Is it possible to hack into a camera?

[eyesoulsmart]

I have the panasonic dvc80 and everyone says that the difference between the 80 and the dvx100 is that there is no 24p, inside the menu settings of my camera i see the 24p option along with 30p and 24p advanced, I also heard that your able to hack into a camera and give it a firmware update is this true? and can someone please shed some light because this is bugging me.

[Huy Vu]

It's possible to a certain extent, although I haven't heard of this particular hack before. For example the HVX can be configured to shoot in incremental frame rates other than the ones given.

It's not surprising that you would see blacked out 24p options in your menu. The same components are used across different classes of camera. In the Canon A1, if I look at the LCD from a certain angle, I can see greyed out menus for features that the G1 has but the A1 doesn't.

[bilgami]

i have the 80 aswell and ive often wondered the same but ive never seen a greyed out 24p menu select on my cam where do you see this? ive asked jan on here if its possible to put 24 in the 80 and she said no but ive asked the guys at speccom and they yes it could be done but it would be to expensive.

[Bob Gruen]

Probably not. If you see it in the manu its probably because the cameras use the same firmware that detects the internal hardware. The different hardware would allow a given menu option to be available.

Bob