Should I Get a Better Camera?

[Buadhai]

I managed to install CHDK onto an SD card and make it bootable. (It was harder than I thought it would be, but doable.) So, my A1000 now boots into CHDK and can shoot RAW. And, I now have more menu options than I know what to do with.

I can see I'll need a larger SD card. The A1000 can only boot from a 4GB or smaller FAT16 partition, so I'll need a bigger card with two partitions (one FAT16 and one FAT32).

I have no experience working with RAW files. I'll look around, but would appreciate some guidance.

My photo editor of choice is Graphic Converter on the Mac, but I also use GIMP.

Thanks again for all the pointers and advice.

For the time being I'll experiment with my "upgraded" A1000. I have a liveaboard to Koh Kra and Losin scheduled for the first week of October. I'll decide after that whether or not to get a new camera....

 

[Aqua-Andy]

I managed to install CHDK onto an SD card and make it bootable. (It was harder than I thought it would be, but doable.) So, my A1000 now boots into CHDK and can shoot RAW. And, I now have more menu options than I know what to do with.

Well that didn't take long. It took me the better part of a day to figure it out and get it all installed:depressed:. I'm using the Canon software as of now to process RAW files, Gilligan on this board has a great tutorial on white balance using DPP.RAW Processing in Canon DPP

 

[Buadhai]

Thanks again. I will get the Canon software. Looks easy. At least Gilligan makes it look easy.

---------- Post Merged at 04:35 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 10:17 AM ----------

I've had a chance to play with this a while. I wasn't able to install the Canon software because I can't locate my original Canon software CD and never did install their software. However, I'm using a Mac program, Raw Photo Processor, which is quite easy to use and can be set up to open the file in another editor after the RAW processing is done.

I'm quite impressed with what you can do with a bad RAW photo without introducing noise. Very slick.

The only drawback I see is that saving RAW significantly increases the camera cycle time. That could be a real problem when trying to shoot moving creatures while in a current.

Now I can't wait to get wet.

 

[Buadhai]

Unfortunately, it looks like CHDK is not a solution for me. It only supports booting off of a FAT16 partition, the maximum size of which is 4GB; not really large enough to shoot RAW on a multi-day dive trip.

Oh, we'll. Back to the drawing board.

 

[flareside]

4GB cards are cheap. Copying the boot files across multiple cards is no big deal.

 

[Buadhai]

4GB cards are cheap. Copying the boot files across multiple cards is no big deal.

Yep. Good thinking....

---------- Post Merged on September 16th, 2012 at 07:15 AM ---------- Previous Post was on September 15th, 2012 at 08:01 PM ----------

FWIW - I just spent a few hours working with one of the CHDK developers. I'm happy to report that the Canon A1000IS how has support for multiple partitions and autoboot into CHDK. So, I can now get full use out of an 8GB card.