Hacking a Canon digicam

For a number of years now, I have been recommending the Canon Powershot series of point and shoot digital cameras to everyone thinking of buying a relatively inexpensive but surprisingly capable digicam. Thanks to a firmware hack called CHDK, it seems they can be made even better. You can activate features normally available only on much higher end cameras, such as live histograms and taking pictures in RAW format.

Unfortunately, the A510 that I use to take all the photos on this blog is too old for the software. When it finally kicks the bucket for good, I may well buy a camera that can me modded in this way.

I learned about this via flying penguin.

Author: Milan

In the spring of 2005, I graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in International Relations and a general focus in the area of environmental politics. In the fall of 2005, I began reading for an M.Phil in IR at Wadham College, Oxford. Outside school, I am very interested in photography, writing, and the outdoors. I am writing this blog to keep in touch with friends and family around the world, provide a more personal view of graduate student life in Oxford, and pass on some lessons I've learned here.

5 thoughts on “Hacking a Canon digicam”

  1. Hack provides Liveview Canon EOS DSLRs with video recording
    By Darren Murph on VideoRecording

    If you’re just now starting to come to grips with the fact that Canon’s utterly succulent EOS 5D Mark II is just way, way out of reach, here’s a little something to lessen the impact of your inferiority complex. An enterprising young buck with a passion to bring video capture abilities to other EOS cameras figured out a way to enable that very capability on all Liveview EOS DSLRs. Of course, there’s still the whole “manual focus” requirement — which means that the bulk of your captures will be way out of focus — but it’s a new feature for your existing camera nonetheless. Now that the cat’s out of the bag, why don’t you just push out an official update to add this into more cams, Canon? We mean, can you imagine the look on Nikon’s face if you really came through?

  2. How can I instally CHDK on my S90? Are there instructions online anywhere?

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