Canon Camera Owners: Have You Used CHDK?
- Add raw camera support for cameras that normally don't shoot raw format.
- Increase the recording time and length of video clips.
- Display a more precise battery life indicator on the LCD screen.
- Display a histogram on the LCD screen.
- Exapand the number of photographic settings available such as exposure time, shutter speed, and so on.
- View over- and under-exposed areas of a picture.
- Run scripts (macros).
- And much more.
Finding the correct file to download for my camera was the hardest part of the installation. CHDK is a community effort, and therefore, files for different camera models are scattered all over various sites. Most users will be able to find a version for their camera at this link. But first, you will need to visit the CHDK Wiki to learn how to check your camera's installed firmware version and how to install CHDK on your camera's SD card. PC World also has a very nice guide to CHDK.
So now I have CHDK, but I haven't played with it much yet. I will probably spend some time learning about it over the weekend. Have you used CHDK yourself? Will you try it? Are you intrigued by it but have more questions before trying it? Let's hear your thoughts in the comments.
Comments
I too was intrigued by CHDK as I’ve got a little Canon point and shoot - I’ve seen some amazing stuff on the CHDK wiki so I’m going to have to try some of this stuff out! I can’t believe that Canon didn’t get round to offering this themselves.
Thanks for the link.
Users need to watch the model #’s closely. I have the SD950IS for example, and quick Ctrl-F (search) of the site finds a 950 listed. However, it’s actually an SD850 listed as “SD850 (IXUS950)”.
That misleading “950″ model # is actually the UK model # and isn’t the same as the SD950IS US model #.
I haven’t tried this on my SD950IS as it isn’t specifically listed (I wish it was), so I can’t say whether it works w/my model or not.
For reference, I got this model # info from here - http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1010&message=23391201
I have taken some pictures in Raw and have learned that the raw files CHDK creates are truly raw-raw, meaning they have no header or EXIF information and programs like Lightroom will not read them right out of the camera. So you need to use another program to convert them to DNG files before Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom, etc. can do anything with with them.
The conversion software most people are using is DNG for Powershot-2 from http://dng4ps2.chat.ru/index_en.html. It’s sinmple enough and it works fine, but I am not sure I have seen enough benefits to Raw to justify all this extra processing–for me. (I know Raw has benefits for a lot of people!)
Anyway, I will still keep CHDK on my camera card because just the battery meter alone is very nice to have. And maybe some day I will understand what all the other extra stuff can do for me…
I’ve been fiddling with CHDK for my Canon S2 IS for a couple weeks now. Intrigued, but haven’t taken it very far yet. The biggest let-down for is that PSP X2 does support the RAWs that it produces, and gives a terrible colour cast to the DNG files from dng4ps2. ACDSee PM10 does a nice job with the files, but it’s much more limited in its correction tools. I’m still checking out utilities suggested in the CHDK Wiki; hope to find something that lets me take advantage of the Paint Shop HDR tools to reclaim under- and overexposed areas.
Fun to play with - the battery meter alone is worth the download!
The other thing I noticed was that the memory card had to be formatted to FAT16 to be made bootable. That limited the SD card to 4G. How many raw 12.1MP images am I going to be able to fit on a 4G card?
Interesting. One quick question, how to uninstall CHDK once it’s installed in your camera?
I was searching for it in the CHDK site, but couldn’t find it (maybe I was not searching long enough).
Danny: CHDK is not permanently installed, so you just turn your camera off and on to stop using it. Unless you made your card bootable, in which case you simply reformat your card which will remove anything to do with CHDK.
Bill: my 7 MP camera created raw files about 9 MB in size. I use a 4 GB SD card, but chose not to make it bootable. I suggest playing around with it for a while before you decide if you want to make your card bootable.
Thanks for the info Sue. I thought you *had* to make it bootable. I’ll definitely give this a go. Thanks again for the heads up the hack.
CHDK only boots if the SD card “lock” slider is in lock position - if you don’t want the features for a shoot but want to keep CHDK available just slide the slider to “unlocked”, reinsert the card, and presto CHDK is invisible to the camera.
I am an “older” professional photographer using all Canon digital equipment. But it’s too heavy to just carry around so I bought a PowerShot SD950 IS which is great, particularly as it has a viewfinder. BUT it doesn’t shoot RAW and Canon says they have no plans to bring out a PowerShot that does in the near future. Sigh. Then I found CHDK which sounds awsome but the more I read the How To, the more I realized that I could not install it myself — I’m just not a techie. So if anyone who understands how this works, lives in New York City, and would like to be of help to me, I would be tremendously grateful.
Anna: It is really not as techie as it sounds. Really, it is just copying 2 files to your SD card. Then you load it from the menu in your camera. Now if you want it to auto-load, it is a little more involved, but that is not required.
Sue so glad to see that you finally tried CHDK! I’ve been using it on my A720IS since May 2008 and absolutely love it! I’ve gotten into HDR imaging, made some great timelapse movies of weather and even a long road trip this summer in my car (turned that into a cool music video) and I’ve even been able to catch lightning with the motion detection script which is useful for a thousand other uses.
I love the live histogram and Zebra modes to ensure correct exposures, the ability to use the optical zoom in video mode! And the ability to override the limits set by the factory. Iso, TV, EV etc. ie: I hated that I could only take shots of 15 seconds duration before and now with CHDK it’s 65 seconds-great for my astrophotography, only need one exposure for wide field Milkyway shots. And I know I haven’t even scratched the surface yet of what CHDK can do. It’s easy to try - read FREE and can be turned on and off as easily as moving your lock tab on the memory card. The forum has a great “Newbie” site that walks you through the loading process and gettng started, after that it’s all about playing and exploring. Remeber that this is all done by volunteers with no official organization so it might be a bit confusing but stick to the newbie section and you’ll be OK. I think it’s worth it alone to have the accurate battery meter. As for RAW I use it in my HDR but usually the camera does a great job with its JPEG conversion. Good Luck
CHDK is awesome. I have it on my a610.
Like you have read before, the battery meter alone is worth it. It also lets you use the zoom in movie mode. Also removes the 1gb movie limit. Gives you numerous options for histograms etc etc … No need to be a techie. It is very simple. Go to youtube and type in CHDK. Theres a kid who does the whole process step by step on video !!!
I’m using CHDK with my A590IS and it works perfectly, both in Canon proprietary RAW format (CRW) or Adobe DNG.