Hello everyone! I'm trying to do a thingie, and I thought that if anyone would have an idea of how to proceed, it would be you guys.
So here's the deal. I work in the IT department of a construction company. The field guys have cameras, and those cameras break periodically- I would say I get one broken camera in a month on average. This particular one is a Canon PowerShot A490.
Now, the lens assembly is broken (shattered gears, smashed glass, etc) on this camera, but there is nothing wrong with the sensor/lcd/the rest of it. I want to turn it on with the lens assembly disconnected and fool around with it. It would make an interesting little pinhole camera, I think.
The thing is, the camera will not turn on with a lens error. It just powers itself off after displaying the, 'OH SNAP, SOMETHING IS WRONG IN THE CORE OF MY BEING! I'M RESTARTING ASAP!' message. That's a paraphrase, of course, but you get the idea. I realize that not having a lens would wreak havoc with the little guy's metering, so I would need the manual controls that CHDK offers- so yeah.
What do you think? Has anyone done anything like this? Is this dream within the realm of possibility, or should I consign A490 to the parts bin?
Thank you!