In this video I’ll show you how to install CHDK
On your Canon camera
CHDK stands for Canon Hack Development Kit
This will allow you to unlock a plethora of hidden features
On your camera including scripts
For time lapse photography
And increasing the exposure time
Well beyond the factory default of 15 seconds
Of course there’s a lot more than that you can do
But those are the two things that I think are really cool
Don’t worry it’s not a permanent hack
You can quickly and easily revert back to the factory defaults
By turning the camera off and back on again
If you already know what CHDK is
Click here to skip ahead
Unlocking these extra features in your camera
Is possible through the Canon Hack Development Kit
Basically this is a group of really cool open source hackers
That share their code with everybody else
I discovered CHDK shortly after I bought my Canon PowerShot SX30is
That’s the camera I’ll be using in this demonstration
Before we begin here are some of the cool features you’ll be able to access
Shooting in RAW
Shutter aperture and ISO overrides
Using long shutter speeds up to 64 seconds
And sometimes much longer depending on your camera
Ultra fast shutter speeds like 1/10,000th of a second
And sometimes much faster
Customizable high speed continuous burst
Focus bracketing
Script execution including interferometer time lapse scripts
Motion detection triggering fast enough to capture lightening
USB cable remote shutter release
And that’s just the beginning there’s many more features
There are two methods for installing CHDK on your camera
Method one is the card lock booth method
This will load CHDK automatically from your memory card
Every time you turn on your camera
Or method two the firmware update method
Which I will be outlining in this tutorial
You’ll need a Canon camera an SD memory card
An SD card reader and a Mac or a PC
Step 1: Format your SD memory card
Make sure you take your pictures off first as they will be erased
Place the memory card in your camera
Turn on the camera
Hit the “Menu” Button
Scroll over to “Camera Settings”
Scroll down to “Format” hit enter, hit OK
Step 2: Determine what firmware version is installed on your camera
Create a blank text file named “VER.REQ” or “VERS.REQ”
You can do this on a PC using NotePad or on a Mac using TextEdit
Both of those programs should already be loaded on your computer
Take the memory card out of the camera
And put it into your computer or card reader
Ok so if you have a Mac find the program TextEdit
Open it up, go to preferences
Now this is important
You want to make sure encoding is set to Unicode (UTF-8)
If you don’t do that you’ll have problems making this work
Alright so now that we changed that
Go to Save As and lets name that file “VER.REQ”
And hit save
There we go the file popped up on the desktop
Right click and hit get info
And another very important part
You need to change that extension
From rich text format
Deleted that just make it “.REQ”
It’s going to ask you if you really want to do it
Say yes “.REQ” is crucial
And now you just got to drag and drop
Into the root directory of the SD memory card
And bingo there it is Unix Executable File
Alright all you PC users out there
Open up NotePad
Hit File, Save As
You’re going to name that file “VER.REQ”
And click All Files
Save As type All Files
Again change encoding to UTF-8
Hit save, there’s our files
And all you got to do is drag and drop into the root directory
Of your SD memory card and there we go
Safely eject the SD memory card
Put the SD memory card back into the camera
Turn on the camera and put it into play mode for viewing pictures
Hold the function set button
And tap the display button at the same time
Write down the number that appears next to firmware ver
This is your firmware version
It should look similar to this “1.00N”
Don’t worry about the letter before
Or the numbers in parenthesis afterwards
We’re not concerned with those
Turn off the camera take out the SD memory card
And place it back into the computer or SD card reader
Step:3
Download the CHDK zip files
That matches your cameras model number
And firmware version
You can find that on line by going to this web site
http://mighty-hoernsche.de
Scroll down until you see your cameras model number
Download the zip file associated with your firmware version
You’ll notice that you have a choice between small and complete
The small version has only the files you’ll need to run CHDK
The complete version has extra stuff
Like scripts, languages and extra files
Step 4: Un-zip the CHDK zip file
Mac users the default archive utility
That comes standard with your OS will not work
Head over to Stuffit.com and download the free
Stuffit Expander Application and install it
Once Stuffit Expander is installed right click
The CHDK zip file, click open with, select other
Select Stuffit Expander from the list, click open
PC users there is no need to download any extra application
Simply right click the CHDK zip file
Select extract all, click extract
When the folder has been un-zipped you should see 5 files and 1 folder
Step 5: Drag and drop all of these files and
Folders into the root directory of your SD memory card
You’ll need to verify that a file named “PS.FI2”
Is present in the root directory
If that file is not there I’m sorry to say you’re out of luck
That means CHDK has not yet been developed for your firmware version
Step 6: Safely eject your SD memory card from your computer
And place it in your camera
OK guys we’re getting to the fun part
Steps 7, 8, 9 and 10 will be your standard procedure
For turning on CHDK via the firmware update so here we go
Step 7: Turn on the camera by pressing the play button for viewing pictures
This is very important and CHDK will not work
If you turn on the camera using the standard On/Off button
You need to turn on the camera using the play mode button
Step 8: Hit the menu button
Scroll all the way down to firm update
Press function set, then OK
You will see a CHDK start up screen appear briefly
On your cameras display
That means you did it
Step 9: Tap the shutter button lightly to switch back into camera mode
You should notice some extra features on your camera’s display
Like the exact percentage of battery life
Step 10: Press the “Shortcut / Alt” button
To toggle between CHDK mode and regular mode
Once your in CHDK mode you will notice a blinking
In the lower left corner of your display
The menu button will now bring you to a different menu
With many more options
The “Function Set” button will also bring you to a new menu
That will allow you to load scripts and change the parameters of those scripts
To get back to your camera’s default settings
You can simply hit the “Shortcut / Alt” button
Or turn the camera off and back on again
Now you’ve got CHDK successfully installed
On your camera’s SD memory card
To load CHDK again in the future simply repeat steps 7 through 10
To initiate the firmware update method
Tune in next Friday for another video tutorial
About how to load and run a popular time lapse script
Called countdown intervalometer
(Music)
If you ever wanna load CHDK again
All you have to do is repeat steps 7 through 10
(Car skidding and screeching outside window on street)
Really?
People don’t know how to drive
Tune in next Friday for a video tutorial
Of how to load and run a popular time lapse script
Called countdown interval-o-meter
inter....
intervalometer?
Intervalometer
Intervalomteter
And a baloney sandwich