Plug-Ins for cameras, chdk or firmware updates!

[Not4wood]

Hey Laurie,

First, I just wanted to say thank you for all of your patience, understanding and knowledge that are helping us in our quest for better quality in Photography.

These catagories have surely taken off and are very enjoyable and educational to read. Besides being a lot of fun.
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Now, my question is more to all of those people who have Point and Shoot cameras:

We all have been hunting the net for plug-ins and patches for Elements and or CS but have you also been hunting for updates for your cameras??

There are firmware updates from the manufacturers, but there are updates for the cameras to increase there abilities called chdk.

I'm talking hacker updates for the firmware to make your little P&S a much better camera.

http://www.digicamhelp.com/learn/glossary/firmware.php

depending on what camera manufacturer and also model you can update the Firmware from your manufacturer to get rid of some bugs and to make the camera just plain better.

I've seen chdk options now for more models and listings of manufacturers but these are some of the benefits that I've seen so far that have been mentioned:

The CHDK fw implements new features like:


- RAW,
- Battery indicator,
- Live histogram (RGB/luminance),
- Zebra mode (blinking areas of over-/underexposure),
- DOF calculator,
- Scripts (intervalometer, exposure/focus/... bracketing etc.),
- Text reader,
- File browser,
- Calendar,
- Games
- and much more ...

now, I've also seen mention of other manufacturers in the newsgroups but I just searched for firmware and chdk and I couldn't find it. Casio, Fuji and I even remember someone mentioning Kodak cameras for this.

Now, chdk is mostly for the Canon line of P&S but whatever camera you have you can benefit from these updates.
The features that I listed above can make your little camera do a lot of the things that a DSLR can do. One article I found mentions creating a super fast shutter speed of 1/10000 of a second. Yeah, thats 1/ 10,000 of a second to repeat myself. LOL

Hunt for your camera and see if there is some kind of update. Either way, for firmware or ckdk as long as your careful and follow directions your will be OK. Mess up the firmware update you just tried to install, and you might just have to send your camera back to the manufacturer for a repair job.

Now go here for a better explanation:
http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/20...w-capabil.html

FAQ's: http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ#Q._Wh...DK_firmware.3F

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Now you must follow directions completely. Make sure your batteries are fully charged before you start and have a very good time...

[lexcell]

HI Mark,

Thanks for the warm welcome. You are right about how fast this forum has taken off. I am also really impressed with the breadth and depth of knowledge of so many of you out there and really do appreciate your input as well.

I travel alot and don't always get a chance to jump on regularly so, it's great that everyone is willing and able to jump in with their advice as well.

There has been some great links posted as well as some very insightful advice. There's nothing like hearing what someone thinks of a product after they have had a chance to use it and either recommend it or sugest alternatives.

Great advice on updating firmware too. It is a great way of keeping those cameras working as they should and staying up to date. As Mark suggests though...follow the instructions carefully. It's easy to do but, you do want to do it accurately to avoid and camera problems.

[Not4wood]

Laurie,

I feel that the experience level and overall vast base of knowledge might be from walking around with a camera by our side from when we were very young and using the older based simple range finders or fully manual camera's.

I think that might turn out to be a good survey.

When did you start out in photography?

How, why and at what age?

I think this might turn out to be a seperate thread for clarity... LOL

[Chuck S.]

I've always downloaded and installed firmware updates from the manufacturer, but I've shied away from the chdk hacks. Not sure how serious the threats of warranty voiding are, but it's a consideration. I might experiment with an older camera that's already out of warranty and not my primary camera, but....I'm just conservative, I suppose.

[lexcell]

A great resource for checking for software/firmware updates is:
www.robgalbraith.com
In teh lower right corner of his home page is a listing of most software and camera companies websites where you can go to find what the latest updates are.

I would only download directly from the manufacturers sites.
You don't want to risk damage to your cameras by downloading from a third party site.