Hack your Canon point and shoot!

[HamstersFromHell]

Make it do things Canon never intended to let you do...

http://lifehacker.com/387380/turn-your-point+and+shoot-into-a-super+camera

Canon cameras which can take the mods:
A450, A460, A530, A540, A550, A560, A570, A610, A620, A630, A640, A650 IS, A700, A710 IS, A720 IS
S2 IS, S3 IS, S5 IS, G7, SD450 (IXUS55), SD500 (IXUS700), SD630 (IXUS65), SD700 (IXUS800), SD750 (IXUS75),
SD800 (IXUS850), SD850 (IXUS950), SD870 (IXUS860), SD1000 (IXUS70), TX-1 (Note that some models will require software updates before loading the hacks.)

What does it enable?

Shooting in RAW
Live histogram
Battery indicator
Scripts execution (exposure/focus/bracketing, intervalometer and more)
USB-cable remote shutter-release
Motion-Detection triggered photography (fast enough to capture lightning strikes)
Customizable high-speed continuous (burst) Tv, Av, ISO, and Focus bracketing (unlimited shots)
1 Gig video-size limit removed in earlier cameras
Shutter, Aperture, and ISO Overrides (shutter speeds of 64" to 1/10,000" and higher)
High-speed Flash Sync at all speeds up to 1/64,000 second (even faster in some cameras)
Fully customizable CHDK display, info placement, user-colors, fonts in menus, etc.
Custom CHDK User-Menu (for instant recall of up to 10 favorite functions)

Sounds like fun to me! :)

[suninvited]

1. Anybody tried this?

I would love to hear how it worked.

[mth44sc]

2. I was thinking of trying it

on my wife's camera. I guess that's why she hid it :-)

[suninvited]

3. Dang.

You shouldn't have told her, but from what I read you actually put it on the card, not the camera, right? So, when you take out your memory card, it hasnt affected your camera at all.

I would LOVE to shoot RAW images, to see the difference. I have a fairly good camera, an S5, and would like to try it.

[HamstersFromHell]

4. Right...you "boot" the camera from the card's custom OS

so all you do to go back to normal is shut the camera off and remove the card. Replace with a card w/o the boot file and you're same as original.

I was impressed by the letter and reply from Canon saying in effect since it made no real change to the camera, it doesn't even void the warranty. (of course, YMMV)

I found out about it from the Strobist blog, it seems quite a few Canon point and shoot users there are using it and have nothing but praise for it.