Ok, this is popping up on more and more sites, so maybe it's a good idea to say this to all impatient people out there: this is a tech demo. It is not easy to use. It still requires postprocessing. There is no download. I don't need anyone to 'test' unless I specifically ask for it. It is done when it is done, I have a lot of other things which are more important so it could be a while.
Hi 😀
First of all,
watch this thing.
Now I'd like this thread to be a place to discuss possible features the 40D still needs. Also, some general ideas about actually developing something would be useful. I have the strong feeling that it will not be easily possible to include EOS support in CHDK, due to the huge mechanical/hardware differences and different addon needs. There is also a lot of stuff in common for all powershots which might not be applicable to DSLRs at all. I can already see the CHDK source littered with #ifdef EOS lines. The general idea I have now is to create a separate, new program, somewhat based on CHDK but not really the same thing, built again from the ground up, possibly borrowing some useful parts from CHDK (menu system? scripting).
Anyway, some of the things on my to-do-someday list:
[*]Movie mode
- - Live view stops after a period of inactivity or without movement. I'm not entirely sure how they are doing it but if you keep the camera in motion, it won't stop. Maybe some (LV-related?) powersave functions can save the day.
- Compression/buffering. The data stream will likely be big and need to be compressed somehow. Buffering might also be an issue, since the camera won't write much faster than 8MB/s to CF, regardless of the card.
- AF. Only option is to lower the mirror again and focus. This might not really be an issue, though. Because there is no sound, users won't hear the mirror slam down and up again, and the sound won't be out-of-sync if we decide to skip the blank frames. Sooo... we can skip the blank frames, resulting in 'instant' AF. This won't really work with moving subjects as they'll change instantly. It seems that the firmware does have some strings, in the middle of code (!), to suggest LV contrast AF. My bet is that they couldn't get it finished or that they couldn't get the movie mode finished and decided to 'scrap' it all together. The code seems to be there and possibly complete but I don't know how to use it yet.
[*]AF Microadjustment
- - Some language strings seem to be present but this may be common to all EOS cameras. I hope I can get the necessary code from the 1D3 but I don't know how to decrypt the main payload of .fir files yet.
- Own implementation might be possible by just adjusting focus after focus lock.
[*]Mode dial 'lock'
- Someone told me the mode dial annoyed him and he was happy his 1D3 has buttons instead, so it won't accidentally go into another mode when putting it into or removing it from the camera bag. Valid issue, although I haven't encountered something like that myself yet. I have two possible solutions:
Save the wheel state into NVRAM somehow so that after powering down and powering up the camera, the wheel state is still known to the software. Then either of these (possibly user-selectable):
- Override the wheel state to the previous setting if it changed while the camera was turned off. Display a warning on the LCD. Override by turning the mode dial to something else (and back again, probably).
- Just display a warning on the LCD and don't override the mode dial.
[*]Integration into the Canon menu system
- Shouldn't really be hard, just requires some more RE. Would be awesome if it worked 😀
[*]Override basic modes to act as C4, C5, ..., C9
[*]Find a use for the DP button
- Make it programmable if it's not required for something like ALT mode (see 'Integration into the Canon menu system').
I'd be happy to elaborate on the movie mode thing a bit after some responses.
Edit: oh yeah, it would also be interesting to know who else has a 40D and is planning/willing to help. Feedback from non-owners is also appreciated (GrAnd, ewavr, ...?) regarding the chdk-vs-new-project thing.
