Yes, You Can Also Hack Your Camera!
It was obvious, I had thought of it many times, but never actually bothered to Google it until this morning (darn! got things to do!): you can hack your camera with reversible, non destructive, open source code that will give your toy additional features! Here's the CHDK (Canon Hacker Development Kit) project home page, where can find most of the resources. Basically, you can write new firmware and upload it to most Canon cameras (sorry Nikon fanboyz - there's some stuff out there, but nowhere near the variety and ease of use of the CHDK).
It's an old project (Wired reported it in July 2008) and not that useful if you have an advanced DSLR. However, if you have a 5D Mark II and do video as well, there's a dedicated project that deals with some software limitations that Canon build into an otherwise great product: it's called Magic Lantern. I also have (and love!) a trusty G9, to which you can add a bunch of cool features to an already great little (sort of) compact camera. The real difference however will be felt if you have a smaller point and shot, which you can have shooting in raw, say, or at really high speeds.
Here's a quick summary of some of the things you could do with your small and uber portable compact camera, things that were the privilege of more expensive cameras:
The free software Canon Hack Development Kit (CHDK) project, started by Andrey Gratchev, has successfully enhanced many Canon PowerShot cameras without replacing the stock firmware.[11] It allows vast programmatic control of many Canon compact cameras, enabling users to add features, including games and scripts written in UBASIC or Lua. Features include shooting in RAW, USB-cable remote shutter-release, motion-detection triggered photography, customizable high-speed continuous (burst) Tv, Av, ISO, and Focus bracketing (increasing depth of field), 1 Gig video-size limit removed in earlier cameras, Shutter, Aperture, and ISO overrides (shutter speeds of 64" to 1/10,000" and higher).[12]
Happy, happy, happy to have found out about this. Now some self-whipping to go back to work*.
* resisting a very strong urge to get my G9 and play with it.
