How would I reverse engineer a different camera? (not to use ML on)

Started by ItsMeLenny, March 24, 2015, 06:04:52 AM

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ItsMeLenny

This isn't a question of "how do I put ML on a completely unrelated camera?" :P

Back-story:
My mum had a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ20, which she spent a bit of money on at the time and was actually quite a good camera (despite the fact that the lense would suck dust into itself which would land on the sensor). She dropped it a few too many times which eventually broke the mechanics of the (leica) lens. On me opening it up I only broke the lens more (but it was already broken beyond repair, I also managed to scratch an element). She now bought a later model which unfortunately takes awful images compared to this one, and they also replaced the switches for buttons which means it always gets bumped and turned on.

Actual question:
Now that I've removed the lens completely, when I switch the camera on it shows the (blurry) image that the sensor picks up for a couple of seconds before the camera disables itself (displaying a white screen with a message) to say that there is a problem with the lens.
I would like to hack this so that I can use the camera without a the but I am unsure as to where I begin. Any help would be appreciated.

Levas

Try to find out how it knows that there is a problem with the lens...the camera think it's smart  :P

If it communicates with the lens through a chip or something in the lens, then it's software and sounds like much work.
But it could be just a physical switch/indicator or something that detects that there is no lens...maybe some small piece of duct tape on the right sensor/switch is enough to let it think it has a lens.


ItsMeLenny

That reminds me, when I did have the camera all in pieces, and the lens still hooked up with the ribbon cables, it would turn on and try to adjust the lens with the motor, and the motor would continue to spin and not stop and then decide that there was also a lens error (I can't remember if it was a different error). But I also tried grabbing it to stop it spinning to it seemed like it had reached the maximum point of the lens, all that resulted in was sore fingers :P