Hacking Canon Point-and-Shoot Cameras 242
Pig Hogger writes "If you're stuck with a cheap Canon point-and-shoot camera and have feature envy over the neighbor's sophisticated latest model, fret not! According to this LifeHacker article, the CHDK project allows nearly complete programmatic control of cheap Canon point-and-shoot cameras, enabling users to add features, up to and including games and BASIC scripting."
The most important question (Score:4, Insightful)
Take RAW Photos (Score:1, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:How long before... (Score:2, Insightful)
Or, they decided to reduce their manufacturing costs by only using the amount of memory & processor power needed to run their firmware.
Saving a buck per router adds up when you're making thousands (millions?) of them.
Re:Take RAW Photos (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Only Point and Shoots? (Score:3, Insightful)
For instance, the ability to delete photos by range (e.g., this photo and all previous ones). Useful when you download the photos to the computer, forget to delete them from the camera, and discovers that after taking one more photo: shit! Now you have to delete all the other 400 photos one by one.
Re:Pointless (Score:4, Insightful)
You don't understand what RAW is for, do you?
RAW allows post-capture editing of exposure, white balance and possibly other parameters. Sensor size matters not - the 4MP Canon 1Ds generated RAW mode files from an APS-C-sized sensor...would you have pooh-poohed that capability?
Re:How long before... (Score:5, Insightful)
If your product still runs adequately with :
- less RAM (cheaper!)
- a slower processor (cheaper!)
Then you go ahead and make the change to:
- increase profit margins
- keep up with your competitors so they don't price you out of the market.
Pretty clear-cut business case. In their case, they went out of their way to provide the original model again, pretty much just for hackers. They could've just dropped the old version, y'know.
Re:How long before... (Score:3, Insightful)
For every hacker they retained by keeping the GL, they pissed off two others (like me) who resented being asked to pay $20 more than we had been for the same hardware (or the same price for inferior hardware). Prices on technology are supposed to go down, not up, as the product gets older!
Because of that bullshit, I'm specifically avoiding Linksys for my future router purchases.
Re:Pointless (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Pointless (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Fire the cannons, Canon? (Score:3, Insightful)
iPhones, iPods, etc. If Apple can break a hacked device they'll do it.
Re:Fire the cannons, Canon? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Fire the cannons, Canon? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Pointless (Score:3, Insightful)
I have had CHDK installed on my A620 for a while now, mainly so that I can use it to do exposure bracketing so that I can take HDR photos automatically (using Photomatix Pro to piece them together).
But -- while hanging out at Tahoe with some buddies of mine -- we started talking about Nethack. Without saying another word, I clicked on my camera, turned on CHDK Sokoban, and handed it to a friend of mine, who was duly impressed.
That's what hardware hacking is all about, kids - impressing your nerdy friends.
Re:How long before... (Score:3, Insightful)
Without being privy to Linksys's internal discussions on this, again I would suggest that economies of scale come into it.
Eg.
- You, the manufacturer, introduce another model with equivalent performance that supersedes the old model.
- You recognise that there's a market for the old type , thus you want to keep the old model about for the hackers.
- You figure that you'll only sell 1/10th of previous volume you were selling, considering that the usual plebs that buy your routers don't give a damn about modding them.
- You need to make a profit on whatever you sell (you don't care about hackers *that* much).
- Your manufacturing plant in China says that it will cost x percent more per unit to do a smaller production run of the old model, what with warehousing, having to stock different parts,etc.
- You add x percent to cover the costs of this.
- You add y percent simply because you know you're now selling a specialty product and hackers will pay a premium for them.
This last percentage takes quite a bit of economic theory and experience to work out. I don't begrudge Linksys this premium. You do, and fair enough - everyone is different. It's the fine line between number of sales / total profit that they walk, and every manufacturer walks it.
Re:How long before... (Score:1, Insightful)