I stumbled across a link to “CHDK” - an open source firmware for many of the Canon point-n-shoot cameras. I’ve been recommending these cameras for years and I know a lot of people who have them. What I didn’t know was that a group of very talented developers have applied themselves - in true “open source” fashion - making these little cameras stand up and dance.

I was intrigued by the ability to do RAW mode, high speed photography, motion detection (think of capturing that elusive squirrel or rabbit in a photo), and even time lapse photography. I was scared of “bricking” my camera. It turns out CHDK is an “in-memory-only” firmware so no fears of yielding a dead camera in the bargain.

I went with “Allbest’s Build“. I have not had much time to play with the scripts for motion detection or time laps photography, but I did spend a few minutes cranking the shutter and flash up to 1/100K and taking the requisite water droplet photos. It’s not that great - focus is off, a bit grainy, etc. but that is not the fault of CHDK or my trusty A700 - we’ll just chalk it up to user error. Here are some real good examples.

I am really looking forward to playing with this a bit. I’ll need to fashion some form of extended battery to try capturing the rabbit in a a motion detection photo but I bet there is something around here I can use <grin>

Related tangests ...   The Money Shot !   Guru Jig   No shop talk !

Posted in Creativity, Photography | Print

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Print