The great HV hack boondoggle thread

[filmwonder]

Hey Group,

Snagged a job as camera assistant next week and found out they are using a HV20 of all things on an indie short.

I was thinking about buying one, and bringing it on set in case the cinematographer wanted extra coverage. Would this be a bit persumputous or would it be helpful, and showing I am eager to help out?

I am also a little afraid on the camera and not knowing what to do with it in regards to manual settings so buying one would let me play with it and get it down before the shoot.

I also just plain want one... any thoughts.

Love the forum. Been reading it for awhile and finally decided to post!

Thanks!

filmwonder


-----------------------------

ADMIN NOTE:

THIS THREAD IS A HOAX, AND AS SOON AS THE INSTIGATOR WAS FOUND OUT HE/SHE DELETED ALL POSTS (USING SEVERAL USER-ID's).

ADMIN HAS SINCE UN-DELETED THESE POSTS TO MAKE THIS A THREAD FOR COMEDIC PROSPERITY.

THERE IS NO HACK AS OF YET THAT GIVES THE HV20/HV30 MANUAL CONTROL!

MAL, NOV 20, 2008

[CycleWriter]

Unless you are competent with the camera I would not bring one to the job. The worst thing is if you are asked to shoot something and you botch it up because of your inexperience in using the camera. Also, as an assistant you should focus on doing what THAT job entails. Showing some initiative is nice, but there are already a lot of egos on a film set and some don't take well to someone who oversteps the bounds of his job without asking first, especially if you lack the competency to do so. Be eager to learn, be ready to do, but don't jump the gun.

[filmwonder]

Thank you Sir...great advice and will hold off on the HV20 purchase.

Will probably hit a local store that has a HV20 and explore its features and maybe download the manual from canon but will leave it at that.

Yeah, don't want to step on anybody's toes. Even if it is a short film.

Will let you know how it goes, thanks for the encouragement!

filmwonder

[Krane]

Unless you are competent with the camera I would not bring one to the job. The worst thing is if you are asked to shoot something and you botch it up because of your inexperience in using the camera. Also, as an assistant you should focus on doing what THAT job entails. Showing some initiative is nice, but there are already a lot of egos on a film set and some don't take well to someone who oversteps the bounds of his job without asking first, especially if you lack the competency to do so. Be eager to learn, be ready to do, but don't jump the gun.

Well said! And good advice for any job.

Thank you Sir...great advice and will hold off on the HV20 purchase.

Will probably hit a local store that has a HV20 and explore its features and maybe download the manual from canon but will leave it at that.

Yeah, don't want to step on anybody's toes. Even if it is a short film.

Will let you know how it goes, thanks for the encouragement!

filmwonder

You can still buy the camera.

[filmwonder]

Well said! And good advice for any job.You can still buy the camera.

Yup... I did!

Found a store that had an open box HV20 and snagged it at a good price.

At home checking it out right now but will leave it for the shoot

Thanks for the encouragement!

filmwonder

[filmwonder]

Hey Group,

Just got back from the first day of the short film shoot that I am camera assistant on. I bought a open box HV20 the day before to learn about the camera because I was told they would be using a HV20.

I also was going to bring it on set in case they needed another camera for extra coverage but group members advised me not to as I might be overstepping my bounds as a camera assistant.

Well, the cinematographer is using a HV30 and I assumed it would have the same settings as the HV20 I was trying to learn. I noticed the HV30 had full manual control over shutter and exposure and you didn't need to do the exposure/photo button workaround.

I told the cinematographer I just bought a HV20 and asked him about the HV30 being different and the guy got a little quiet and said "that's just the way his camera is..." I thought maybe he had a secret to getting those settings to show up and he doesn't want to tell me.

Is there some way I can have the HV20 I bought do that too? Or would I need to buy a HV30 for full manual control.

[jackson may]

both cameras are the same exactly except for colour.

switch to the "P" mode.

[filmwonder]

both cameras are the same exactly except for colour.

switch to the "P" mode.

Yeah, that is what I thought, but he has FULL aperture and shutter speed control and it shows up on the LCD. I have to use that goofy press the photo button halfway down and adjust silliness and it doesn't show in my LCD.

I will ask him if he is doing something different tomorrow.

Gotta get some sleep.

fw

[JedEyeZ]

He must know some secret none of us do...I have an HV30 and still use the half press photo button trick. I am sure you know you need an sd card in the camera for this to work.

[CycleWriter]

Neither HV model has full maunual control. Depending on the shooting mode you can manually adjust aperture or shutter speed, but not both. Whichever one you can control manually, the other will be selected automatically. Sounds like he isn't too familiar with the camera either.

[filmwonder]

Neither HV model has full maunual control. Depending on the shooting mode you can manually adjust aperture or shutter speed, but not both. Whichever one you can control manually, the other will be selected automatically. Sounds like he isn't too familiar with the camera either.

That may be true.

But somehow he has bypassed it and he has full control over BOTH the aperture and shutter speed. And BOTH at the same time. Even though I am mainly doing slate and just moving lights for him, I watched carefully and he is NOT pushing the photo button to get his settings changed like I have to on my HV20.

Another interesting thing is he is dumping the footage to a PC TOSHIBA laptop that is running MAC OS 10.5 and Final Cut Pro. I will ask more questions tomorrow after we wrap.

I am very interested in how he got OS X to run on a Windows laptop.

And he has found some hack or workaround on the HV30 evidently.

He is a super nice guy but kinda protective of his gear and I hope after tomorrow I will have gained his confidence and he will tell me how he did these two things.

Exhausted. Going to bed. Will update if I find any of these things out tomorrow.

filmwonder

[Rumpelgeist]

> he is NOT pushing the photo button to get his settings changed like I have to on my HV20.

Duh. Pressing the Photo button will not change the settings.

[JedEyeZ]

I am very interested in how he got OS X to run on a Windows laptop.

This is done quite often and very easy to do. Check out the osx86project forums @ insanelymac.com

And he has found some hack or workaround on the HV30 evidently.

I don't think he is doing anything differently than anyone here on this forum. The photo button just displays your aperture when in Tv mode using the exposure trick. It is the same on both HV's because they are the exact same camera less 30p on the HV20.

[filmwonder]

> he is NOT pushing the photo button to get his settings changed like I have to on my HV20.

Duh. Pressing the Photo button will not change the settings.

That is not what I meant. What I meant to say is he never has to use the photo button to check his settings. His f-stop and aperture are ALWAYS displayed in the LCD. And are changeable at will.

My HV20 DOES NOT do that.

filmwonder

[filmwonder]

Thanks for the pointer on the insanelymac thing. Didn't know that was being done. I doubt many people outside of tech circles know it is even possible.

On the HV30 I think he has come up with a workaround. He has the aperture and shutter speed always displayed on his LCD. Never has to hit the photo button to check where it is at.

Both changeable at will. Info always displayed.

Will hope he will explain how he did it or found a workaround besides the photo button back and forth hassle.

Okay, gotta get some sleep.

Later.

filmwonder

[JedEyeZ]

Neither does any of our HV30's. But unless he is a heavy programmer or paid 10's of thousands of his dollars for a dev team to hash out custom firmware for a consumer camera...neither does his.

Also the f-stop/f-number/f-ratio IS the aperture...

Are you saying his displays shutter speed AND his aperture?

Edit: Just saw your reply, yes please report back....because there are thousands of members here that have been wanting this.

[Bob Rossi]

Thanks for the pointer on the insanelymac thing. Didn't know that was being done. I doubt many people outside of tech circles know it is even possible.

On the HV30 I think he has come up with a workaround. He has the aperture and shutter speed always displayed on his LCD. Never has to hit the photo button to check where it is at.

Both changeable at will. Info always displayed.

Will hope he will explain how he did it or found a workaround besides the photo button back and forth hassle.

Okay, gotta get some sleep.

Later.

filmwonder

Be honest with him. Show an admiring interest in him as a person and his work but ask him specifically about his workaround. If he has hacked the camera's firmware, he surely knows others will be interested.

And if he's into hackintosh computers, he might be a hacker himself with coding knowledge. It might not have been a big deal for him to do a memory dump then modify it or even use some type of RM95 type device to change some key firmware values.

He could have a nice side business tweaking HV20 and HV30s in addition to his cinematography gigs.

Hope you have good news for us tomorrow.

Good luck!

[CycleWriter]

Let him know that if he indeed has come up with a way to hack the cam to make full manual possible, I may have some money for him. No, seriously.

[d1g1t]

On the HV30 I think he has come up with a workaround. He has the aperture and shutter speed always displayed on his LCD. Never has to hit the photo button to check where it is at.

Erm, I'm sorry to be rude but I'm gonna have to suggest you are confused about what you are seeing on your friend's camera. Are you sure it's an HV30? Are you sure it is displaying aperture and shutter speed?

I don't mean to accuse you, but some of us here are a little sensitive about what seem like impossible claims. There was a "A talk with a tech at canon" thread not that long ago where someone was making things up to get attention.

So, please don't be offended when I ask: Please provide evidence of what you are claiming.

== Kevin

[Ian-T]

Thanks kevin...my sentiments exactly. Waht would be great is if this is displayed while in cinemode.

[filmwonder]

Erm, I'm sorry to be rude but I'm gonna have to suggest you are confused about what you are seeing on your friend's camera. Are you sure it's an HV30? Are you sure it is displaying aperture and shutter speed?

I don't mean to accuse you, but some of us here are a little sensitive about what seem like impossible claims. There was a "A talk with a tech at canon" thread not that long ago where someone was making things up to get attention.

So, please don't be offended when I ask: Please provide evidence of what you are claiming.

== Kevin

I may be new to this group but I have done alittle filming on my own with other cameras and even taken a few film production classes where we shot on 16mm cameras. I know f-stops, frame rates and how they relate to shutter speeds. I only posted here because I heard the HV20 is hard to handle because you can't take full manual control of it.

I just really liked the 16mm cameras because you could just take full manual control of everything and they were simple. Finding out I was going to be a camera assistant on a shoot where they said they had a HV20 was kinda scary because I don't know the camera.

But the cinematographer is using a HV30. And he has both F-STOP and SHUTTER SPEED values always up on his LCD screen, always adjustable and he is not using the photo button to check on them. The cinematographer's name is Vic Olam. Feel free to google him if you like. In a casual conversation during shooting, he told me he majored in Computer Science and Sociology before getting into writing and film stuff.

Today's shoot date was canceled because of a coffee shop location problem. It has been moved to next Monday. The wrap party will be Monday night.

Today I am bringing my HV20 back to the store and getting my money back and I am going to follow everybody's advice and specifically ask him how he hacked it, or found a way to take full manual control over his HV30.

I want a HV30 with full manual control. Canon should have included this simple feature and if they had just done that I bet they would have sold twice as many HV20/HV30 cameras.

Monday just can't get here fast enough. I am hoping at the wrap party when he has a few beers in him he will open up and just spill it already.

Will report back what I find out. And Monday I will snap a photo of the camera in operation with my cell phone when he isn't looking and post it so you can see that I am not crazy and he just found a way to hack it or whatever.

Argggghhh. I just hate waiting.

filmwonder

[Dleo]

Is he he using an off camera monitor? Because in the monitor when played back the shutter speed and aperture show up on right corner of the image.

[filmwonder]

Nope he is using the camera's LCD monitor. While recording and while not recording BOTH f-stop and shutter speed value show in the stock LCD monitor on the camera and he can adjust both and at the same time.

I am doing some google research and I bet he somehow hacked into the cameras operating system and just turned on some hidden features that Canon choose not to turn on.

I will take a picture of the camera while it is operating this Monday and hopefully he will just tell me how he did it.

Bringing my HV20 back to the store today. I don't want to take a chance that it is just a HV30 hack or mod he is doing somehow. But if they are the same camera then it should just work fine with a HV20 too. But I won't chance it.

I want a fully manual HV30.

filmwonder

[Krane]

This is done quite often and very easy to do. Check out the osx86project forums @ insanelymac.com

Easy if you're good with computers. I remember reading about this in PC Magazine. But they referred to operational limitations, system crashes, and voiding warranties. So I ignored it.

[CycleWriter]

Nope he is using the camera's LCD monitor. While recording and while not recording BOTH f-stop and shutter speed value show in the stock LCD monitor on the camera and he can adjust both and at the same time.

I am doing some google research and I bet he somehow hacked into the cameras operating system and just turned on some hidden features that Canon choose not to turn on.

I will take a picture of the camera while it is operating this Monday and hopefully he will just tell me how he did it.

Bringing my HV20 back to the store today. I don't want to take a chance that it is just a HV30 hack or mod he is doing somehow. But if they are the same camera then it should just work fine with a HV20 too. But I won't chance it.

I want a fully manual HV30.

filmwonder

There are very knowledgeable people who have been working on a hack for the HV for quite some time who would very much like to know if and how he did this. You might want to read the HV hack threads in the DIY subforum. We have a pot of money available (a few hundred $$) to anyone who can successfully hack and share the results with the HV community. Maybe that would spur him to share with you.