Camera software

[johnridley]

This hack software for the Canon Powershots is going to be a LOT of fun. I tried playing with it with a "motion detection" script running this evening, and results are promising. I screwed up in that A)I had the ISO set to 800, so the results are unacceptably grainy, and B) it was set in RAW mode (normally not supported by this camera, but capability added via the software and I must have bumped the setting while crusing menus). So the results weren't that great, but still, it's nice to just point the camera at a feeding area, turn it on, and go inside while the camera shoots whenever something gets in front of it. And that's just one script that someone wrote for this addon. You can pretty much do anything you can think of. Heck, they put some games in while they were at it.

I'll try again later with better settings and more light; this was taken in the evening.

Comments

[erikvolson.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'll need to get me a Canon P&S that can run this.

[kevinnickerson.livejournal.com]

I just gave mine to my mom, but I have external electronics to do some of it. If I finish the thermopile project, I could do motion detection.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Be sure to check the compatibility list. Apparently Canon is catching on, and they have encrypted the firmware on at least one newer camera. Also, Canon just switch from VxWorks to their own OS on their newer cameras (to get the price down I'm sure) and they have CHDK working on a few DryOS cameras but not all.

Here's a developer page that lists the current status of firmwares for various cameras.
http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/For_Developers

My camera is an A710, L's is an A700, they're both supported. The current version is an A720, which is $200 and supported.

But if you're looking just for something to play with, the A460 is $98 at newegg with a free 2GB card (though $9 shipping). It'd be nice if the A590 was supported yet, it's a nicer camera in the $150 range. But right now it looks like $200. I quite like my 710. I checked ebay but all I see right now is nutjobs selling them for above MSRP.

[jennlk]

Birdies!!!! <twitch, twitch.>






Are there any sightlines from the deck rail to the feeder, or do they all have branches in the way?

[isherempress.livejournal.com]

John, that is extremely cool. Thanks for sharing. What are the specs/tools/costs involved? Is this something an amateur like me could do? I am intrigued. ~Amy

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

There's a simple how-to here:
http://lifehacker.com/387380/turn-your-point+and+shoot-into-a-super+camera
If you have a compatible camera, it does take a little bit of technical fiddling but it's really just a matter of copying the right file to your camera's memory card.
The motion detection is sort of a weird project; it's done with scripts that users write, and there are several posted up on the hacking site. I tried two that didn't work until I found the one that did. Here's a link to the script that worked for me:
http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/UBASIC/Scripts:_Universal_motion_detection

The nice thing about this system is that there's no risk to your camera. It's not rewriting the firmware, it's just a piece of software that stays in the memory card and patches itself into the camera's operating system when you run it; you turn the camera off and back on and it's back to normal. There's a way you can easily make it load every time you start the camera but even then, just flip the write protect switch on the memory card back off and it doesn't load anymore.

[c0nsumer.livejournal.com]

Forgive me for not researching this on my own, but what software does one use to process raw images from non-supported cameras? dcraw?

(If so, I've personally had very poor results from dcraw in the past... Maybe with some nice curves applied in PS it'd be okay...)

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

In the past I've used RawShooter Essentials, but it didn't seem to want to read these files. I get the feeling that it's written too specifically to camera models, and it hasn't been updated since 2005.
I just googled and found a hunk of freeware called Stepok's RAW Importer, and that worked.
Honestly, RAW mode isn't really terribly useful for the tiny little imagers they have in these cameras. I wouldn't bother.

By the way, I found out later that it still records the JPEG, the addon just also makes a copy of the CRW in a different folder, before the camera's normal processing makes it into a JPEG, so you get both.