODSET.505 to another filename
%08d.505 where "%08d" is an variable which is unknown (at the moment).

Thats the reason why you can not start debug mode at the moment.

The variable is used two more times in the firmware for a %08d.bin and a %08d.jpg file.

If you compare the decrypted .bin of new firmware release for the K5 to an older decrypted .bin firmware file of the K7, the difference is very easy to find.

The good news is: the rest of the debug menu seems to be almost unchanged.

How to get more information about the variable %08d ?

I would suggest to manipulate some firmware of the k7 for example (it is important that you are able to enter the debug mode) so that one of the file dump funktions dumps the variable
%08d as a filename, which makes it then visible for us.

for example with the SYSPARAM.TXT a file Dark%04d. raw is dumped for each image with the parameter STOREPREDARK.
The only thing you have to do ist to change Dark%04d. raw to Dark%08d. raw in the firmware an then capture one picture in debug mode.

That will force the firmware to offer the variable as a filename.