I am a local home inspector in Arizona wanting to do roof inspections using a quad copter carrying a Canon point and shoot. I purchased an AR drone in Dec. as a trial platform and to see what the issues are. It's obvious I will need a remote control tilt-able gimbal mounted camera and would need to be able to remote zoom. I am aware of the FAA issues with using a drone for commercial purposes.
All of my research over the last several weeks has lead me to CHDK and this forum. I currently use an A2300, tried to load CHDK, maybe an issue with using an 8G SD card, but in any case the A2300 won't work due to the bug in CHDK relative to not being able to auto focus when zooming.
I do NOT need high resolution as I typically shoot at the lowest resolution of the camera. I take a perspective shot from a distance, circle it and label it in my inspection software, and then take a close up of the actual defect, which gets inserted into a PDF report. That said, this platform may open up other opportunities so being able to shoot HD videos would also be desirable.
My idea would be to use a quad copter with FPV (First Person View) to transmit the camera image (camera on all the time) to a ground station, 7" RC monitor on a tripod, and control the camera shutter and zoom from the ground station transmitter via a USB connection to the camera. As it turns out the A2300 has an 11-pin USB connector which allows me to breakout the video separately and transmit video from the quad to the ground station.
So my question is: Which Canon point and shoot would you recommend based on the following criteria.
1. Would need to be compatible with CHDK and as light as possible. An older Canon would be fine as I do not use high resolution photos. That said it seems the newer camera's are the lightest (smallest) but would need to have CHDK.
2. Would need to have a good zoom lens, say 5X and to auto focus using CHDK, realizing that higher zoom lens weighs more.
3. I noticed many camera's have a "Print" button but my A2300 does not, looks like convention for entering CHDK on a newer camera is hitting the "Play" button, is that correct?
4. Would need to have an 11-pin USB port, I think, in order to breakout the video from the camera.
So I did see where many others have asked for camera recommendations but the technology is moving so fast, I have some unique requirements, and CHDK is not supported on all Canon cameras, so I thought I would ask the experts here who would know the Canon product lines and the status of the CHDK implementations especially the issue of an auto focus zoom.
Your consideration is greatly appreciated!!