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.