Digital Home Thoughts: Turn Your Canon Point-and-Shoot Into a Super-Camera

"If you're using a consumer grade point-and-shoot Canon digital camera, you've got hardware in hand that can support advanced features way beyond what shipped in the box. With the help of a free, open source project called CHDK, you can get features like RAW shooting mode, live RGB histograms, motion-detection, time-lapse, and even games on your existing camera. Let's transform your point-and-shoot into a super camera just by adding a little special sauce to its firmware."



Ever since I bought a Canon PowerShot SD870 IS, I've been a little disappointed that Canon didn't offer "advanced" features such as the ability to manually set the aperture and shutter speed (you'd think a $300 camera would have these features). But it looks like my disappointment can finally come to an end now that I've discovered CHDK! CHDK (which stands for Canon Hacker's Development Kit) adds manual aperture and shutter speed settings, plus about a thousand (not really) other features. Plus for those of you worried about messing up your factory ROM, don't worry about it, CHDK doesn't overwrite your current firmware. It loads onto a memory card and you choose when to activate it. So what are you waiting for? Unlock the full potential of your Canon P&S! Let us know how it works out for you.