[gendarmee]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

gendarmee,

Which camera do you have?
I know that canons that i have owned in the past offer almost all of the above.
1) can be achieved with manual focus button ("MF") in any user-mode other than "auto"

2) you can even lock the focus AND lock the exposure/use full manual mode for the least lag

3) i think 15" is the max. (This limit is probably governed by the buffer size in the camera)

4) Exists. You press a button in video mode and you get a slider to adjust exposure.

5) Exists, but not super flexible in terms of what intervals you can set - for example, 1min is the minimum.

I think almost all the above also apply to other canons, for eg. the S1 i owned before the S3 and the A70 before that (except no intervalometer in this one).

cya
R

I have a G9. i do use exposure lock often, when in Av/Tv mode, normally use manual mode. G9 over exposes the pics at times, so one-two step below the meter reading turns out to be fine.

I'm looking for the firmware upgrade specific to those things for the G9.
The thing is, one can manually set the focus too infinity but then as soon as the shutter button/AFL is depressed, the focus shifts between 50cm-5m then the pic is snapped...
Imagine snapping an action scene eg an outdoor sport. If I could use choose infinity focus (like i can choose between face detect/9 point/vari point focus option) I can take more snaps and also not worry about the focus.

What i do right now is to set it too continuous pics mode in Manual mode. Point it too the sky and focus manually to infinity, hit AFL, point too what I need to snap hold the shutter button down. So, I need to sort of prefocus, pretty tedious makes me loose pics... but the Sony P150 makes this very straightforward with the infinity focus.

There is no exposure compensation in video mode for the G9.

Longer shutter speed because, A 15 sec at ISO 400 at F 2.8 is displayed as a grossly underexposed night scene(night snap of a lit dam), on the cam's meter. The Sony does it in 22 secs at F 2.8 ISO 100, i suppose one can decrease the shutter speed upto 65 secs with chdk, that would be of great help.

[deetee]

Originally Posted by gendarmee

What i do right now is to set it too continuous pics mode in Manual mode. Point it too the sky and focus manually to infinity, hit AFL, point too what I need to snap hold the shutter button down.

exactly the kind of trouble am too facing . I can understand how frustrating it is esp when you want to take a quick shot.
Btw, I use A720IS.
I too wish there will be an option in next release of CHDK to lock the focus to infinity.
Btw, in my cam to use manual focus , the display(lcd) must be on.
I prefer to take shots with viewfinder. So, even after (sky) locking the manual focus, if i turned off the lcd, focus returns to auto mode.Don't know if it is the same way with all canons.

Also, what is the recommended speed for SD card to be used for raw shooting? The 8MP sensor produces about 10 MB of raw file. So, when i use continuous shooting mode it is taking quite some time to clear the buffer to card before shooting another raw.

[gendarmee]

Originally Posted by deetee

Btw, in my cam to use manual focus , the display(lcd) must be on.
I prefer to take shots with viewfinder. So, even after (sky) locking the manual focus, if i turned off the lcd, focus returns to auto mode.Don't know if it is the same way with all canons.

Also, what is the recommended speed for SD card to be used for raw shooting? The 8MP sensor produces about 10 MB of raw file. So, when i use continuous shooting mode it is taking quite some time to clear the buffer to card before shooting another raw.

yeah, manual focus can only be used with the LCD on, same thing in G9, A640 & g7, turn it off and it rolls back to auto focus.
An avg raw file is ~16 mb and using a class 6 toshiba card;LCD switched off; continuous mode, one RAW pic is recorded every 2 seconds, 1 ever 2.5 seconds with RAW+jpeg setting with LCD +preview switched on, but it goes on till the card is full, same in JPEG is 2 pics every second(with preview turned off)
No clue about the card speed, i use a 2 gb class 6 toshiba card, that was the best one available at the shop when i bought the cam, was advised not to go with the 4gb card as it made the processing slow, so got the 2 gb card.

[deetee]

Originally Posted by gendarmee

No clue about the card speed, i use a 2 gb class 6 toshiba card, that was the best one available at the shop when i bought the cam, was advised not to go with the 4gb card as it made the processing slow, so got the 2 gb card.

Hmm.. didn't know about the processing thingy but I thought 4GB can hold longer videos (but alas! never did i took that long ones). So, something like that made me to go with 4GB kingston SDHC, but am regretting now ,why?
Two reasons:
1.)Neither my laptop nor cardreader could read SDHC.Neither could i find a capable one in market.
2.) CHDK doen't sit on 4GB SDHC unless it is fat16.

Now, I badly need a 2GB high speed card.

Btw, gendarmee, is G9 capable of optical zooming in during video shoot? if not did CHDK enable optical zooming during video?
I didnot check it in 720, soon I will.Also, I wonder how i can remote shoot with CHDK via USB. I enabled the remote shooting check box in CHDK but to actualy shoot i think additional software is needed.

[gendarmee]

Originally Posted by deetee

Btw, gendarmee, is G9 capable of optical zooming in during video shoot? if not did CHDK enable optical zooming during video?

G9 can zoom during Vids.

Havnt ever used CHDK, I've tried several times though.
Today im really bugged so am posting here, could some body help out?

I downloaded the ZIP files for 1.00d,1.00g,1.00f*7
( *7 points to 1.00f with CHDK version for 1.00g- wonder what that means)

Then used cardtricks to dump the 1.00d on a San Disk 1GB memory card ( formatted it, made it bootable and checked over write as mentioned on the website)
But when put the card in the cam and turn it functions like normal, shutter speed stays at 15 secs. but when I check the firmware info it shows as mentioned here albeit my cam displays zoomlens error, while it supposed to display no error.
Is there something wrong with what Im doing?
Any help would be great.

[Rehaan]

So i FINALLY got the chance to install this on my camera (SD 870IS).

The install was much easier that i had originally read about and expected. Basically just involved copying some files to the SD card using a card reader (no need for a software to write to the card as i had originally seen mentioned somewhere.)

Also, the cool thing is that you can flip the "read-lock" switch on the SD card to enable or disable the CHDK firmware on the fly!

Now, the tricky part is that the menu is just terribly difficult to understand!!!

I want to do three things :
1) Change the shutter speed (i want a longer opening than the OEM option so have to use CHDK here - but no idea what all the functions mean and which ones affect the shutter speed (overrides etc!?!?))
2) Choose the aperture (can i do this in CHDK menu or should i use the OEM menu?)
3) Pick the ISO (can i do this in CHDK menu or should i use the OEM menu?)

I'm just so damn confused as to how to do this from the CHDK menu!! Any help would be welcome!

Thanks,
R

[gendarmee]

In my post, before this one, i mentioned that CHDK wasn't working on my camera. It was more because that version of CHDK wasn't compatible with the firmware version of my camera.

Originally Posted by Rehaan

terribly difficult to understand!!!

Sort off. just looks complex! I've have not tried much of it because it drains the cam's battery in no time at all (more because its an test version).

If the menu is the same this should work. All operations are though the CHDK menu. If the cam has a manual mode one can mix, as in, set a long shutter on CHDK and the aperture through the OEM menu.

Shortcut key>Menu>Extra Photo Operations> Disable Overrides> Off
(#1) Overrideshutter speed> 64"
Value Factor>1 (OFF will make it not work)
(#2) Override Aperture>16
(#3) Override ISO Value>25
Value factor>1 (one if you want ISO25 or 10 if you want ISO250)
Next have close the menu and CHDK (through the shortcut key). If not it displays the DOF when the shutter button is depressed.

It'll display the over-ridden settings on the top left of the screen.The EXIF reflects only the camera's max limits though.
Hope this helps.

[Rehaan]

Thanks a ton Gendarmee!

Atleast now i can use the ISO and Tv settings without guesswork!

Originally Posted by gendarmee

If the cam has a manual mode one can mix, as in, set a long shutter on CHDK and the aperture through the OEM menu.

Cool. I guess thats where the "overrides" come in!

Originally Posted by gendarmee

Shortcut key>Menu>Extra Photo Operations> Disable Overrides> Off

What is the difference between Disable Overrides> disable and off? (the 3rd options is on which is self-explanatory)

Originally Posted by gendarmee

(#2) [/b]Override Aperture>16
(#3) Override ISO Value>25
Value factor>1 (one if you want ISO25 or 10 if you want ISO250)

Roger that.
Though my cam (SD870IS) doesn't seem to have any options for "Override Aperture". Maybe it just doesn't have that control.

It has an "Av" icon with text "ND Filter State> (In/Out/Off)"

Anyway, i guess i will just play with the Ev or ISO to try and force the Aperture!

Originally Posted by gendarmee

Next have close the menu and CHDK (through the shortcut key). If not it displays the DOF when the shutter button is depressed.

Actually my version "runs a script" when the ALT + shutter button is pressed. Quite irritating as i mistakenly press the shutter btn when ALT is enabled quite often!

Originally Posted by gendarmee

The EXIF reflects only the camera's max limits though.

Good to know!

Thanks,
R

PS - Is there any way to KEEP the settings exactly as they were (ie not have all the overrides reset) when you turn off / on the camera?

[vivekiny2k]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

Actually my version "runs a script" when the ALT + shutter button is pressed. Quite irritating as i mistakenly press the shutter btn when ALT is enabled quite often!

that is, if you keep the run script option on. in fact there is another option that starts the script as soon as camera is started. unless you plan to script, it should always be off.

I tried going into the files and making permanent changes so i can have it ready every time i start the camera, but it kept failing on script. I must not have done it correctly.

[gendarmee]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

What is the difference between Disable Overrides> disable and off?

No clue! Tried before. Both Off and Disable to the job. Don't know the difference.

Originally Posted by Rehaan

Though my cam (SD870IS) doesn't seem to have any options for "Override Aperture". It has an "Av" icon with text "ND Filter State> (In/Out/Off)"

That's weird. Av and ND clubbed. What does the sub menu read like?
Maybe you could try another CHDK version. (IIRC, people come up of their own versions on the CHDK forum.)

Originally Posted by Rehaan

Actually my version "runs a script" when the ALT + shutter button is pressed. Quite irritating..

Thats exactly what I meant to say. It's an annoying thing.
I guess I set DOF shortcut in some sub menu long ago.

Originally Posted by Rehaan

PS - Is there any way to KEEP the settings exactly as they were when you turn off / on the camera?

Yeah. If one unchecks "clear override values on start" it does exactly that. Attaching a picture.(its a cell-phone picture. Please ignore the quality of detail.)

[phamilyman]

Finally got it working -thanks ET - I LOVE it!

Its terribly unintuitive. Like an awesome friend of mine said - Canon is a brand of cameras designed for photographers by engineers. This is software designed for geeky photographers by uber geeks

Its a pain getting used to, but I love the whole RAW option! Will take a while to learn but I like what I see so far

[Technocrat]

Just installed CHDK on my canon A540. I havea wuestion how to I shoot in RAW? WHen I select Raw & click on shutter, the screen says script started & it stops when I click it, but I dont see any file in the Review mode?

Where am I going wrong?

EDIT - Got it, restarted & its merrily shooting in both RAW & JPEGs. RAW is very new to me but it looks interesting

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by gendarmee

No clue! Tried before. Both Off and Disable to the job. Don't know the difference.

Heres the answer (look under the "disable overrides" heading) :
CHDK firmware usage/MoreBest - CHDK Wiki

Though i cant for the life of me get the damn override shortcut key to work - i guess maybe im not using the "morebest" build.

Also check out the "edge overlay" function! Its pretty cool! Just the other day i was thinking about something like this.

Originally Posted by gendarmee

That's weird. Av and ND clubbed. What does the sub menu read like?
Maybe you could try another CHDK version. (IIRC, people come up of their own versions on the CHDK forum.)

There is no sub-menu, only 3 options : "ND Filter State> (In/Out/Off)"

I was trying to get the "morebest" CHDK build, but to be honest, the download procedure from the site was so confusing i just took whatever was there (i didnt even see any options).

Originally Posted by gendarmee

Yeah. If one unchecks "clear override values on start" it does exactly that. Attaching a picture.

Thanks! I did actually figure this out later when i was using my cam.

Originally Posted by phamilyman

Its terribly unintuitive. Like an awesome friend of mine said - Canon is a brand of cameras designed for photographers by engineers.

I agree, CHDK is fairly confusing, however, i think canon has some of the BEST user interface for their cameras. (I think the new touchscreen SONYs score very high in this area too).

Originally Posted by Technocrat

..... the screen says script started & it stops when I click it, but I dont see any file in the Review mode?

Where am I going wrong?

Tech, this is what i was talking about earlier. Make sure the <ALT> isnt displayed on screen when you click the shutter button or else it runs a script (instead of taking a pic).

Actually my version "runs a script" when the ALT + shutter button is pressed. Quite irritating as i mistakenly press the shutter btn when ALT is enabled quite often!

Originally Posted by vivekiny2k

that is, if you keep the run script option on. in fact there is another option that starts the script as soon as camera is started. unless you plan to script, it should always be off.

v2k,

I couldnt for the life of me figure out how to prevent the script from running when the ALT is enabled, and instead just take a pic!! Wasnt in the menus anywhere!


Has anyone got or played with any cool scripts?


cya
R

[Technocrat]

Rehaan, This script problem didn't occur once I changed the Memory card to Read Only mode.

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by Technocrat

Rehaan, This script problem didn't occur once I changed the Memory card to Read Only mode.

Tech,

The read-lock on the SD card is a (lovely) way to quickly restore your camera back to original firmware, with no trace of CHDK.

ie, switching the read-lock of OFF is default canon, and moving it to locked is CHDK. Atleast thats the way its set up on my camera.

So i dont really see how what you said has prevented CHDK from running scripts when <ALT> is onscreen and the shutter button is pressed.

cya
R