High speed photography!

(Canon S5 IS 1/16000 F7.2)

Upon the start of "hacking" my Canon I found that quite a few features were available to me that weren't before I began using the firmware.
I was quite excited when I discovered that it was possible to take pictures up to 1/64 thousandth of a second with my Canon cameras while using "CHDK" firmware.
On closer review the actual limits of the camera's own firmware, and the "improvements" that the "hacked" firmware allowed, were not all that different. All of the photos below were taken with the macro, camera flash, and manual settings on. (unless otherwise specified)
Full size pictures are here.

(Canon S5 IS 1/64000 f8.0)

Using the CHDK firmware, I took a few pictures of water flowing in our sink.
I was begining to wonder at what speed the camera was actually taking the picture.

(Canon S5 IS 1/64000 f8.0)

I took our 10k RPM grinder for a spin... (sorry)
I drew lines on the blade to make sure that I could see any motion blur.

(Grinder stopped)(Canon SD1000 1/60 auto setting)

At full speed My SD1000 couldn't keep up no matter how hard I tried.. and every shot I received about the same level of motion blur.

(Grinder in motion 10k rpm)(Canon SD1000 1/16000 f6.2)

Trying the same thing with our more expensive S5, I received much better results.. no motion blur was visible.

(Grinder in motion 10k rpm)(Canon S5 IS 1/64000 f8.0)

And just to be fair, I tried it with another camera without any fancy firmware.

(Grinder in motion 10k rpm)(Hp "el cheapo" full auto settings)

After wondering how much the firmware was effecting the actual picture, I decided to take a picture of our Dremel (30k rpm) with the cameras.
I only decided to post one of the pictures, because most were either too blury, or just the same.

(Dremel 30K rpm)(Canon S5 IS 1/60000+ f8.0)

To find out the speed of the shutter, I used a formula stolen from CHDK's wiki
"A smaller well-defined highlight at the very edge of the disc's abrasive, one with easily discernible starting and stopping points, was used to better measure the angle of rotation. This way the measurement wouldn't also be thrown off by the diameter of that highlight that moved during the exposure.

Dremel Drill: 30,000 rpm = 500 rotations per second = 1 revolution every 1/500th second.
Motion blur: 2.97 degrees, let's safely round that to 3 degrees = 1/120th of a revolution.
This means that 120 units of measure can fit into a 1/500th of a second rotation.
500 x 120 = 60,000
The highlight's motion blur occurred during an exposure of 1/60,000th of a SECOND! "

Though CHDK's firmware is nice, it didn't really help the shutter speed any.
I decided to go back through all my tests only using the camera's built in firmware, and I got the same results. The only difference that I could see is when I took manual control of the aperture with CHDK, in that the pictures came out darker. (less light, faster exposure but not by much)

So, what does this mean in the real world? It means that most digital cameras even cheap ones, while the macro is turned on, are coming close to 1/10000th of a second in their shutter speeds.

I am in no way saying that I know anything on this subject. 99% of this could be junk, but I found it fun to write anyway!

More Canon! Now with hacking!

Now that my camera is working, I figured that I better get all I can out of it, before it dies.
That being said, I started finding out how to hack my camera to get a little more out of it.
The really nice thing about this hack is that it's non destructive.
That means it doesn't touch the firmware on the camera.


I started looking for a total walk through, but I found this instead.
See Life hacker's canon hacking article

You don't have to use it, but I also found a good program that makes it easy to format and make the boot disk. The program which you can download here, is called "Card Tricks 134"

The main site for CHDK (the hacking firmware) can be found here:
"wiki dedicated to the CHDK firmware"

Firmware is here Canon firmware and if that one doesn't work try here Canon firmware

The how to videos are here:
Part one
Part two
Part three
Part four


Even though the camera isn't that high quality, the Raw mode really makes a difference.
The picture, though darker on the left is the Raw while the one on the right is the highest quality Jpeg.
Many more colors are noticeable in the one on the left than the one on the right

Canon Crash!

My sister, being the genius she is, Googled "canon sd1000 lens error" and clicked on the first thing that came up. I didn't think that anything would be helpful, but she came across this site "My biggest complaint" The comments led us to believe that smacking the thing around was the way to go.. I began to softly tap it on my desk.
The soft tapping became hard tapping, and soon turned into thunking. Soon I had thrown all caution to the wind and was slamming the the thing on the desk with all my might!
Every so often I would fiddle with the lens, and try to turn it on. Suddenly the camera sprang to life! Slamming the thing right on the lens worked. So, there's a life lesson in this.. When something fails to work for you, beat it till it does.

Blasted Canon

I just got my camera back from the canon "service" center, but I didn't ask for it to be returned. I had called the service center after receiving the bill for $120 and asked them why I was receiving a bill while my camera was under warranty and what the repair would entail. While on the phone I was notified that some small scratches were enough to void the warranty, and the dent that was in the front of the camera was more than enough to justify the charge. I decided to wait on the repair, and let them know that I'd hold on for a few days. I guess that "Hold on" means "Send it back"..

So, now I have a few options to try to fix it myself.

Options:

1. Smash with hammer
2. Bonk with a shoe
3. Drop from 1 foot
4. Drop from 2 feet
5. Make a canon cake
6. Drop from a latter
7. Whap on desk
8. Call Canon and yell at them
9. Call Canon and plead with them
10. Zing with a slingshot
11. Cook in campfire
12. Cry

I could take it to a repair place, but that costs money.
So, I think I could take a suggestion or two..

Dead Elf!

It was a cold rainy night the thunder was clashing like a million horrible drum and cymbal players. There I was, hunched in my "safe spot" in the house clutching the two things I care the most about in life, My camera and my gun. Suddenly out of the corner of my eye I saw what looked like a small elf, so I quickly got my camera ready. I turned it on, but the image was blurry and it wouldn't take a picture! I didn't know what to do, so I tried to turn it off. It didn't turn off! Horrors, I thought to myself, What should I do?!

Ok, Ok, ok.. fine.. that was all made up.. Anyone that lives in Colorado right now will know we don't get rain anymore. I was trying to turn the camera off and the lens stuck and it gave me a "Lens error, please reboot" well, rebooting doesn't do anything, so off it goes to the repair shop.
This might turn into a "I'm mad at Canon" rant, but for now it's just a random thought.
I'm sending in my camera for a lens repair, and we'll see if it's going to turn into a great ordeal!