Hack your Cannon
 

Your camera, pervert, your Cannon camera.
LINK

Damn.
I've been catching up on all the posts made while I was sleeping.
This was at the top of the list.
Glancing at it, I thought it was "Hack Your Canyon" and have been looking forward to it.

I'm sure the reality of it is much more exciting for those who have a Canon of course!

Sweet. I have one of these.

I've got one!! Now I need to go get batteries! Can I use this thread to take some photos with my enhanced features when I get them?!?
:D
How exciting! (if you remember I've been complaining about my choice of camera since I got it) This puts a whole new spin on things.

Mine (Canon PowerShot SD950 IS Digital ELPH) does not seem to be supported. I wonder what would happen if I used the file for a different model?

Probably something bad. But...

:( oh it isn't happening yet, but it's being worked on! At least there is hope HLJ!

Not sure what you found on it, but this is what I found:
http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php/topic,1336.0.html

I don't know what a firmware dump is, but that is available....

Hey, thanks Sis, I mean Cic

This Is getting all complicated and conviluded, not sure if it is worth all the effort if I have to do it again after I "power off". If I figure it out I'll give you an update.

Oh shit. Now what am I gonna do with 300 lbs of potatoes?

For your potato canon?

Confirmed.

I have downloaded the appropriate file and moved it to the SD card. The setup/installation routine in the camera is simple and reversible. I have experimented with only a couple of the enhanced features. I can say with authority that the Reversi game plays at a high level.

The other scripts, hard to say. I haven't yet figured out how to use the exposure bracketing script. It will *take* a series of pictures, but I haven't been able to find the combinations of settings that vary the exposure across the series. I did find a nice HDR assembler (free!). Now I need a .tif viewer. Downloading BravaViewer now.

Sadly, I had to retire the PC as it wasn't seen as pc. But xoB raised my hopes with his misleading thread title, the taunting vixen.

I have a Canon (one N)A 10 IS and I hope I can get it going. May have to wait until next week though.

BigV! show us the images!

Ok. Question. I am trying to setup the exposure bracketing. I have a choice to select the number of "csteps", and my current setting is 3. Also, the step size (1/3EV) is currently set to 3. I press the shutter release and the camera starts processing the script, produces 7 exposures, then says "script finished". I switch to display mode and review the shots and they're all identical. They all look exactly the same, and the max info display that shows exposure, fstop, ISO, white balance, etc., all the values are the same. Only the exposure number changes. And the moving part of what I shot changes, the live tv screen. I *know* I'm getting seven shots. But there's no change from one to the next. Nothing really to show, yet.

Right. Forgot the question. The big question is how do I make it work, of course. But I would also like to know what is a cstep?

I wonder if you need to be in manual mode to bracket? auto or program mode may want to override bracketing in favor of "proper" exposure, or may bracket by changing f stop and shutter speeds proportionally, giving you the same net exposure.

I still ahven't downloaded the software yet...

Oops, sorry... I have Nikon and Olympus. :o

Dang, Mine isn't listed either. That really looked neat. I do get great pictures from mine already. Will have to get some recent city shots I took this weekend. Got a few interesting ones.

I thought that was just a slight stutter.

Oh, OK. I thought you were suggesting that I hack my canon. Or perhaps my canon.

(I guess I'm all about the puns this morning.)

At last I have made progress!

This is working now.

I solved the problem (user error or poor defaults, take your pick) by debugging the program. There are two main variables that are user-settable, the number of steps and the step size. I chose the smallest step size and a large number of steps. My thinking was that I wanted the finest granularity for the blending process. This was overkill and my choices for the settings just overwhelmed the camera.

Additionally, I moved a third variable, the delay between shots in tenths of a second, to the minimum value: 1. Another good idea for what makes up a good HDR image, minimum changes in the scene, but the kiss of death for this setup. The reason is the scripting happening in the camera is all quick and dirty, the commands are words for button pushes. That's how I finally debugged my problems. And by choosing 0.1 seconds to wait between exposures, I didn't give the camera time to finish capturing the image, writing it to the card, and getting ready for the next exposure. It would wait the 0.1 second, then "press" the next "button" to change the exposure, but the "press" would be invalid since the screen hadn't returned to the state where "right" meant "move the exposure indicator one unit to the right". This was a very valuable epiphany.

Once I understood this, I saw another place where this was failing. By selecting Manual mode, I doomed the script to failure. Manually, I can change the exposure by altering the shutter speed or the aperture. But the script, as written, only chooses the exposure compensation button, the "delete" button (and let me tell you, that was a bit of a surprise to see "delete" as a button name and not a command. Nevertheless.) and then presses "right" or "left". The results are not as predictable in Manual mode.

So, I tried it in Av (aperture priority mode) and Tv (shutter speed priority mode) and in P (program mode). In these modes, the "delete" (exposure compensation) button does move the cursor to the exposure compensation place on the screen where "right" and "left" decrease and increase the exposure (respectively). Now we're getting somewhere!

The thing is, I haven't used these modes very much. As a consequence, I don't have much experience in getting a good starting point for the potential HDR sequence.

I have spent almost all my time in Manual mode, where I freely change the shutter speed, the aperture and the ISO level to achieve the desired result. And I depend on the live view from the display to show me what to expect.

First problem. The display in Av or Tv or P mode doesn't seem to reflect what the shot will look like. It just shows ... nice. Good for framing. Zero help for exposure. I have experienced this in Manual mode too. But only when I have the flash set to On or Auto. Then, the display presumes that the exposure will be filled in adequately by the settings I'v chosen for the flash. This is *sometimes* correct, but most of the time it is wrong, sometimes spectacularly so. I have even used the stupidity of the camera in this area to show me the framing of something so dark and distant that my flash will never illuminate it, but is can be seen on the display. ha ha tricked the camera. Oh well.

So, back to Av, Tv and P. What I think I'll be doing next is to take a test shot, "blind", as it were, and then switch to display mode where I will see the picture, as captured, not as compensated for or blown out or muddy dark, and then review the settings (of one baseline only!), take another picture, review, adjust repeat until adjust==zero. Now I'll have the initial setting for the HDR sequence.

Does it have a histogram display mode? That can help with the exposure sometimes.

Yes.

Indeed, the chdk has a super-mondo version, which I haven't explored yet. It's called Zebra mode, where the overexposed parts strobe in the display. I think it's in the live view, I know the standard Canon interface offers that same capability in the verbose display mode.

After using this chdk for a few days, I dumped it. I really saw how canon did a great job with their user friendly software.

I was able to shoot in raw, but could only download the images if I took the card from the camera, not through the usb.

and I could only see the raw images in picasa. photoshop wanted nothing to do with them and neither did canon's editing software. So not much good having a raw file...

I am much less patient/skilled than big V when it comes to this compfuter stuff.

Now if he were my neighbor I'd be getting a tutorial...

If you read the doc here, you will fgind that you can lock your card and make it bootable (limited safely to 2GB or less cards).

From here. This is confusing, The build file names do not appear to match the model. You can try to find your version number (instructions) to see if it matches.

Raw files can be used in The Gimp using a plugin. And it is free. ;)

Everyone stop, case has been in the graphics again......lol! I can't wait to see what comes of her study! I accept free art case if you ever want to send it. Oh and when you need money pretty bad let me know so I can buy stuff. That's how I get all the great art. I, like other opportunists wait for financial discomfort because I can be a bit of a scumbag. But well, if you are low on groceries let me know. lol!
:D
(I get the best art because people are low on green sometimes)
Terrible!!!!

Nah, I don't really do graphics...srsly. I just use gimp for formatting and adjusting photos of my art. I once had a friend come over and get raw images of my art, so I figured out the Gimp solution so I could work with them.

Cicero, your taking advantage of starving artists is naughty! I will let you know when I am destitute. ;)

Time for an update.

When I first contributed to xoB's thread, I was using a Canon A710IS. This camera is still in use by TWILL (The Woman I Love), though she doesn't use CHDK. My main camera for the past few years has been a Canon G10. It's a much more capable camera than the A710, and a CHDK firmware file from CHDK for it has recently been made available.

I have downloaded the file, unzipped it, and copied it to each of my two main sd cards (8gb class 10). Today I used it for the first time and I still love it. I was prompted to look at the chdk site again recently after posting some tilt-shift time-lapse movies for Clodfobble. The movies are easy to make if you have a long series of individual shots. To get those kind of shots, you need the ability to setup the camera and have it fire away at a regular interval. Turns out, chdk has a built in script that works like an intervalometer. Here's a movie I made using a one second delay producing some 200+ pictures, Picasa's movie making ability and youtube uploading. Pretty cool, and *super* easy. Next step will be to find a way to make the tilt-shift movies. Unfortunately, these images are not suitable for tilt-shiftification.