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!

As requested.

Michael and his camera.



Here Michael prepares for a perfect picture for his website "Heritage Photography"