Hack Canon EOS 300D to confirm focus with all lenses, permanently.

Well, right, you can do this easily by using various chipped adapters for several lens mounts - but how about permanently modifying your camera to do the same and avoid paying extra for multiple adapters? I love my 300D but I don't own any EF/S lenses, all my arsenal is from 1980s, gorgeous manual focus lenses from Olympus and Carl Zeiss.

Canon EF mount has a register distance which lets us use Olympus OM, Pentax M42 and K-mounts, Leica R, and Contax mounts with proper adapter rings. These are vastly available on the net for purchase (ebay). However, Canon EOS auto-focus system needs a lens to speak to itself to work. The lens communicates its focal length and aperture values and the camera activates AF after confirming these. Some clever chaps cracked the code and embedded it in a tiny PIC chip and slapped those on Canon EF adapters for manual lenses.

In this hack we'll permanently embed one of these PIC chips in the camera. This hack requires some disassembling and soldering skills. I can rate it at medium hardness.

You need:
- One AF confirm activating chip for Canon EF mount (ebay keywords: Canon AF confirm chip)
- A tiny switch (if you want disabling functionality)
- Thin wires
- Epoxy (optional)
- Philips 0 and flat screwdriver
- Soldering iron and solder
- Self adhesive tape/ribbon

Do not put the battery in the camera when it is disassembled, even if you have it in off position. There are live circuitry in it and you may accidentally short it - burning out some fuses (I'll write another instructable about fixing those, later). AF confirm chip is a tiny pic chip and can be affected from static discharge easily, so be careful while you are working with it.

DISCLAIMER: Like all other hacks, this will void your warranty (I don't know if there are any 300D left with warranty anyway). Also involves exposing flash circuitry, if you are careless you may experience a high-voltage electric shock even when the battery is out (which I did briefly). This hack may render your camera totally useless, so if you brick it don't blame me, but put it on ebay for parts (others will like this). I am not responsible for any of these above if you experience a problem.

REFERENCE: There are few places where I borrowed wording from Gary Honis's excellent instructions on Canon EOS 300D IR filter removal. Check out his site for an alternative take on disassembling. However, we don't have to deal with the mainboard, so don't strip your camera to barebones like he did.

Step 1 Prepare the AF confirm chip to fit in the camera.

Well, I bought the chip already installed on an OM/EF mount adapter.

I had to soak it in acetone to soften the epoxy. After a few minutes I could shave it off the metal adapter easily (Photos 1-3).

However, during the process I damaged the chip/board assembly and got the chip de-soldered off the board (Photo 4).

I then soldered thin wires to the tiny PIC chip and mapped its pins on a paper (Photo 5).

I finally embedded the wired chip in a drop of clear epoxy. Now the chip is ready to be soldered on the camera.

If you just bought the chip separately (not like me), I advise you to solder thin wires on the pins of the board, and map them to the ones on the camera (and solder them permanently following my next steps).

Comments

[andrea biffi]

this is GREAT!

[iuve_maimai]

What's name of this chip?
I think maybe it is a EEFROM
We can read all data inside this chip and write to another chip

[domz76]

hi, how does this work if you want to attach EOS digital lenses? do you need to remove the chip again? thanks

[thearchitect]

There is a tiny switch that controls the power to the chip (between Vcc and chip, I can't remember which line). If you disconnect it the chip is deactivated and EF lenses can be recognised right away. K.

[Thornburg]

This looks amazing, you did a great job. Just that I can't afford this camera and I would not be brave enough to hack.

[thearchitect]

I think I didn't have much to lose, I bought it for £40 anyway. If it got fubar (=D) I could still sell it on ebay for a profit. :-)<br/><br/>K.<br/>

[Thornburg]

Did a friend sell it to you. What a steal.

[oncex]

Great instructable but my wife will never let me do it to her camera;)

[yonderknight]

Very nice! A long time ago I was trying to figure out if this was possible or not and gave up pretty quickly. I've always wondered if it would be possible to do this with some sort of hacked firmware though, I don't think I'm up to the challenge of actually taking my camera apart. Nice work!

[thearchitect]

Hi, hacked firmware is the way to go actually, but there are not many digging those I guess. I don't see any reason for not being able to do that with a firmware hack. You can always buy chipped adapters for your camera. These days they go around £15-30 depending on the type you need. Chees, Koray.

[ll.13]

Very well done Instructable, although I don't think there's many people wanting to fubar their cameras. =D

[thearchitect]

FUBAR! I loved that term. In my vocabulary, now!.. :-) Thanks, I am glad that you liked it. By the way, one can always buy a chipped adapter ring and keep the screws on their camera. :-) K.

[karsten.hain]

Excellent instructable, an important thing to note is that this is an excellent way to breathe some life into older lenses, maybe FD lenses in my case from my old canon A-1 and that this instructable can help those work in ANY EF mount lense, even an older cheaper 35mm camera such as the A-2. It doesn't have to be used just on new digitals. A good thing to note when going shopping for second hand cameras isnt what they can do, but what they can be MADE to do... Thanks for the instructable!

[thearchitect]

Sadly, FD lenses are of no use! :-( The registry distance of FD lenses are shorter than EF lenses (42mm<44mm), which is a shame (you can't reach infinity focus - close focus or macro OK). Canon evidently wanted to sell many more lenses with their then new EOS line-up. The only way to use FD lenses on EOS is permanently modify them (some cutting, gluing involved), or use them with optical adapters (image degradation). But, lucky we are, Pentax M42, Yashica/Contax, Nikon, Olympus OM, Leica R, Pentacon Six, etc are all gorgeous lenses that can be utilized on Canon EOS cameras. I am not a big fan of Canon lenses, anyway, so Canon bodies with old-time awesome lenses is good to go for me!.. :-) Thanks for your comments!.. K.

[Da_Fudge]

cool!!!!!