All of you Canon T2i 550D owners have something new to think about this weekend.  If this video is to be believed, then this weekend there will be a new firmware out for you Canon hackers to try that enables 4k video.  Granted, you can only record 6 seconds of video on a 32G card, but still.. it’s 4k video. Sounds like it’s a bit complex, but could be huge for folks doing video on DSLRs.

Update: Here’s some more details.

Update 1/3/2011: It’s a Hoax.

QA: You Can run your Magic lantern at the same time. Although Qscale cannot be used. AGC on Lantern can be used with this firmware.

You must, and I mean MUST..get all of your iso, fstop settings and what not…ready. Then you have to input the same settings into our firmware before you do anything.

There’s a feature in our fimware called memory card control. The firmware will adjust the bitrate(constant) to whatever class memory card you are using. There are 3 brands of memory card that work with this firmware and that’s after testing over 50 other memory cards. Sandisk Extreme III class 10 8gb and above. Transcend class 10 16gb and above and Lexar Pro class 10 32gb. Class 6 cards will work, but only up to 3k filming. 4k just won”t happen. Just stick with the same brands.

Using a Sandisk Extreme III class 10 32gb card gave these results.

2k: 175mb/s = 91 seconds of footage

3k: 175mb/s = 32 seconds of footage

4k: 175mb/s = 6 seconds of footage.

Note: Lowering the bitrate for 4k does not give you extra recording time. This is something that we have to work out. Also, you will not be able to shoot 4k in 45mb/s. It must be 65mb/s and above.

For those of you worry about heat…trust me, at first that was an issue but now… It’s not. We’ve actually put our own limiter in the firmware so that way everyone doesn’t brick their cameras.

I’ll be answering more questions through out the day.

Here’s their “demo video”, which is unfortunately more hype than substance.

via YouTube – 4k Firmware for the Canon T2i 550d on 1/1/11.