Magnify the POWER of Your PowerShot!

Many people possess a Canon Powershot camera. For the most part, these are simply known as "Point and Shoot", as opposed to DSLR cameras which have more "features" -- bracketing, live histogram, etc. 

All this can change when you,  the humble owner of a humble Canon PowerShot camera, install CHDK, aka Canon Hackers Development Kit. It is simply a temporary, non-destructive (and non-permanent) "upgrade" of your camera's firmware. It will enhance your camera with new features. Here, from the website, are a list of what the program can do for your humble, Powershot camera.

After loading of CHDK program you will get the following functionality: 

Shutter-priority (Tv) exposure - via shutter value override feature 

Aperture-priority (Av) exposure - via aperture value override feature 

Shooting in RAW, with RAW Average, RAW Sum, and RAW Develop features 

Live histogram (RGB, blended, luminance and for each RGB channel) 

Zebra mode (a live view of over and under-exposed areas of your picture) 

Depth-of-field (DOF)-calculator, Hyperfocal-calculator with instant Hyperfocal and

Infinity focus-set, and more 

Battery indicator 

RAW and Video space-remaining gauges with custom low-limit alerts 

USB cable remote shutter release 

Motion-detection trigger - automatically fires camera on motion detection. (Fast enough to capture lightning strikes.) 

Customizable high-speed continuous (burst) Shutter-based (Tv), aperture-based (Av) and ISO-based exposure bracketing (unlimited shots) 

Focus bracketing (unlimited shots) 

99 constant bit-rate and 10 constant-quality video compression levels 

Elimination of 1 Gig video-size limit 

Zoom during video function (for cameras without this feature) 

Shutter, Aperture, and ISO Overrides 

Ultra-long shutter speeds - up to 64 seconds 

Ultra-fast shutter speeds - up to 1/10,000" and higher 

High-speed Flash Sync at all speeds up to 1/64,000 second (even faster in some cameras) 

Custom user-editable visible Grids for framing, cropping, and alignment 

File browser 

Text reader 

Calendar 

Some fun tools and games :) 

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) 

Scripts execution - including exposure bracketing, focus bracketing, intervalometer and more) 

And other features too numerous to mention here. See the CHDK Firmware and Allbest Firmware usage pages for a more complete overview. 

These features work on all camera models supported by CHDK. The camera does not need to have "related" or "inherent" features already present - CHDK will add the required functionality. New features are accessed through CHDK-specific menus, rather than the default camera menus. 

As CHDK is continually evolving, new features are often added. Thus, some of the listed features depend on you using a version of CHDK that has those features. Check out the Downloads page for information on finding the right build for your needs.

All this has made me very motivated to try the program out on my existing PowerShot 550! How propituous to make this find. This could be the true definition of "recycling" and "being content with what you have".

Here are some further reading for the curious:

• CHDK FAQ, located on the official website
  
• Lifehacker website, 6 May 2008 - Camera Hacks: Turn Your Point-And-Shoot Into A Super Camera
• Lifehacker website, 27 May 2008 - How to Make the Most of Your CHDK Camera
• S5 Users website forum, for users of the S5IS
• Gadget Lab, 11 Sept 2007 (1 year ago!) - Add Features To Low End Canon Cameras: Free