Free How To Hack Your Nikon Camera

How To Use Nikon Camera

Nikon Patch is the software used to apply the Nikon Hacker Team's firmware patches to the firmware of your Nikon camera. The basic method is as follows:

Download firmware from Nikon's web site

Use Nikon Patch to patch the firmware

Put the patched firmware on you memory card

Update your camera's firmware in the usual way

The minus is that Nikon DSLRs can't execute outside of the camera firmware. That's what made the Canon Magic Lantern hacks so popular: you could install them on an SD card and there was no memory limit to how big the hack could be. The camera was locked down on a tripod and used the Neutral Picture Profile. I selected a sunlit scene of a running stream of water with highlights on the water ripples. This type of subject presents a myriad of high-contrast moving images that tax the motion tracking and bitrate allocation algorithms of the camera's H.264 video encoder. All Nikon School online classes are free again from November 23rd – December 31st. The free classes were first introduced at the beginning of the COVID pandemic and now they are back for the holidays: NIKON INC. IS OFFERING THE GIFT OF GREAT PHOTOGRAPHY THIS HOLIDAY SEASON BY STREAMING ALL NIKON SCHOOL ONLINE CLASSES FREE.

2Apply patches with Nikon Patch
- 2.1Computer Requirements

Download Firmware

The original firmware for your camera is Nikon's intellectual property. Nikon Hacker do not have the right to distribute Nikon's firmware (nor have we asked for permission). You will have to go to Nikon's website to get it.

Your download will either be a self-extracting archive (.exe, Windows) or a disk image (.dmg, Mac OS), depending on the operating system you choose on Nikon's web site. Mac OS includes software for viewing .dmg images natively. Extract the binary firmware file (.bin) that is located inside the image.

For Linux/Unix platforms, the firmware can be directly extracted from the Windows .exe with the terminal command unrar.

Apply patches with Nikon Patch

Computer Requirements

If you see this on the Nikon Patch web page, you don't have Silverlight installed.

Nikon Patch uses Microsoft Silverlight to patch your firmware. This is a cross-platform application framework, which means you can run Nikon Patch on any operating system and web browser that Silverlight supports. The Nikon Patch web page will automatically detect whether Silverlight is installed; if it is not you will be see an image like the one on the right. Clicking on the image will take you to Microsoft's website to download Silverlight.

Systems Supported by Silverlight

Windows 2000 or later
- Browser: Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Chrome
Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.11 or later
- Intel processor
- Browser: Chrome (recommended), Firefox or Safari

Linux and Unix Options

Moonlight is an open-source implementation of Silverlight, primarily aimed at Linux and Unix, but is no longer being actively developed. The current solution is Pipelight, a wrapper that allows the Silverlight plugin for Windows to be used directly in Linux. Alternatively, you may be able to beg, borrow or steal a friend's Windows/Mac machine for five minutes.

Using Nikon Patch

If Silverlight is installed correctly, Nikon Patch will load and await a firmware file

Free Nikon Camera Manuals

If Silverlight is installed correctly, the application on the Nikon Patch page will load as seen at the right. Click Select Firmware File, and select the .bin file that you extracted out of the archive or disk image from Nikon's website. (e.g. D5100_0102.bin for D5100 firmware, version 1.02)

Nikon Patch detects the camera and firmware version automatically, and will only display compatible patches. Patches with a red or green background are alpha and beta patches, that have only received limited testing (if any). You will be warned of this when saving patched firmware.

Three patches have been selected here. A patched firmware can now be saved.

Note that some patches are mutually exclusive, and cannot be selected at the same time. As an example: you cannot select both NEF Compression Off and NEF Compression Lossless: only one of them (or neither!).

Having selected the patches you want, save the patched firmware on your computer, ready to be transferred to your camera's memory card.

Place Patched Firmware on the Memory Card

The patched firmware file Nikon Patch creates needs to be placed in the correct place, and with the correct name, for the camera to recognise it as a firmware update. The file should be given the same name as the Nikon firmware that you downloaded (e.g. D5100_102.bin for a D5100 using firmware v1.02). Rename the file if necessary, then place it in the root folder of your memory card.

Update Camera Firmware

Always use a fully charged battery or an AC adapter when updating any device's firmware!!!

Having placed the memory card in the camera, use the camera's menu to update its firmware (typically Menu | Setup | Firmware Version | Update). See your camera's user guide if you are unsure.

When the update is complete, you may delete the .bin file from the memory card. Your camera's behaviour will now reflect the patches you selected.

Restoring Official Firmware

If you wish to remove the Nikon Patch firmware and revert to Nikon's official firmware you can do so easily. Simply download the official firmware, place on your memory card and update through the camera's menu, as you would with any official update.