Please tell me this is true

For those of us with a D3100, D5100, and a D7000 and like to record video this is a godsend.

Nikon Hack Removes the Recording Time Limit on the D3100, D5100 and D7000

I am not so sure that I would want to hack my camera firmware. You risk overheating the sensor which was the original reason the time limit was put there. Also you will void your warranty.

Still, for some it's definitely tempting.

i'll not be trying it

Having spent the last 35 years in tech of one form or another I have had many people come to me to fix the thing they screwed up trying something like this.

Well I thought it was interesting.

How could a firmware hack allow you to record more?
The memory card is usually FAT format... and FAT supports a max file size of 4gb which is 20 mins of video...
Other format memory cards would not be read by the camera...

doesn't make any sense to me

it is, but I don't even use the video on my camera, I have a camcorder for that.

xlDeMoNiClx said:

Still, for some it's definitely tempting.

Click to expand...

Why don't they just get a video camera instead? One of the things I like most about the D700 is that it does NOT have video. For me at least, your mileage may vary, video is an unwanted and added cost feature I would never use.

STM said:

Why don't they just get a video camera instead? One of the things I like most about the D700 is that it does NOT have video. For me at least, your mileage may vary, video is an unwanted and added cost feature I would never use.

Click to expand...

I don't do much video at all with my D5100 BUT I do like it there for that rare occasion where I see something that deserves video. Like the day I was at a river walk park near here and there was a guy launching a Drag boat to test it. flipped it on video and got some great shots. Still photos would not have done the boat justice.

My last job was as a on air engineer at a TV station so Video for me was not that much fun.

Not sure which came first, but I think video was added to DSLRs because users wanted the same functionality as point and shoots. I too never shoot video and don't even think about it being available when shooting.

But hey....if you want to hack into your camera, well...go right ahead. It's your money.

I added the links to the modified firmware in the respective forums. The d5100 one has a couple other modifications. The person that made it bricked their camera trying new things!

Yeah, I thought I'd just post it here instead of spamming it in all 3 camera sections.

WhiteLight said:

How could a firmware hack allow you to record more?
The memory card is usually FAT format... and FAT supports a max file size of 4gb which is 20 mins of video...
Other format memory cards would not be read by the camera...

doesn't make any sense to me

Click to expand...

If you're not recording at full resolution then you can get a video file under 4gb that is greater than 20 min. I would imagine if you hit the 4gb mark it'll just stop recording since there is nothing built in to span across multiple files like with some video cameras.

Edit: Simeon explains in this post:

The firmware actually check for free space, then limits the space to ~3.5GB, it then does a division based on average compression rate of the mode you are shooting in, and comes up with a time value (that used to then get limited) it then records for this amount of time.

Click to expand...