Looking to pick up a Sony A7S II I can hack for longer record times - how can I find one suitable?

[andrew00]

Hey, I'm looking to get a Sony A7S II for a few projects, one of which is filming long podcasts. I want to hack it for this with the play memories hack.

I've also been reading about the Pocket 4K diff versions and BRAW/Cine dng choice.

So I'm asking here - from what I gather I need to have a certain firmware that can use the hack, and that newer A7S II cameras can't do this because they can't go back far enough to get the firmware that can be hacked.

Is this true? Or can a brand new camera be downgraded to a compatible firmware?

If I do need an older one, how can I identify on cameras for sale if they can be backwards 'downgraded'? And is this even possible or do I need to get a super old camera?

Can anyone help clear this up a little please, thanks!

[newfoundmass]

You'd want to ask the seller what firmware it is by looking in the menus. 

Are you sure you don't just want to get a camera that doesn't have a recording limit? The A6400 might be a better option if you're looking for a Sony camera. 

[BTM_Pix]

The browser based tweaker is only compatible with releases prior to the June 2017 camera firmware updates.

https://sony-pmca.appspot.com/plugin/app/com.github.ma1co.openmemories.tweak

The recommendation for versions post that date is to use the standalone installer.

https://github.com/ma1co/Sony-PMCA-RE/releases/tag/v0.17

I did an A7Rii a few weeks ago using the standalone one to change it from Japanese but I couldn't vouch for if it is still possible with cameras that had the very lastest firmware update firmware updates Sony pushed out at the end of May this year.

[webrunner5]

I did it with my original A7s, but I doubt you want to go back that far?