Compatibility with black point hack

[purdyd]

There is a hack for Nikon cameras that raises the black point and turns off all? Raw preprocessing.

 

Backyard Nikon will not download and display these images, however, they will open and display in Nikon software.

 

The only way to use it with BYN is to save to camera and not PC.

 

Would it be possible for BYN to support this hack?

[astroman133]

BYN uses a Nikon-provided SDK for communication with the camera.  If the SDK does not support the hack then it is unlikely that BYN can be changed to support it. 

 

Of course, Guylain will have to provide the final answer, but this is similar to what he has said in the past.

[admin]

The short answer is no.  Any hack is not visible to the SDK and therefore not visible to BYN.

[purdyd]

Since nikon products can read the files and transfer them i would assume the sdk could.

[admin]

Since nikon products can read the files and transfer them i would assume the sdk could.

 

BYN downloads images from the in-camera memory, not the SD card once it is written.

 

I suspect the file in memory has been altered by the hack which prevents the SDK from reading it from live memory and throws and error.

 

Send me the log file and I may be able to confirm this.

 

Regards,

[jpd321]

Similar issue with D600 with black point hack. Tried with files saved only to camera as well as Raw+camera

Log as follows:

16:26:03  Nikon drivers initialized.
16:26:09  Attempting to connect camera...
16:26:11  D600 CONNECTED!
16:29:23  Imaging session started.
16:29:28  Imaging session cancelled
16:29:28  [kNkMAIDResult_DeviceBusy] (kNkMAIDCommand_CapSet, 33089, kNkMAIDDataType_Boolean, 1)
16:29:29  Imaging session cancelled

 

Looking for a solution for Nikon camera control along with dithering support, so it would be great if there was someway to work around this in BYN

 

Thanks - Jeff

[astroman133]

Jeff,

 

From previous posts I believe the issue is not with BYN, but with the Nikon SDK.  If true, there is not likely to be a fix unless Nikon makes it. 

 

How likely is it that Nikon would support a 3rd party hack in their unsupported SDK?

[purdyd]

13:34:39  D800 CONNECTED!

13:34:57  Imaging session started.

13:35:05  LIGHT1s_1600iso_9-5_20151125-13h34m58s000ms.NEF

13:35:09  LIGHT1s_1600iso_9-5_20151125-13h35m02s905ms.NEF

13:35:13  Imaging session completed successfully

13:35:14  LIGHT1s_1600iso_9-5_20151125-13h35m08s147ms.NEF

13:35:33  Imaging session started.

13:35:37  Camera SHUTDOWN!

13:35:37  Imaging session cancelled

13:35:37  [kNkMAIDResult_UnexpectedError] (kNkMAIDCommand_CapGet, 33342, kNkMAIDDataType_UnsignedPtr, 335733668)

13:35:38  Imaging session cancelled

 

so i took three pictures without the hack enabled with save to PC, that completed sucessfullly.

 

Enabled the hack, and it takes one picture and then you get session aborted with the last error.

 

yes, the file size is bigger with the hack enabled

 

and it is very interesting because the black point is no longer zero and there appears to be less or even no raw processing

 

for example, the long exposures have much more noise since it appears that Nikon must be running some sort of filter to reduce hot pixels in a normal file

 

and i would have to check but it looks like the blue and red channels are no longer digitally multiplied in the raw data

[purdyd]

Jeff,

 

From previous posts I believe the issue is not with BYN, but with the Nikon SDK.  If true, there is not likely to be a fix unless Nikon makes it. 

 

How likely is it that Nikon would support a 3rd party hack in their unsupported SDK?

Well Nikon's own viewing and editing software handles the files. So I would guess there is a fair chance.

 

The other issue appears to be that saving to camera only does not work either with the d800, with or without the hacked software.

 

I think the latter case is a bug.

 

Actually your can save to camera only if you don't use bulb shutter speed.

 

I can't comment on the sdk supporting the hacked file format transfer other than above,

[purdyd]

The hack is very interesting because it appears to turn off all or most processing that is done to the raw data.

 

For instance, it is fairly obvious that Nikon is running a median filter for long exposure raw data.

 

This appears to be off when you have the hack enabled.

[admin]

Viewing and editing the image file is NOT the same as controlling the camera via the SDK.  The real test would have Nikon's own capture software CaptureONE controlling the camera for image capture.

 

Regards.

[s3igell]

Well Nikon's own viewing and editing software handles the files. So I would guess there is a fair chance.

There is a BIG Difference between Off-Camera Image Manipulation Software and the SDK which Communicates Directly with the Cameras Firmware.

 

It's quite likely that the Black Point Hack were only able to identify certain of the many Routine Endpoints within the NIKON Firmware, and therefore Jump Over one of the Code Pieces that is Critical to NIKON SDK Support.

 

Again, the Onus is on the Black Point Hack Devs to Get It Right...  

(Unless, of course, you can Pull Strings that gets NIKON Devs to Reverse Engineer the Hack and them either Incorporate It into the Firmware Correctly or at least give the Hackers the necessary Corrections.)