I feel a little silly calling this hacking.
Somebody did some really amazing work on the tool I used, but lets be honest all I did was copy a file.
This is really just a step in the path to a fancy camera, but after the photography club I remembered an old Lifehacker post about some software that you could run on some Cannon cameras to do some more advanced things.
What kinds of things?
Well for one, club members were extolling the virtues of “shooting in RAW” instead of JPG. The second reason is getting access to an on-screen histogram.
Why would I want these things? Well, honestly I don’t know first hand, but from what I have read, RAW saves a lot of extra data beyond what is visible. This means you can bring out dark or light parts of a picture in photo shop later. Basically it lets your pictures behave more like film in a developing room. The histogram does most of what having a light meeter would do apparently. (The next step is to read a lot more about how to use the tool, now that I know it works)
The CHDK Wiki (probably more helpful)
I started off following the Lifehacker guide, and was having some problems because the buttons they were telling me to push weren’t working. Then I realized that instructions for the exact model of camera I was using were written up in the section for the Cannon SD800. Using those instructions, I was rather quickly able to get my camera setup with this little program.
I should explain the most amazing part, these changes are 100% in software, and only act in volatile memory, meaning I can always stick in a clean memory card, turn the camera on, and have it be just like it was before I started this process. In the mean time, I now have access to about 500 menu options, about four of which I understand right now.
Learning is fun though right? 🙂
-Jordan
Nelsons 