[HN Gopher] Samsung WB850F Firmware Reverse Engineering
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       Samsung WB850F Firmware Reverse Engineering
        
       Author : ge0rg
       Score  : 112 points
       Date   : 2024-05-24 15:35 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (op-co.de)
 (TXT) w3m dump (op-co.de)
        
       | doctorpangloss wrote:
       | All I want is a dSLR that, when I take a picture on the camera
       | with its button, moments later, the image is in Apple Photos.
        
         | jsheard wrote:
         | There used to be SD cards with built-in WiFi which could sync
         | photos automatically, but the main player in that space (Eye-
         | Fi) went out of business and I don't think anyone else has
         | stepped up to make a version of that which works with modern
         | cloud services. Not enough demand now that smartphones have
         | obliterated the consumer camera market, I guess.
         | 
         | Project idea: figure out a way to cram an ESP32 into an SD
         | card.
        
           | bitwrangler wrote:
           | I used Eye-Fi for several years and enjoyed it. There was
           | some opensource software to use it on a private LAN.
           | 
           | Searching 'wifi sdcard' and I found several vendors still
           | making those cards, but I haven't used any of the newer ones.
        
           | Palomides wrote:
           | all of the high end cameras have integrated wifi now
        
             | jsheard wrote:
             | It didn't even occur to me to check that but duh of course
             | they do, everything has integrated WiFi nowadays. Does the
             | software actually work well or is it a jankfest?
        
               | tw04 wrote:
               | https://www.dpreview.com/news/4518014471/capture-one-
               | adds-wi...
               | 
               | Seems like it works well (I don't have any gear new
               | enough to test myself).
               | 
               | Supported cameras here:
               | https://support.captureone.com/hc/en-
               | us/articles/36000271811...
        
               | mardifoufs wrote:
               | It's a complete jankfest on my Fuji camera. The app is
               | super weird, the cam works more like an access point (if
               | you want any degree of reliability), and so many other
               | weird problems. Maybe a firmware update fixed that but
               | the app is still beyond bad.
        
               | Nereuxofficial wrote:
               | There are two apps from Fuji and i heard the newer one
               | works better but the older one does not work for
               | transferring pictures 70% of the time and unfortunately
               | my camera is not supported in the new "Fujifilm X App"
        
               | carleton wrote:
               | Xapp works as well as I believe Apple lets them on iOS.
               | You need to connect via the app, tap an iOS "Join WiFi"
               | dialog, then 30-70% through the transfer it will stop and
               | you need to tap again "This WiFi doesn't have Internet,
               | disconnect or continue?" and then it succeeds most of the
               | time.
               | 
               | Don't even get me started on Fujifilm refusing to support
               | Geotagging unless the iOS app is in the foreground
               | though. That is entirely Fuji's fault and their design
               | choice because apparently users complained that "it was
               | tracking my location when the app is closed" uh duh
               | that's how geotagging works, turn off location if you
               | don't use it.
        
               | gsliepen wrote:
               | Olympus OM-D E-M1: jank. It can only do a private ESSID
               | created by the camera itself. There is an Android app
               | from Olympus which works well enough if you just want to
               | manually remote control the camera. Some people have
               | found out parts of the protocol and have written open
               | source tools to download images from the camera.
               | Apparently that goes via HTTP, not HTTPS, so you have to
               | place all your trust in the security of WPA.
        
               | mschuster91 wrote:
               | Sony's is a fuckfest, and so is pretty much everyone
               | because Android sucks as well.
               | 
               | The main problem is Bluetooth is dog slow, so they use
               | temporary Wifi networks which have to be manually
               | confirmed _twice_ (once in the app, once in the Android
               | UI)... and the wifi obviously doesn 't have internet, so
               | after a short time Android nags you to disconnect because
               | the wifi it's connected to doesn't have internet.
        
               | ge0rg wrote:
               | This is all true, but the camera vendors are adding
               | insult to injury with their ugly half broken apps that
               | mostly don't work on top of that.
        
               | xp84 wrote:
               | Hot take: All these are terrible, but not because the
               | camera makers suck, but because there's no non-sucky way
               | to do the thing we all would want:
               | 
               | What we want: Snap picture, picture is sent over high-
               | bandwidth link to phone
               | 
               | Analysis: Can't be Bluetooth, also it's foolish to assume
               | most pics are in wifi range of an access point, so it
               | needs to be Wi-Fi Direct, like AirDrop is: Able to be
               | performed with or without the parties being ON a network.
               | The parties just p2p transfer the file.
               | 
               | More analysis: What would this take? 1. The blessings of
               | the platform owners, at minimum Apple and other handset
               | makers, probably Google too. The platform owners would
               | need to provide:
               | 
               | 1. Ability to make ad-hoc wi-fi direct connections with
               | your other devices. APIs etc 2. Ability to either have
               | your app running in the background, or be automatically
               | silently launched in the background, to receive the image
               | and add it to Photos.
               | 
               | No such abilities exist. All the cheesy hotspot things
               | that they're doing is literally the only way to achieve
               | such a goal without the cooperation of gatekeepers like
               | Apple.
        
               | mschuster91 wrote:
               | The (for me) most interesting thing is: why the fuck has
               | no one managed to reverse engineer AirDrop and AirPlay
               | yet, in a way that's mass market compatible?
               | 
               | Like, there is OpenDrop but that is dead since five years
               | [1], it was a code dump by some researchers, and there
               | are no client implementations to interact with Apple
               | servers for getting keys, or with registering Find My
               | devices...
               | 
               | [1] https://github.com/seemoo-lab/opendrop
        
               | Palomides wrote:
               | the fact that there is no trivial way to transfer files
               | between any two devices in the same room is one of the
               | most pathetic failures of the tech industry
               | 
               | 2024 and people still email themselves files
        
               | coderatlarge wrote:
               | Isn't it a success though? :)
        
               | ge0rg wrote:
               | I agree with all of that, and that's an elaboration what
               | the parent post said, but I still stand by my statement:
               | the camera vendor apps are shitty because of that too,
               | but they are also shitty because they are badly designed
               | and coded.
        
               | radicaldreamer wrote:
               | Leica FOTOS app is excellent (and also transfers tethered
               | for even faster speeds), but it's also the most expensive
               | ecosystem to be in.
        
         | yorick wrote:
         | This should be possible, it already exists for Google Photos:
         | https://www.stg-uploader.xyz/
        
         | ge0rg wrote:
         | The Samsung NX1 and NX500 running Linux can be pretty easily
         | scripted to upload JPEGs or RAWs to any online service, given
         | that you have a Wi-Fi network with you. Unfortunately they are
         | a decade old and rare on the second hand market.
        
         | m463 wrote:
         | I think canon DSLRs with wifi can ftp.
         | 
         | They can also connect to phones/tablets/websites but you need
         | apps/services.
         | 
         | ftp direct from camera:
         | 
         | https://gdlp01.c-wss.com/gds/5/0300024975/01/eos5d-mk4-wff-i...
         | 
         | page 113
         | 
         | link is: EOS 5D Mark IV (WG) Wi-Fi (Wireless Communication)
         | Function Instruction Manual
        
         | ents wrote:
         | Doable with USB-C to USB-C cable from Camera into iPhone into
         | Capture One app
        
         | cjk2 wrote:
         | Nikon Z series with Snapbridge are as good as you get on that
         | front. They peer with WiFi or Bluetooth. You can actually
         | remote control and view the camera with your iPad if you want!
        
       | Brosper wrote:
       | Amazing work! Have you thought about doing a tutorial on how to
       | do reverse engineering?
        
         | ge0rg wrote:
         | I hoped that this article provides enough information serve as
         | a tutorial, actually. It's just skipping the parts that should
         | be easy to google for.
        
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       (page generated 2024-05-24 23:00 UTC)