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Super-charge your Canon PowerShot camera (shoot RAW format!) with CHDK
CHDK, or Canon Hack Development Kit, can magically turn your regular Canon PowerShot into a professional workhorse capable of shooting RAW files, displaying live histograms, motion detection and even executing Lua script.Seriously, CHDK takes almost any PowerShot camera and turns it into a device that is probably worth twice as much as you paid for it. Just being able to shoot RAW images is almost enough to make me buy a PowerShot for those times when my DSLR is just too big for the job. Heck, with CHDK, a PowerShot can actually do more than my DSLR!
Anyway, as I don't actually own a PowerShot yet, I can't provide a proper hands-on review of CHDK. Instead, I point you towards an excellent two-part write-up and tutorial over at LinuxPlanet. You should be warned that while it's not particularly hard to install CHDK, it does come with associated risks. Don't go anywhere near the experimental builds unless you really know what you're doing.
Comments
4
Subscribe to commentsJohnJul 15th 2010 12:02PM
I have been using CHDK with my Powershot SD400 for the past few months. Though I do not use it for RAW photography it is a very useful tool. It allows you to tweak every setting you can think of and some I had no idea existed. It also allows you to get past some of the cameras strange barriers, like the 30 second limit on videos. I like it particularly for the video parameters where you can control video size and quality for your recording. I highly recommend checking it out.
Sebastian AnthonyJul 15th 2010 1:15PM
Cool! I'm about to go travelling, and I think this might just mean I invest in a PowerShot :)
Scruffy BobJul 15th 2010 2:28PM
@Sebastian Definitely do it - I have a PowerShot A720is I got a few years back and aside from having a changeable lens, CHDK makes it feel a lot like my normal Canon DSLR. Very handy to take along when you'd rather have a camera in your pocket than around your neck.
WLJul 15th 2010 1:22PM
:-S Still no G10 love from CHDK