CHDK/FAQ

=FAQ=

Q. What does the HDK firmware do?
A. After loading of HDK firmware you can get the following functionality:
 * Shooting in RAW
 * Live histogram (RGB, blended, luminance and for each RGB channel)
 * Zebra mode (blinking highlights and shadows)
 * DOF-calculator
 * Battery indicator
 * Scripts execution (exposure/focus/... bracketing, intervalometer and more)
 * File browser
 * Text reader
 * Calendar
 * Some fun tools and games :)

Q. What camera models are supported by the HDK firmware?
A. Currentely, HDK firmware is available for Canon digital cameras of the following models: In theory it can be modified to support any cameras based on DIGIC II platform.
 * A610, Fw: 1.00D, 1.00E, 1.00F
 * A620, Fw: 1.00F
 * A630, Fw: 1.00C
 * A640, Fw: 1.00B
 * A710, Fw: 1.00A
 * S3 IS, Fw: 1.00A

DIGIC III (G7, A570IS) is not supported. It might be possible, but reverse engineering takes a lot of time, and nobody seems to be working on it right now.

Q. How can I get the original firmware version number of my camera?
A. To get version number you need to create a file ver.req in the root of your SD, then switch on the camera in playback mode and press [set]+[display] buttons together. You will see string like Firmware Ver GM1.00E. The 1.00E means the firmware version. Q. How can I get the original firmware version number of my camera? ver.req is just an empty dummy file. One way to create this file is to switch to dos-mode and type "copy con ver.req". Than press "Ctrl+z" and the file is created. Copy it to your SD.

Q. Where can I download the HDK firmware?
A. The latest binaries of HDK firmware from GrAnd are available here.

Q. What is the procedure of loading the HDK firmware into my camera?
A. You have to copy the files PS.fir and Diskboot.bin into the root folder of your SD-card. Then switch on your camera in play mode. Press the [menu] button and select the new feature Firm Update. Select OK. After that the HDK firmware will be loaded into camera memeory and started. If the HDK firmware is loaded successfully the camera will reboot, blink by blue led and show on the LCD screen splash screen with HDK firmware version. If camera hang or switched off during updating process (this means that this HDK firmware is not compatible with your camera) and does not respond on power button, relax. Just open up the battery compartment and remove the batteries to turn the camera off. Stick them back in and everything should be fine.

Q. Do I need a special card reader, or is it sufficient to connect the cam to the PC?
A. Digicanon has an uploader for the A610 on his page which you can use to upload the firmware files to the A610 without a card reader. (If somebody knows an uploader for any of the other cams, please let us know)

How to use it:
 * Put your firmware files PS.FIR and DISKBOOT.BIN into the same folder as the uploader
 * Make sure your SD-card is not write-protected
 * There is a textfile named "FirmInfo.txt". It contains this text: "[Firmware File Name]". Just change the name below it into the filename you want to upload. Then save the text file and start the UploadFirmware.exe. You have to do this two times: 1x for PS.FIR and 1x for DISKBOOT.BIN.

I personally find it more convenient to use a cheap USB card reader. It has no sensor for the write protection switch on the card, and this is great. Otherwise, you would have to switch the card to "unlocked" everytime you want to put something on the card, or delete something with your PC.

Q. When I switch off my camera and then switch it on again, the HDK firmware does not work. What's wrong?
A. When you update your camera by HDK firmware it doesn't touch the original firmware. Because it is just a some kind of resident program and it remains in camera memory until camera is shutdown. So, if something goes wrong and camera does not respond you never get your camera toasted, because after switching off/on your camera will back with original firmware. Recently, HDK firmware got the ability to autoload (see the next answer).

Q. How can I make the HDK firmware load automatically at startup?
A. You have to do the following actions: From now, HDK firmware will be loaded every time upon camera is switched on. (see notes below) Camera can report that SD-card is locked. Do not care about this message, camera is still able to store pictures on flash card.
 * Copy into root folder of your SD-card PS.fir and DISKBOOT.bin files
 * Load HDK firmware using legacy method (switch on cam in play mode, choose menu>firm update>OK).
 * Select Make card bootable... in Debug parameters menu
 * Switch off the camera and take out SD-card
 * Lock your SD-card (This is mandatory!)
 * Insert SD-card back into the camera

Note Unfortunatelly, autoload does not work with FAT32-formatted SD-cards. This means: cards up to and including 2 GB will work, cards larger than 2 GB won't.

Autoload sometimes also does not work if the camera is switched on directly in record mode.

Q. I don't need the autoload feature temporarily/anymore. How can I disable it?
A. The simplest way is just to don't lock your SD-card. Deletion of file DISKBOOT.bin from your flash card will lead to the same result.

Q. What are the key settings and shortcuts?
A. Here is a list of important key settings and shortcuts. Have a look at the firmware usage guide for detailed explanations about them. Note that you can press and hold down certain keys to simulate pressing this key multiple times, just like your PC keyboard.

camera-specific key settings:
 * Enter  mode:
 * - [direct print] button for A-series cams
 * - [shortcut] button for S3IS*


 * Toggle RAW on/off:
 * -  + [+/-] button for A-series
 * -  + [func] button for S3IS*

(*)Please note: There is some problem with the shortcut button of the S3 right now, which will also activate the original shortcut functionality. Please read this for a workaround.

universal keys and shortcuts:
 * Start a script: +[shoot]
 * Enter the main configuration menu: +[menu]
 * Toggle Zebra mode on/off: [half shoot]+[left]
 * Toggle Histogram on/off: [half shoot]+[up]
 * Toggle OSD on/off: [half shoot]+[right]
 * Scroll-By-page in File Browser and File Reader modes: [zoom-in] / [zoom-out]


 * (main configuration menu) Go back one menu level: [display]
 * (OSD layout editor) Change the amount of pixels the OSD elements are moved: [display]

Q. How do I use scripts?
A. HDK allows you to automate your camera by running "scripts", small and simple programs written in a short-hand version of BASIC. You can find some pre-made scripts like bracketing, intervalometer etc. here or write your own script by using the scripting language. To use a script, you have to do this: When your script does not work properly, try to increase the "script shoot delay" parameter, which is a small time-delay after a shot is taken, before the next line of the script is executed. Some scripts also may require certain camera settings. For example the generic bracketing script: go to menu>review and switch it to "off". Use P, Tv, Av or M mode and activate the camera function where you want to have bracketing. For example: Activate the focus slider when you want to have focus bracketing. Activate the exposure compensation slider in P mode when you want to have exposure bracketing, and so on.
 * Put the script you want to use into the "scripts"-folder on your SD card
 * Load the script (main menu>scripting parameters>load script from file) and adjust script parameters as needed
 * To run the script, press the shutter button while in mode. You can also stop it by pressing the shutter button again.

Q. I've shot some RAW pictures. How do I process them?
A. When you have a RAW file from your cam, you can
 * convert it to the standardized DNG digital negative format using the DNGForPowerShot converter. The DNG files then can be processed with nearly every RAW converter on the market, including Adobe Lightroom and Apple Aperture.
 * process the RAW files directly with appropriate converters. Right now, this applies to converters which are based on David Coffin's DCRaw. Here are two free examples:
 * UFRaw
 * Raw Therapee

[Note that the above mentioned steps may not work for all cameras yet. Especially the A640 CHDK firmware was just recently added, so the RAW converters may not support it yet. If you know that it works or have further information, please delete this paragraph]

Q. Why won't my camera save my "Last Used" and "Custom" (non-CHDK) settings?
A. Your camera won't allow you to save these settings if you are using a locked (write-protected) SD card. If you are using the Auto-Loading feature of CHDK it requires that you leave the SD card write-protected. To resolve this issue:


 * Remove SD Card
 * Slide write-protect tab to unlock card to make it normally write-enabled (CHDK will not auto-load in this condition).
 * Power-up the camera with unlocked/write-enabled SD card.
 * Make your needed changes to Custom and default power-up settings.
 * Remove the SD card and slide write-protect tab to lock the card again.
 * The camera now boots up with CHDK enabled and your default camera settings intact.
 * Perhaps some future version might have a fix, but for now this is a minor work-around compared to all the remarkable new features that you have available. If you find this annoying you can always leave your SD card unlocked and then just manually enable CHDK when powering up (as described above). If you are into a shooting session and don't want to power-down to manually enable CHDK on the next boot-up, you can move your Record/View control to the View position two times (pause slightly to make this work). The lens will retract and the camera will go into View-Only mode. From here you may manually enable CHDK from the [Menu] with the "Firm Update..." option which is now visible at the bottom of your main menu. (This booting into the CHDK-firmware option while already powered-up was found to work on the Powershot S3 IS, it may or may not work for other models.)