DPChallenge: A Digital Photography Contest You are not logged in. (log in or register
 

DPChallenge Forums >> Hardware and Software >> Canon P&S hack gives you RAW and other features.
Pages:  
Showing posts 1 - 19 of 19, (reverse)
AuthorThread
09/11/2007 09:50:17 AM · #1
From this article:

"If you have a point-and-click digital camera made by Canon, you may be able to turn on all sorts of features usually reserved for more expensive SLRs. That includes live histograms, depth-of-field calculation, under and overexposure highlighting, and -- best of all -- shooting your pictures in RAW. The secret is CHDK, an enhanced, free software replacement firmware."

Has anyone been brave enough to try this yet?
09/11/2007 10:55:38 AM · #2
It doesn't update your firmware, it takes over the camera when you load it. So if it doesn't work, remove the sd card, and start over (assuming you have it set to autoload).

So give it a try!

I'd do it in an instant if my camera (S1 IS) were supported, but it doesn't appear to be. But it's good to know if I end up with another Canon point and shoot. (But with a lot of good non-Canon superzoom PS's coming out within the next month including wide angle, 18x zoom and RAW, I may not buy another Canon!

09/11/2007 12:56:57 PM · #3
Sadly, my S2 IS drowned last month, but I still have the A620, so I may try it.
09/11/2007 01:10:43 PM · #4
That article looks amazing - I wonder if I am brave enough to try it on my wifes S3 while she is out . . ok maybe not : (

I really would be interested to hear from anyone who does try it though, it sounds almost too good to be true.

I say 'almost' because it's not uncommon to have extra features simply 'switched off' so that a piece of elcetronics fits a different consumer price brand.
09/11/2007 01:42:28 PM · #5
I'll try it on my S2. Not sure if I'll get to it tonight, but I'll report back what happens.
09/11/2007 02:17:41 PM · #6
That's pretty awesome. I don't have a P&S to try it on, but it's still cool that people are able to do that.
09/16/2007 01:31:49 PM · #7


Has anyone out there done this yet ?
09/16/2007 02:11:16 PM · #8
I tried it on my S3, the hack seemed to work just fine, but I couldnt open the RAW files afterwards, not even after using the DNG convertor that was supposed to work with the S3 RAWs. Oh well...
10/28/2007 01:03:38 PM · #9
I have an S2 IS and this program is fantastic!

I use Stepok's raw importer to enhance the raw file and convert it to a tiff. Then I open it in Photoshop and do my major editing....it makes a difference!

www.stepok.net/eng/raw_importer.htm

12/31/2007 01:46:25 AM · #10
i will give this a try too
01/01/2008 02:25:03 AM · #11
Working just fine on my S2 IS with 2GB SD card. I am using the Fingalo build for now. I might try another build that has ultra-high shutter speeds. That's always fun to play with.

I've got a 4GB SD as well, and I will include the necessary files on that card, but I will stick with 2GB cards for most uses since it seems that it cannot be autoloaded with 4GB cards and it's a bit annoying...

I've noticed one oddity that when switching back and forth between play and record mode, it calculates the auto white balance for the running display. I got some very heavy blue casts on my display screen. It did not seem to affect the images at all though.

Pretty cool being able to shoot RAW. The number of features available is rather mindboggling.

I'm considering using the camera to build some movies next year, so that's pretty exciting.
03/13/2008 02:27:26 AM · #12
I'm going to be trying this on my A720IS so now I've got to search out guides and tips/tricks to working with RAW.

03/13/2008 08:56:35 AM · #13
I saw this in Popular Science, I believe. Haven't convinced my dad to try it on his S2.
03/13/2008 09:06:45 AM · #14
works on the SD500 and SD700, but not my SD600

awesome

:/
03/13/2008 11:14:05 PM · #15
Originally posted by darkyoda:

I'm going to be trying this on my A720IS so now I've got to search out guides and tips/tricks to working with RAW.


Please let me know if you are able to do this, I just got my g-friend the same camera and can't seem to get it to work.
05/08/2008 07:05:23 PM · #16
Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but since this was linked to today, and it interests me:

I once hacked my Kodak DX6440 firmware to increase the JPEG quality by reducing the constants in the JPEG quantization table in the firmware. It turns out JPEG quantization tables are fairly standard and an easy thing to detect in the binary firmware files.

It did result in larger JPEG files coming out of the camera, but the increase in overall image quality was basically imperceptible - apparently JPEG compression is among the least of a cheap P/S camera's image quality worries.

I imagine that getting RAW files from a P/S would have similar results: larger files and an unmistakable cool factor, but probably not a noticeable leap in image quality.
05/08/2008 07:22:58 PM · #17
Originally posted by smurfguy:

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but since this was linked to today, and it interests me:

I once hacked my Kodak DX6440 firmware to increase the JPEG quality by reducing the constants in the JPEG quantization table in the firmware. It turns out JPEG quantization tables are fairly standard and an easy thing to detect in the binary firmware files.

It did result in larger JPEG files coming out of the camera, but the increase in overall image quality was basically imperceptible - apparently JPEG compression is among the least of a cheap P/S camera's image quality worries.

I imagine that getting RAW files from a P/S would have similar results: larger files and an unmistakable cool factor, but probably not a noticeable leap in image quality.


Interesting. So does this Canon hack unlock hidden features, or just alter the available ones? I'm confused.
05/08/2008 08:27:29 PM · #18
My brother uses this, says it works flawlessly. It mainly unlocks features disabled by Canon to be enabled on more expensive cameras. Kinda dirty of them but eh, that's what hackers are for I guess. It doesn't work with every Canon, may void your warranty, and in rare cases may damage your focus drive. However for the most part it seems to be safe to use.

The best thing about it is unlike a lot of hacks for different products, it is temporary and starts disabled when the camera is turned on, so if it isn't compatible with the camera or something just turning it off and back on brings the camera back to normal.
05/08/2008 10:07:38 PM · #19
I downloaded one of these for my S3, and I seem to be able to get it to load, but I can't figure out how to turn on the RAW capture feature, which is really the only thing I want to try right now ... anybody have some specific instructions or suggestions?
Pages:  
Current Server Time: 04/18/2024 05:42:47 PM

Please log in or register to post to the forums.


Home - Challenges - Community - League - Photos - Cameras - Lenses - Learn - Prints! - Help - Terms of Use - Privacy - Top ^
DPChallenge, and website content and design, Copyright © 2001-2024 Challenging Technologies, LLC.
All digital photo copyrights belong to the photographers and may not be used without permission.
Current Server Time: 04/18/2024 05:42:47 PM EDT.