alternative firmware for digital cameras (CHDK)

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One of the most annoying things about my Canon SD870 digital
camera [1] is that the power button protrudes from the top of the
case, making it easy to hit by mistake when it's in a pocket or
backpack; it's just a matter of time until this will result in a
broken lens mechanism, giving me yet another broken canon elph
to add to my collection.

The power button on the previous edition of this camera (the
Canon SD800 [2]) is much better, as it's flush with the top of the
case. It's mind-boggling why Canon would have made this change
for the worse.

Anyway, the other day I was researching some camera stuff for a
friend and happened to see in a comment on amazon that you can
modify this annoying behavior by running alternative firmware
called CHDK. [3]

This firmware has an amazing number of enhancements over the
default shipped by Canon:

> Q. What does the CHDK program do?
>
> A. CHDK enhances the capabilities of your camera in a non-destructive,
> non-permanent way.
>
> After loading of CHDK program you will get the following functionality:
>
>   * Shutter-priority (Tv) exposure - via shutter value override feature
>   * Aperture-priority (Av) exposure - via aperture value override feature
>   * Shooting in RAW, with RAW Average, RAW Sum, and RAW Develop features
>   * Live histogram (RGB, blended, luminance and for each RGB channel)
>   * Zebra mode (a live view of over and under-exposed areas of your picture)
>   * Depth-of-field (DOF)-calculator, Hyperfocal-calculator with
>     instant Hyperfocal and Infinity focus-set, and more
>   * Battery indicator
>   * RAW and Video space-remaining gauges with custom low-limit alerts
>   * USB cable remote shutter release
>   * Motion-detection trigger - automatically fires camera on motion
>     detection. (Fast enough to capture lightning strikes.)
>   * Customizable high-speed continuous (burst) Shutter-based (Tv),
>     aperture-based (Av) and ISO-based exposure bracketing (unlimited shots)
>   * Focus bracketing (unlimited shots)
>   * 99 constant bit-rate and 10 constant-quality video compression levels
>   * Elimination of 1 Gig video-size limit
>   * Zoom during video function (for cameras without this feature)
>   * Shutter, Aperture, and ISO Overrides
>   * Ultra-long shutter speeds - up to 64 seconds
>   * Ultra-fast shutter speeds - up to 1/10,000" and higher
>   * High-speed Flash Sync at all speeds up to 1/64,000 second
>     (even faster in some cameras)
>   * Custom user-editable visible Grids for framing, cropping, and alignment
>   * File browser
>   * Text reader
>   * Calendar
>   * Some fun tools and games :)
>   * Fully customizable CHDK display, info placement, user-colors,
>     fonts in menus, etc.
>   * Custom CHDK User-Menu (for instant recall of up to 10 favorite functions)
>   * Scripts execution - including exposure bracketing, focus bracketing,
>     intervalometer and more)
>   * And other features too numerous to mention here. See the CHDK Firmware
>     and Allbest Firmware usage pages for a more complete overview.
>
> These features work on all camera models supported by CHDK. The
> camera does not need to have "related" or "inherent" features
> already present - CHDK will add the required functionality. New
> features are accessed through CHDK-specific menus, rather than
> the default camera menus.
>
> As CHDK is continually evolving, new features are often added.
> Thus, some of the listed features depend on you using a version
> of CHDK that has those features. Check out the Downloads page for
> information on finding the right build for your needs.

-- http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ#Q._What_does_the_CHDK_program_do.3F

CHDK's modified power button actually isn't that much of an
improvement because all you need to do to power it on with CHDK
is press the shutter button after pressing the power button,
and the shutter button is just as easy to hit by mistake.

But I'm still pretty excited to have this on my camera: the
battery indicator is displayed as a percentage instead of the
useless full/half/quarter/empty indicator on most cameras; it
adds a bunch of features (shooting in raw mode, longer/shorter
shutter speeds and more ISOs, better video compression), but most
of all I can write little programs in BASIC to run on my camera!
(e.g. the motion detection program mentioned above is less than
100 lines of code)

One frustrating thing: I can't get past level 1 of the sokoban
game included with CHDK :)

[1] http://impressive.net/people/gerald/2008/04/canon-sd870.html
[2] http://impressive.net/people/gerald/2006/11/canon-sd800.html
[3] http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ#Q._What_does_the_CHDK_program_do.3F

--
Gerald Oskoboiny <[email protected]>
http://impressive.net/people/gerald/

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