Chdk

• Shooting in Raw is the main function for which CHDK was originally developed. Since recording takes place in a specific format that is not specific to Canon, conversion to DNG format is necessary for subsequent processing. For conversion, there are programs DNG4PS (short for DNG for PowerShot) and DNG4PS-2 ^[1] . DNG4PS-2 is the successor to DNG4PS, uses its source code and some files. In addition, it is possible to immediately record pictures in DNG format , but without lossless compression included in the DNG specification.
• Battery Chart Display - Displays the current battery charge in percent or volts. For a more accurate display of the charge in percent, it is possible to configure this function by indicating the voltage of a fully charged battery and in a discharged state.
• Focal length display - displays the focal length in mm .
• DOF calculator - allows you to determine the depth of the sharply depicted space.
• Zoom Position Display - Displays the current digital and analog zoom. Analog changes discretely, digital - smoothly. Full zoom is a product of these two quantities.
• Live histogram - allows you to see the histogram of the future picture in the process of focusing the camera. It is possible to output a brightness channel (L) or three color channels (RGB), or all four channels together.
• Zebra - during the autofocus of the camera, the areas that appear in the picture overexposed and underexposed are marked with a certain color on the LCD screen.
• Scripts - Lua and uBasic languages ​​are used, which has a simple syntax. Using scripts allows you to simplify operations such as burst shooting, panorama creation, bracketing , etc.
• Changing the compression ratio when shooting video - at the moment, Canon's digital cameras use the Motion JPG codec . The use of other codecs that allow the use of large compression without loss of quality is currently not possible due to the limited performance of the DIGIC II and DIGIC III processors, however, CHDK allows you to change the bitrate . When this option is activated, the bitrate decreases several times.
• Program for reading books on the camera screen - allows you to display the contents of txt files on a digital screen.
• File manager - allows you to work with flash memory as a disk, view its contents, delete files, etc.
• The calendar.
• Games - 7 games are currently implemented (in the order in which they go to CHDK): snake , sudoku , tetris , decoder , reverse , four in a row and sokoban .
• Flashlight - this function works only for digital cameras with a rotary screen. When the screen is rotated 180 °, it is filled with white color of maximum brightness, which allows you to use it as a flashlight in the dark.
• Shortened shutter speeds (up to 1/10000 s), remote release - functions available only through scripts.

Ways to get firmware

CHDK for work requires the addresses of various firmware locations (frame buffer, keyboard polling routines, etc.). To find them, you need a firmware dump . To remove the dumps, the following methods were used ^[2] :

• A modified flashing program, which instead of installing a new firmware, wrote down the existing one on the memory card. Unfortunately, initializing a memory card is a difficult operation, so the dumper could not be written for all cameras;
• "Flashing" firmware using the autofocus backlight LED. Access to this LED is easier, and thus managed to crack, for example, S5is .

The list is far from complete, and is constantly updated (see the full list on the sites of CHDK).

• Dryos

• Site dedicated to CHDK (Russian)
• CHDK English Wiki Resource
• Main English Forum