blogONEReading Hack-A-Day today, I noticed there was something available for Canon digital cameras which would add a whole bunch of extra features/options, such as the ability to shoot in the RAW format and ultra-high shutter speed for taking pictures of lightning and other fun things. There is an entire list of features CHDK enables, ranging from simple shutter speed modifications to built-in video compression and histogram/zebra meters (to determine amount of lighting) found at the CHDK wiki.
For those that are too lazy to go read, and would rather stay here, CHDK is a soft firmware hack/upgrade which is performed by the Digic II/Digic III processor chip inside our Canon cameras. Of course, this soft-upgrade is most beneficial to the point-and-shoot cameras, since most of the dSLR’s would have most of the “unlocked” features (ie. histogram, aperture size). You must first find out if your camera has the available CHDK firmware, and then transfer it into the root directory of your memory card. Booting up the CHDK firmware is easy, as you simply start the camera up by pressing Play once (to turn it on in View mode) then press the Menu button and scroll down to Firmware Update. If you don’t see this option, shut off your camera and try it again! This isn’t a hard-upgrade (ie. permanent), so when you shut your camera off, CHDK will need to be reloaded; if your camera hangs while soft-upgrading, simply remove your batteries!
Personally, I have to read up and experiment more on the different shutter speeds and aperture sizes, but I find it quite beneficial to have a battery meter to show me how much battery I have left, as well as a histogram to show me my light levels. The A550, and I suspect most of the A-series cameras, do not have these features, or the ability to shoot pictures in RAW (!!!). With this easy, simple and lightweight “hack”, you should be able to shoot better pictures (or at least be more informed for improvement, or have some more things to experiment with), although the truth is an awful photographer with a high-end dSLR would still have crappy pictures — its the skill of the photographer, not necessarily their gear.
Very, very, cool.
