There was a lot of internet buzz amongst the DSLR community in the past 48-hours when it was recently announced (leaked, teased… make up your own definition there) on YouTube and various other blogs that some intrepid hackers had come up with a firmware hack for the Canon T2i/550d DSLR camera (you know, the one that sells for about $800) that could enable it to shoot at 2k, 3k and even 4k resolution. Yeah, something that only $20,000+ cameras seem to be able to pull off. Naturally, every DSLR filmboy went gaga in the YouTube comments (until they were shut off) and on twitter over the supposed details.

Now, the long-awaited time has come and it has been announced:

WHAT IT DOES

  • Gets you super frothy
  • Demonstrates well-executed hoax/prank to highly targeted audience

WHAT IT SHOULD ACTUALLY DO

Instead of going for RED/ALEXA territory and having very limited functionality, in my opinion we’d all have been much better served by somebody focusing on making real firmware deliver truly usable production specs such as:

  • 50 to 100 MBps data rate
  • 4:2:2 colorspace
  • 1080p/60 and 1080p/120 frame rates
  • full 8-bit output via HDMI without screen overlays
  • no aliasing or moire

Want a real firmware update to make your DSLR more usable for video? Then there is only one proven place to go: Magic Lantern Firmware Wiki