Using the Canon Hack Development Kit

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31 points·mhb··8 comments

I couldn't imagine using my old Canon point and shoot (PowerShot A530) without CHDK. If you load it onto an SD Card with a "bootable" partition flag and enable the write-protect tab before you insert it into the camera, CHDK automatically boots up when you power it on (and it still writes to the card just fine)

Great timing: I was just wondering how to program a PowerShot to take intermittent shots while mounted on the dashboard of the car (to make a short film of a long road trip).

I wanted to do the same thing, but with the camera mounted over a heavily-trafficked underpass.

I never got around to it due to a shortage of time, plus I wasn't sure how long the battery would last, and rigging up a box with a big battery, wires, and a camera in a public place seems like a fun way to spend an evening or seventeen being interrogated by three-letter agencies.

I turned a free (gifted from a friend) Powershot into an intervalometer - dead simple and works great.

Previous discussion on this article: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1955717

Canon's really come a long way with their software, I remember having to battle a lot of driver issues with their scanners under early versions of OS X.

Their camera platform is a lot more engaging to experimenters, too bad I hooked up with Nikon so early; I can't stand Canon's SLR controls.

> Canon's really come a long way with their software

The CHDK wasn't created by Canon. It's a community effort released under the GPL.

Consider my comment redacted!

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