A1000IS porting...

michaelkenward

whim

Anyone got a working link?

a link to what ? Canon only very rarely issues 'updates', and only they know if cams with
different firmwares are totally identical hardware-wise.

I was looking for a link to a firmware update, of course.

I am used to the EOS range. Canon has issued several updates for those.

I guess they have to pay more attention to "serious" photographers.

whim

I was looking for a link to a firmware update, of course

This wiki page has a link to Canon update site: FAQ - CHDK Wiki
As you will notice, the last official Canon update for P&S dates back to 2006 ...

What i was trying to say, i guess, is that (IMHO, of course) you're better off
concentrating on getting your firmware version ported; even if this is a lot
of work, it will still be a faster way to upgrade your cam than waiting for
Canon ...

Besides, it is unlikely (judging from ported cams) that that differences between
the (currently 2) reported A1000 firmwares actually qualify as 'upgrades',
more likely they are small differences to account for the use of different
sources of custom chips in the cam (according to comments i read from
devs)

hth,

wim

PS you prob already found your cam's wiki page, but if not A1000IS - CHDK Wiki

tyrantt23

Hey michaelkenward, sorry to hear about your different camera firmware. 🙁

I'm just posting back my results with the current build.

I got the battery meter, the optical temperature sensor, and the clock working on the camera's GUI, which are from CHDK. Everything else seems to be from the same as the default on the camera. I'm not sure I did anything wrong, or if its supposed to be that way - it's my first time using CHDK.

To load the firmware onto the camera, I followed the FAQ on how to format the SD card using CardTricks. Then I made the SD card bootable, and copied the most recent DISKBOOT.BIN that Diablo posted here. I locked the SD card, put it in the camera, and turned it on. CHDK seemed to be loading, and then the regular camera GUI appeared, with some extra info on the background (the temperature sensor, battery meter, clock time, and an orange horizontal bar on the bottom left corner that didn't seem to do anything).

When I put the card back in the computer, I noticed a folder called CHDK was created, with empty subdirectories. I went to the CHDK download page and downloaded the COMPLETE zip files (which include the CHDK folder) for a couple of different cameras (A1000.b wasn't listed). I compared the CHDK folders from the different downloads and they were the same, so I figured that the CHDK folder would be the same for every camera (correct me if I'm wrong) and copied that folder which I just downloaded to my SD card.

I put the card (with the complete CHDK folder now) back in the camera and turned it on. The GUI was still the same.

I understand that this camera port is still at a very early phase in development, but I just wanted to give a report of what I did, and what I got. If I'm going about it the wrong way, point me to some more links or downloads so that I can read up a bit more. 😀

If there's anything else I can do to help, let me know... I'm gonna start working crazy hours up until christmas (10 to 17 hour days), but when I have some free time, I'll be glad to help. 😀

Once again, thanks a lot for the time and effort to get this camera port to work. I really love this little camera, and CHDK would make it godly.

diablo

Hi,

Posting the latest status here. Also attaching latest binary.
* Get the cam started.
o start cam under chdk-control without any extensions
o create led-blinker-test-task
Progress: done
* GUI output.
o General output
o Histogramm
o Zebra mode
Progress: done
* hijack Keyboard handler (this includes USB-support)
Progress: not done
* hijack shoot-task.
o control darkframe subtraction.
o implement raw-save: Raw files seem to open with picassa.
Progress: Partially done
* hijack movie-task.
Progress: testing
* Include multipartition/boot from SDHC support.
Progress: not done.
* BASIC scripting.
Progress: done
* Lua scripting.
Progress: not done
* Overrides.
o AV
o TV
o ISO
o Subject Distance
o Bracketing in cont' mode
Progress: done
* Image enhancement.
o Bad Pixel removal
o custom curves
Progress: testing

Apart from above update, since I am a newbie to use CHDK, I have some basic questions. Senior folks, please help out.
1. RAW support:
I found that there is some differnce between number of bits per pixel to be stored for RAW file. I faced exact situation posted in ixus90/sd790 IS porting. So I decided to reduce the Rawbuf size to be copied. I calculated manually the size and used it in hook_raw_size.
Now the RAW files are smaller(~12M) size. The dng4ps2 recognizes the files(earlier it wasn't recognizing). I converted them to get RAW with exif data on it. Finally I tried to open them in almost all RAW processing s/w listed in CHDK FAQ page. But all of them showed a color jig-jag image. Picassa was able to display the image for 1 sec and turns to color jig-jag after one sec.
Then I tried to calculated color matrix by taking snap of color pallete found in a different thread. Still no success. Any help in this regard is appreaciated.
2. Hijack keyboard:
I have no idea what is to be done here. What is expected in this item. Does people use USB attached switch for taking snapshots? I hope I cannot get one of these at my place, unless I make it my self.
3. custom curves:
What are they? Any help or pointer to this is appreaciated.

michaelkenward,
Sorry to hear that you have 1.00a version. Since I have ported 1.00b, I can start porting 1.00a as well. I will let you know once I start it. As I don't have 1.00a camera, I will be working blind and you have to test and give feedback on the changes.

tyrantt23,
As you can see the status above, lot of things are working now. You need to press ALT key(print key) then DISP to get CHDK menu. Read more in CHDK usage page on basic keys and shortcuts for using CHDK.

-Diablo

DISKBOOT.BIN

245.01KB

clemsche

Just wanna give another short "bug"-report: I'm also new to CHDK but tried to get some scripts working, one was a intervall-script which worked fine. I've copied the A720 CHDK directory onto my SD card. Is there any difference between the CHDK directories or are they all the same?
The RAW files couldn't be recognized with ufraw (I'm using linux) but the A1000 showed them correctly. Maybe the new version Diablo posted works better.
The only things that bugs me is that parts of the OSD are remaining on the screen. Btw, I'm using a PAL A1000IS with german OSD, maybe the translation bugs the OSD. And when I press the PLAY button and the shutter is closed it seems the A1000 is shutting down, maybe that's not a bug but a feature of CHDK... 😉
But overall I'm really glad that CHDK is ported to such a nice camera! Keep up the great work, Diablo!!

clemsche

Checked the new version and the new (and smaller) CRW files couldn't be read by either Picasa 3.0 (under Debian) nor ufraw.

diablo

Did you converted the files using dng4ps2? I was able to open then in picasa 3.

tyrantt23

Diablo, thank you for the tip. I will read up a bit more on the usage of CHDK, I didn't know I had to push buttons to get the CHDK menus. I'll try out the new update and post back with the results. I'm excited to see that the development is going forward real quickly. 😀

clemsche
And when I press the PLAY button and the shutter is closed it seems the A1000 is shutting down, maybe that's not a bug but a feature of CHDK... 😉

Probably a feature. I had my camera set to work like that on the original Canon firmware by changing a setting in the options with the name "Lens Retract" to 0 seconds I believe. That tells the camera to wait X seconds before retracting the lenses after you push play to look at the pictures. You might be able to find a similar option on CHDK.

clemsche
I've copied the A720 CHDK directory onto my SD card. Is there any difference between the CHDK directories or are they all the same?

I did the same thing. I checked the size of the directories for different cameras and they were the same, but I'm not sure that the content is exactly the same. My guess is that yes, CHDK and its directories are the same for every camera, only DISKBOOT.BIN (the actual porting of the camera) is different. But... I may be wrong, like I said before, I'm a complete newbie. 😀

clemsche
Keep up the great work, Diablo!!

Quote for truth. Keep it up Diablo. 😁

tyrantt23

clemsche
Checked the new version and the new (and smaller) CRW files couldn't be read by either Picasa 3.0 (under Debian) nor ufraw.

Like Diablo said, you need to download DNG4PowerShot2. Here is the link to the CHDK FAQ - I've Shot Some RAW Pictures. How Do I Process Them?

From what I've read, the CRW raw files produced by the PowerShot cameras, are different than the other camera formats. They also don't produce any EXIF information. So, The DNG4PowerShot solves those two problems - it converts the CRW files to Adobe's DNG, and it copies the EXIF information from the corresponding JPEG picture to the new DNG file.

UPDATE: I've just downloaded dng4ps2, and when I select the path to the Raw files, it doesn't list anything on my SD card. I then went to their website to read up a bit about it, and noticed that the A1000 is not listed as one of their supported cameras. How were you able to convert the pictures Diablo? Any pointers or links would be appreciated. In the meantime, I'll read up a bit more and post back here with results.

diablo

I edited A720 camera profile and used it for A1000IS. You just need to rename the camera(setting->camera options->cameraname, shortname) and change resolution(to 3648x2736 in both sensor size and jpeg size). With this I could get them displayed in dng4ps2 but after covert the images displayed were incorrect.

The images opened properly in picassa3 properly and in 1-2 sec the display changes to jig-jag color.

I am right now in the process of doing color profile calculation. I will let you know once I get good results. It is good if you also can do this simultaneously so that we can get a good color profile. You can read the following thread on how to do it. New project: camera color profile calculation

tyrantt23

diablo
I edited A720 camera profile and used it for A1000IS. You just need to rename the camera(setting->camera options->cameraname, shortname) and change resolution(to 3648x2736 in both sensor size and jpeg size). With this I could get them displayed in dng4ps2 but after covert the images displayed were incorrect.

The images opened properly in picassa3 properly and in 1-2 sec the display changes to jig-jag color.

I am right now in the process of doing color profile calculation. I will let you know once I get good results. It is good if you also can do this simultaneously so that we can get a good color profile. You can read the following thread on how to do it. New project: camera color profile calculation

Just for clarification to other people... the (setting->camera options->cameraname, shortname) is to be done in dng4ps2, not on the camera or CHDK.

Moving on...

aha, that did the trick so that the files are showing on dng4ps2, thank you Diablo. I'll check how the files behave on other RAW Editing Software and post back.

Now, I noticed that on the A720 profile, the sensor size has a bigger resolution than on the JPG file. Should it be this way for the A1000 also, or are both resolutions the same for this camera model?

As far as the color profile calculation, I've already taken the pictures and sent both the RAW and JPG to the developer of dng4ps2, since I couldn't get the files to show on the browser. In about 24 hours I'll be posting the results that I got for the color matrix on the forums.

I have to go to sleep now... just went out for my birthday celebration and drank quite a few beers here in Brazil... and I have to go to work in about 4 hours. I'm always surprised at how coherent I seem to be when writing on the internet, no matter how drunk I am. Please tell me if I'm just fooling myself.

/rant

Moving on... thanks for the help Diablo.

I'll give an update of my RAW situation asap. 😀

~ Ralph

UPDATE: I'm having the same problem as you Diablo, I try to open it with a few programs and the picture/thumbnails show up correctly for about 2-3 seconds, then a jigsaw/noise image appears.

Picasa and RAW Photo Desk
- Jigsaw appears

SILKYPIX
- Nothing appears

Photoshop CS3
- Says that it can't complete the request (open the document) because it is not the right type of document

Raw Therapee
- Shows jigsaw thumbnails

tomorrow I'll post the color profile calculation on the right thread. For now, I'm going to bed.

Once again (and I don't mean to sound redundant), thank you for your help Diablo.

reyalp

tyrantt23

Just for clarification to other people... the (setting->camera options->cameraname, shortname) is to be done in dng4ps2, not on the camera or CHDK.

Moving on...

aha, that did the trick so that the files are showing on dng4ps2, thank you Diablo. I'll check how the files behave on other RAW Editing Software and post back.

Now, I noticed that on the A720 profile, the sensor size has a bigger resolution than on the JPG file. Should it be this way for the A1000 also, or are both resolutions the same for this camera model?

Sensor size is (almost ?) always larger than jpeg size. Not only is the actual data area a bit larger, there are black border pixels as well. You may be able to figure out the correct dimensions from the hook_raw_size() value, assuming that has been correctly determined.

You should not expect any third party programs to understand the .crw files from a new CHDK port. They aren't canon format CRWs, they are just a dump of the sensor.

diablo

Just gave a try to run multipurpose motion detection from here UBASIC/Scripts: Multipurpose Motion Detection - CHDK Wiki. Amazing to see it worked.

tyrantt23, Any updates on color profile calculation?

Folks, apart from RAW support, please tell me if you face any bugs.

Moderators, When and how should I make this into auto build?

-Diablo

PhyrePhoX

well, if all tests go well, you are to provide a patch/diff directly from svn. we then comitt this diff to the svn -> autobuild.

EyP3

Hi Diablo,
congratulations to your success!
I followed this thread for a very special purpose. I do hobby aerial photography from a model airplane and I am currently looking for a new compact digital camera. The A1000 IS looked nice to me, except that it had no manual modes, especially shutter priority, which is very much needed. The other very useful feature would be an interval continuous shooting mode, say to shoot a picture every 1 sec with exposure metering every time. Could such a thing be programmed with the CHDK support?
The most important feature for me however would be to be able to set shutter priority with a certain shutter time and ideally also to set focus to infinity. Is this a feasible feature now?
Many thanks for your answer!
Norbert

clemsche

There's still the "bug" of the menus staying onscreen when leaving. Is this a build-in bug by CHDK? Till now, I really like to see the progress you've made, Diablo! Keep it up!

Propfly

I have been watching this post for the same reason as EyP3, (post #34)- RC aerial photography. I am currently using an A570is with CHDK with great results.The A1000is would be an improvement in megapixels, which does increase printing options, and is lighter by 25 grams. As Norbert said in his post, shutter priority is critical to getting sharp photos from a moving camera that is attached to an RC airplane.
I would also like to say thanks to Diablo for his hard work in the development of CHDK for
the A1000is camera. This could be my next camera.

Jim

tyrantt23

Diablo, I had taken the picture in JPEG and RAW, but since I couldn't get the RAW to open, I didn't know what my next step should be for the profile calculation. Also, I followed the directions stated on the color profile calculation thread
but since the camera doesn't show at exact what optical zoom it's at, I took the picture at what I "thought" was mid-zoom. I hope this doesn't skew the results.

Here, I uploaded both the JPEG and the RAW to this link:
http://www.zshare.net/download/524077889f256482/ let me know if there's anything else I can do to help.

As far as bugs, the other day my camera froze while I was meddling with the CHDK menus. The LCD screen locked and the lenses were sticking out. I wasn't able to turn the camera off, so I had to take the batteries out. When I turned the camera back on, the lenses retracted and everything went back to normal. I tried to replicate the freeze later, but couldn't get it to do that.

The only other thing I have to say is also about the menus not refreshing. I have to push the shutter button halfway for the camera to focus and refresh the screen. Is there some code available to force CHDK to refresh the screen each time you push the "Func. Set" button while navigating the CHDK menu? Everything else seems to be working really well. I'll run some more tests tomorrow with forced aperture, iso, and exposure settings. Great work on the port Diablo. 😀

Propfly and EyP3, you can already set the focus to infinity with the default camera firmware, as well as setting the shutter time from 1 to 15 seconds. What you can't do is directly set the aperture, shutter speed or a combination of the two in manual mode. Here's a very useful link that reviews the Canon A1000 IS. It's from that review that I decided to buy the A1000 instead of the A590.

Obihoernchen

I also cant open the RAW. It's corrupted...

EyP3

tyrantt23,
thanks for the link, for me it was also that review that had me made considering the A1000 😀.
I downloaded the user manual, but I could not find where I would set the focus to infinity (except setting landscape mode). On page 88 it says one can set the shutter speed to make the image darker or brighter. That would be not very useful. I need shutter priority to adjust aperture / ISO accordingly to my chosen shutter time, say 1/1000 sec. As I don't have the camera, I cannot check this. Any help?
Thanks
Norbert

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