How can I get my powershot SD reader to read SDHC media?

powershots80

How can I get my powershot SD reader to read SDHC media?

« on: 05 / August / 2013, 00:06:21 »

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I've seen Microsoft offer driver updates to old SD reader drives on Windows laptops/desktops to get them to read and write the SDHC media, does anyone know how if I can get my Canon Powershot S80 to do the same?

I used a micros SDHC 8gb media in a SD adapter to create a FAT16 2gb partition#1, made it camera bootable and copied the CHDK files on it, the partition#2 was the 6gb leftover that was formatted in FAT32 for storing the photo and video files. Stuck it in my PS S80 and it was deader than a door nail.

I'm always running out of room on my 4gb SD (non-HC) by taking a lot of videos so I'm looking for more storage. I know the PS S80 from 2005 is really old tech but I use in a uw housing so I want to stick with this camera for a while longer. For deep dives of less than 30 mins 4gb is OK, but my shallow dives go for an hour or more so 6gb would be about right for SVGA video.

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outslider

Re: How can I get my powershot SD reader to read SDHC media?

« Reply #1 on: 05 / August / 2013, 06:15:50 »

This can not be done on any other way than updating the camera firmware, which is up to Cannon. And they seem to be not interested in that.

So - unfortunately - I'm sure you'll never get SDHC working on these old cams. I have the same problem with S2is :/

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74prof

Re: How can I get my powershot SD reader to read SDHC media?

« Reply #2 on: 05 / August / 2013, 11:10:46 »

Micro sd adapters allow the smaller micro sd cards to physically fit into standard sized sd slots. They are advertised to also accept micro sdhc cards. So, if this combination were inserted in my A540, would the camera recognize the higher speed card?

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ahull

Re: How can I get my powershot SD reader to read SDHC media?

« Reply #3 on: 05 / August / 2013, 11:44:16 »

Quote from: 74prof on 05 / August / 2013, 11:10:46

Micro sd adapters allow the smaller micro sd cards to physically fit into standard sized sd slots. They are advertised to also accept micro sdhc cards. So, if this combination were inserted in my A540, would the camera recognize the higher speed card?

In a word... No.

The adapter will simply allow you to use a micro SDHC card in an device which supports standard form factor SDHC cards.

According to this the A540 is SD only.

The ability to read SDHC is a feature of the stock Canon firmware, nothing to do with CHDK

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Re: How can I get my powershot SD reader to read SDHC media?

« Reply #4 on: 05 / August / 2013, 15:09:44 »

Well... in theory it would be possible, that some special microadapter would work with micro SDHC card but showing it as SD card to the host device. But this adapter would need to be rather small computer that would be seen from host as SD card and translating the whole data transfer process between micro SDHC and the camera.

Theoretically possible in this post means - I have never heard about such things, but it is to be imagined:)

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74prof

Re: How can I get my powershot SD reader to read SDHC media?

« Reply #5 on: 05 / August / 2013, 19:10:44 »

I think the micro adapter is simply a pass through device which physically allows the micro card to fit into the standard computer sd slot. I have used one to fit an older phone micro card into my computer.

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outslider

Re: How can I get my powershot SD reader to read SDHC media?

« Reply #6 on: 05 / August / 2013, 19:33:14 »

Quote from: 74prof on 05 / August / 2013, 19:10:44

I think the micro adapter is simply a pass through device which physically allows the micro card to fit into the standard computer sd slot. I have used one to fit an older phone micro card into my computer.

Sure, it is purely physical contact:) But I was only saying that much more complicated adapter is to be imagined. But who'd bother to make one?

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powershots80

Re: How can I get my powershot SD reader to read SDHC media?

« Reply #7 on: 06 / August / 2013, 01:51:25 »

Thanks for the reply, I'll give up on the idea of using sdhc on my Powershot S80.

Quote from: outslider on 05 / August / 2013, 06:15:50

This can not be done on any other way than updating the camera firmware, which is up to Cannon. And they seem to be not interested in that.

So - unfortunately - I'm sure you'll never get SDHC working on these old cams. I have the same problem with S2is :/

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reyalp

13500

Re: How can I get my powershot SD reader to read SDHC media?

« Reply #8 on: 06 / August / 2013, 16:12:31 »

Quote from: powershots80 on 06 / August / 2013, 01:51:25

Thanks for the reply, I'll give up on the idea of using sdhc on my Powershot S80.

This is probably the most realistic approach.

It might be theoretically possible, from what I understand (not a whole lot) hardware that was designed to talk to SD should be able to talk to SDHC. So in theory, if you reverse engineered the SD interface driver on the firmware, you might be able to add SDHC support. However, since the card needs to be accessed to load CHDK, this could not be done in CHDK, it would have to be flashed onto the camera ROM. This also assumes the relevant parts of the SD interface are controlled by the main firmware, not something on the SD controller itself. There is also the possibility that even if you did all this, the OS would be unable to deal with cards larger than 4GB.

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Don't forget what the H stands for.