Has anyone tried CHDK to unlock RAW on their p/s Canon?

[mahashel]

I recently bought a Canon SD870 IS as a snappy little camera to take on my frequent hikes in the mountains.
It takes pretty nice shots for a little point & shoot.
However, my interest has been piqued recently by a website that claims a way to unlock RAW capture capability (amongst other "pro" features) on Digic II & III Canon cameras.
It's called CHDK.
Has anyone tried this? Seems like a fairly tedious process, but worth it if it works.
Thoughts?

 

[147798]

I did it on my SD800. It works. The trick is finding the hack from the site that works with your camera.

CHDK creates a file that is not readable by many applications, so you have to find an app that converts the crw into something you can use. I'm on my work PC right now (blech) so I don't have the app name in front of me that I tried using.

The CHDK menus are pretty interesting, and you should be able to do other things like control the Ap and shutter speed. One nice thing about CHDK is, it doesn't overwrite the existing firm ware in your camera, so even if you load a bad version, it doesn't damage your camera -- you can unload it by taking out the SD card if you have it set to auto-load, or just not load the CHDK if you have it on manual load (you have both options). It's was pretty neat to see what my SD800 could produce.

However, I just went out and bought a Canon G9, so my needs for RAW and manual control were solved, and I'll probably just use my 800 for quick point and shoot. But I will leave CHDK on the SD card, just in case I want to use it.

I don't know that there is a hack for the 870 yet. You can search here http://chdk.setepontos.com/ for your camera.

 

[mahashel]

Cool. Thanks for the link to the dev forum. Looks like I may have to wait a while before the 870 port is ready.
Good to hear that it worked though. I hope to get some code to slap on there soon.

 

[zeiter]

I have a A570IS and I dont know which to download..im kinda lost...any help?

 

[mahashel]

I have a A570IS and I dont know which to download..im kinda lost...any help?

The only CHDK builds I could find were for the A570; not the A570IS specifically. (granted, I didn't look super-hard)
You need to know what the firmware rev is for your camera, then download the appropriate CHDK build that matches your camera/firmware combo.

If you have a good feeling about trying one of the stock A570 builds, check out Fingalo's site or just search for your camera near the bottom of the download page of the CHDK wiki.
You then copy the build to the root of your SD card, insert SD card, and power up the camera.
This is just my newbie best-guess though, seems like what I'd consider an "intensive research" sort of project to get it running smoothly.
How hard was it to get your SD800 running, bking1000?

 

[147798]

The only CHDK builds I could find were for the A570; not the A570IS specifically. (granted, I didn't look super-hard)
You need to know what the firmware rev is for your camera, then download the appropriate CHDK build that matches your camera/firmware combo.

If you have a good feeling about trying one of the stock A570 builds, check out Fingalo's site or just search for your camera near the bottom of the download page of the CHDK wiki.
You then copy the build to the root of your SD card, insert SD card, and power up the camera.
This is just my newbie best-guess though, seems like what I'd consider an "intensive research" sort of project to get it running smoothly.
How hard was it to get your SD800 running, bking1000?

My firmware was a match. I downloaded the files, and put them on my SD card (using a card reader on a WINDOWS machine -- it didn't work well using my Mac. There are some work-arounds, but since I have a PC for work, I just did it there). Then I loaded the SD card into the camera, and you set the camera on PLAY, then turn it on, then press menu, and find "firmware upload" and you're in. Follow the directions, and you will be fine. Whole thing was maybe 15-20 minutes, including learning curve. Once it's on your SD card, all you have to do, is turn the camera on while in playback mode, and load the drivers from the menu. There's also a way to have it auto-load, but since this is mostly my wife's camera, and she isn't into technology, I don't have it auto-load.

 

[telf22]

im in the same boat as u op, i have the same camera would really like the historgram and raw capability, hopefully it comes out soon.

 

[janey]

However, my interest has been piqued recently by a website that claims a way to unlock RAW capture capability (amongst other "pro" features)...

I installed chdk on my sd870is a couple weeks ago, but just now realized there was a raw shooting mode eek. It works fine. Just follow the directions on their wiki, especially the part about hexedit (it sounds a lot more intimidating than it really is).

for what it's worth, i came across this post with google because i haven't had much luck finding anything that'll convert the raw files into something aperture or anything else could use, argh. (any recommendations?)