The first thing I did after charging the SD1000s battery, which actually charges pretty quickly (maybe an hour or two), was install CHDK. The instructions are available at the CHK Wiki. Also a lot of info is on the CHDK Forum. I’ll give a quick summary of what I did below. This is from a Mac’s perspective (using a lot of Parallels actually!)
Checking Firmware version
- Format the SD card in the camera.
- Put the SD card in a card reader and hook it up to your Mac.
- In TextWrangler or TextEdit, create a blank file called “ver.req” and save it onto the root of the SD card. Then reinsert the SD card back into the camera.
- Put the SD1000 in play mode and turn it on. Pressed the function set button + disp button, kind of like a ctrl+c, holding down the function set button while pressing the disp button. This will tell you what firmware version you’re using. Mine iss GM 1.02A.
Installing CHDK
- The firmware version let’s you know what CHDK build you can use. Luckily mine was available here: http://malbe.nm.ru/chdk/.
- Getting CHDK on the SD from a Mac seemed a little finicky, so I just used parallels to do it. Unzip the firmware on Parallels desktop then drop the two files, ps.fir and diskboot.bin, onto the SD card’s root.
- Reinsert the card into the camera, put the camera in play mode, and turn the camera on.
- Pressed the Menu button. Under the play tab, scroll to the bottom where the Firmware Update option is. Update the firmware, which will install the CHDK.
This update does not change the actual firmware. It just install itself into temporary memory. Once you turn it off and back on the hack is gone. But there is a way to have the hack auto boot.
Autobooting
- After following the Installing CHDK instructions above. Press the ALT button (called the print button with the led in the middle.) Then press the Menu button.
- Go to the Debug Parameters page and activate the Make Card Bootable.
- Turn off the camera and pull out the SD card.
- Move the lock switch on the SD to the lock mode.
- Reinsert the card. The SD1000 should now auto boot.
Locking the card doesn’t affect being able to record or delete pictures.
Some observations so far
- RAW is cool, but a pain for the Mac so far. I’ve been using DNG4PS-2 in parallels to convert the CRW files to Adobe DNG. The mac version doesn’t really work well in Leopard. It kept crashing on me. The converter is especially nice because it copies the exif data from the jpeg.
- Overriding shutter speeds is cool when you want to do high speed syncing.
- You can customize a User Menu with your most often used items.
- The On Screen Display is cool but annoying. You get a lot of extra information, but it doesn’t disappear in the “no information just the picture” display mode. You can also customize where overlays are displayed on the screen. Overlays also hover on top of most everything, so you have to be careful where you place them.
- You now have a battery level display all the time. Without the hack, the battery warning only pops up right before the battery dies.
- Live blended Histogram and Zebra (blinking blown highlights) displays are nice.
- Auto ISO customization doesn’t work.
- I can’t seem to get any Intervalometer scripts to work.
- The Motion Detector scripts work, but need some finessing to work reliably.
- Manual focus override works.
- There is a “hotkey” (ALT button, then the up button, then down button) that will set the camera’s focus to the hyperfocal distance and also display the range of acceptable focus (nearest distance within focus to infinity).
- There is no flash exposure compensation.
This is definitely a tinkerer’s delight. I spent way too much time trying to customize it than taking pictures with it.
On Thursday, Fry’s had a sale on the all silver Canon SD1000, so I guess I had to pick one up. It is so cool with it’s block like shape. It’s smaller than I expected. I also picked up a Lowepro Napoli 5 leather case. It fits perfectly. It was a little snug at first, but loosened up after after a few insertions. Now it feels like it was made for the camera. The only issue is the the hole for the strap is a bit off center (a little closer to the back of the case.)
Observations list:
- Battery/SD card door is flimsy like other reviews have said. I did read one review that noted that previous Canon cameras had used harder plastic, but were prone to breaking. The flimsy door of the SD1000 is more flexible so is less likely to crack.
- There is only one aperture: f2.8. F8.0 is with ND. The variable f-stops that you might see are due to the zooming lens losing light.
- The only manual controls are white balance, exposure compensation, and ISO.
- It uses Mini USB for connectivity! I hate when things use Micro USB. It will not charge the battery through the Mini USB though.
- There is no Play button like my old Fuji. There is a play slider switch that feels like will wear out.
- You can only upload your images to your computer in Play mode.
- There is no option for “Card Reader” mode for transferring.
- Battery dies rather quickly. Though it might because I spent a lot of time tinkering with it and CHDK (see below for more info on that) with the screen on. I ordered a couple more batteries and a charger off ebay for $13. I haven’t received them yet.
- The LCD has a plastic coated protective cover. I’m a little nervous about bare lcd screens.
A few more things I’ve noticed:
- Time Machine over Airport Extreme with a MacBook Core Duo (only wireless g) is very slow. I unloaded a bunch of pictures a few days ago. It’s been trying to backup the files since, but keeps failing because of the amount of time it needs. I guess that’s the nature of notebook computer sometimes. Look up something really quick, then close it. Write something quick, then close it. Mind you I gave the MB a couple hours last night to backup about 12gb. That wasn’t enough time. I’ll have to hook it up directly again.
- I really like using Airport Utility versus the browser based configuration. On the Netgear, I’d only configure the router when hooked up directly through the ethernet. It’s apparently the only secure way. I noticed that I can us Airport Utility over wireless on my MB. Should I be worried about security?
- You can allow the Airport to notify you when it has a firmware update. With Netgear, I’d have to visit the netgear website whenever it occurred to me that there might be an update.
MacUpdate is offering a bundle of all these apps for $64.95. One little catch, that shouldn’t be a big deal is this. The last three apps are locked until target numbers of bundles are sold. Once a target is reached, a locked app will be available to you. The last two bundles sold reached the final target number. This offer expires April 29th.
- Hazel - Cleans and organizes your files
- Art Text - Creates pretty text
- MenuCalendarClock - A menu item on the top of your screen with lots of info
- Leap - Like spotlight but a lot more
- StoryMill - For writing stories
- Typinator - fills in your commonly typed words or pictures for you
- DVDRemaster Pro - Compress large dvds to fit into standard size ones. Compress for iphone, ipod, etc.
- Sound Studio - Edit sound files
- BannerZest - create flash slideshows
- Parallels Desktop - run windows on your intel mac.
Last night I picked up an Airport Extreme! I’m pretty excited. Set up was relatively easy. Below are some random observations so far because I love unordered lists.
- No more web based configuring like with my old Netgear, instead you use Airport Utility.
- In Airport Utility, “SSID” is listed as “Network Name.” And is it just me or does it seem confusing that there is something called “MAC Address” and it has nothing to do with Macs?
- Airport Utility shows who is connected and how much bandwidth they’re using in a neat little line graph.
- The Extreme’s access list setup also lets you choose what times devices can connect to the router.
- If you have an iPhone or any pre-N device like my Core-Duo MacBook, you can’t use the 5ghz frequency. You’re stuck with 2.4ghz like everyone else.
- Airport Disk is cool though I swear it was called “Airdisk”. I can’t wait to figure out how to access it from anywhere on the internet. Also, I don’t think you can change the name of the disk while connected to the Extreme.
- Time Machine through the Airport Disk seems to be working. I used the gigabit ethernet for my initial MacBook backup. I’ll let you know about the wireless-G backup experience after I work on some large files.
- I have an Ethernet card in my Epson 7600. My old version of EpsonNet 1.9a couldn’t find the printer through the Extreme, 2.2a could! I thought Epson was going to leave me behind again, but they didn’t.
- I have not used the built in print server.
So far it seems like a pretty solid router at a good price considering what you get: gigabit ethernet, wireless print server, NAS, Time Capsule-like Time Machine, wireless-N, and Apple support.
I have a point and shoot that I love, the Fujifilm F11. It’s a great camera, especially under lowlight. I bought it off ebay a few years ago from a Japanese seller. The F11 wasn’t being sold in the US, just the F10. Anyways. I think I need a replacement. Even though I hate Canon because of the problems I’ve had with their dSLR service department, I’d still consider getting one of their P&S’s.
One day I was perusing the internet, and I found this site for CHDK. Basically it’s site dedicated to a firmware hack but not a hack that allows certain Canon cameras to do a lot more cool stuff. I say hack but not hack because it doesn’t really change your firmware. It’s just a little app that is saved on your SD card that the camera just runs. Below is a list of some of the features:
- RAW capabilities. *.CRW must be converted to Adobe DNG.
- Live Histogram
- Zebra mode (flashing highlights)
- Shutter speeds of up to 1/64,000 for freezing things like bullets through apples
- Longer video recording limited only by card size
- Longer exposures
- depth of focus
- exposure bracketing
- motion activated shutter for shooting things like lightening bolts
- ability to run scripts
Most of the Canon cameras that can use this hack are a little bit older. Check the CHDK site to find if your Canon is compatible. The Canon camera I’ve been looking at is the SD1000. I like it because it looks a lot like the old APS Canon Elph, the one I never owned. I love the super square shape. And it can be bought for about $150. So much power in such a little package!
This would be great solution for a tinkerer. It will be be especially awesome when I force people I take pictures of to wait even longer while I’m trying to figure out the best setting to use via my new hack.
I just got back from Hawaii, and it has inspired me to want a new set of stuff.
- A waterproof camera like the Olympus 1030 SW. Well not just waterproof, it is shockproof, pressure proof, and freeze proof. It also has 28mm (35mm equivalent) lens.
- A portable computer like the eee pc 701 4g or 900, so I can move the images off the camera to a hard drive and upload to a blog or flickr.
- A camera/notebook backpack like the Crumpler Sinking Barge to put all my goodies into. I have a $5 Million Home Crumpler bag that is really solid.
