Thursday, April 9, 2009

Hacking My Camera - Using the CHDK



We take alot of pictures each year. A whole lotta them. I bought some new cameras a year or so ago - and I have to say I LOVE the Canon SD1000. It does great, and the best part of it is that someone hacked its firmware - yeah! There is a modified firmware for this (and other Canon) cameras called "CHDK" - here's the Wiki: http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page


Its easy to use, and when you turn off the camera, its gone, so there is no physical modification to your camera. Tons of new features and access to the hardware. And... the ability to run custom scripts and programs! Alot of users have published scripts to detect lightning, motion detection, and even games.


I like the ability to take pictures at night - low light, etc. The first pic is one of the kids with lightsticks. This picture is one from fish-camp on the Columbia River - Rainier Oregon is the small town shown across the river.




Here's a picture of lightning - we were sleeping on the porch at Grandma's house and a HUGE lightning storm hit. Pretty unusual for the NorthWest. Kept me up all night - at least until the camera's battery ran down ;-) You can see the lightning bolt across the left...
...and then BAM! This lightning bolt hit CLOSE! It was awesome! Look how bright it is! This CHDK made it easy to capture low-light and trigger on the lightning strike.




This picture of the house during the Blizzard of December 2008 turned out pretty good.
I will NEVER buy another digital camera that isn't supported by the CHDK!
















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