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CHDK Cameras that are still commercially available and in production

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Hello,

I am new to the CHDK universe and I am trying to take advantage of the capabilities enabled by CHDK. I have developed some LUA scripts which would be useful in my field but I did it in a friends camera, which I think is out of production.  My question is:

What cameras are being currently produced by Canon that support CHDK?

I ask this because, locally, I only find cameras that have the latest DIGIC6 chip and as far as I learned CHDK support is not yet available for these chips. If I am wrong please correct me. From the list of supported cameras, I also cannot distinguish which ones are most recent and therefore more likely to be available for purchase.

One last small question is, would there be a way of contracting developer(s) to work on bringing CHDK to the newer cameras? The results would be of course released to the community. I can even think of creating a pool of resources managed by the developed community in which my company could contribute to

Thanks in advance
Paulo Neves

Re: CHDK Cameras that are still commercially available and in production
« Reply #1 on: 12 / February / 2016, 08:46:35 »
What cameras are being currently produced by Canon that support CHDK?
Figuring this out has always been a challenge.  Porting CHDK to a new camera takes time and effort from somebody who volunteers.  So there is always a lag and some models never get ported.

Off the top of my head (and a quick google search), the most recent effort to port a current (i.e. 2015) camera is the IXUS160 / ELPH160.  There was a bit of an organized effort to get that one done to support book scanner projects & huge multicamera projects. However, there was at least one camera "bricked" early in the development process - the reason for which is unknown - so an official release has been delayed. So far, no additional bricked cameras have been reported.  See IXUS160/ELPH160 Porting attempt.  You still can get them online from places like Walmart.

I think the D30 is still available commercially too.  There may be others.

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From the list of supported cameras, I also cannot distinguish which ones are most recent and therefore more likely to be available for purchase.
That would be a nice little project for somebody to volunteer to do and maintain.  Until then, I can only suggest  scrolling down to the bottom of this : P-ID Table

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One last small question is, would there be a way of contracting developer(s) to work on bringing CHDK to the newer cameras? The results would be of course released to the community. I can even think of creating a pool of resources managed by the developed community in which my company could contribute to
This question comes up periodically. 

Nothing prevents a developer from contacting you directly as a result of your question here. 

However, I think I can safely say that none of the very few people currently capable of doing a port have expressed interest in doing so for pay rather than as a hobby. There have been a few private deals but things usually break down when the real cost of paying for the 20 to 40 hours needed to complete a port at commercial software development rates is calculated.  And that number would currently be much higher for DIGIC6 cameras.

Finally, while Canon appears to tolerate CHDK as a hobby effort that is only useful on a Canon camera that you have purchased for personal use, the status of any attempt at commercial terms is very unclear. I'm very certain that any official "cease & desist" letter from Canon would shut down this site and the wiki immediately.  But there is at least one company that appears to have used CHDK for commercial purposes ( see Akond ).  So who knows?

« Last Edit: 12 / February / 2016, 08:48:34 by waterwingz »
Ported :   A1200    SD940   G10    Powershot N    G16

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Offline reyalp

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Re: CHDK Cameras that are still commercially available and in production
« Reply #2 on: 12 / February / 2016, 16:43:03 »
I ask this because, locally, I only find cameras that have the latest DIGIC6 chip and as far as I learned CHDK support is not yet available for these chips. If I am wrong please correct me.
So far, almost all the digic 6 cameras are relatively high end. Canon is still making and selling many lower end cameras using the older chips. Most of these are not ported, but porting should be significantly easier than digic 6 cams. Aside from the ixus160 waterwingz noted, there are partial ports for sx530 (reportedly firmware compatible with sx520) and ixus150

You may find older cameras available as refurbished or old stock. In the US, canon's factory refurbished and clearance can be a good source, I see several supported cameras there (elph115, powershot N, D30, A3500) though the prices are mostly not great.

The dpreview camera database http://www.dpreview.com/products/canon/cameras?subcategoryId=cameras may be a useful resource.
Don't forget what the H stands for.

Re: CHDK Cameras that are still commercially available and in production
« Reply #3 on: 17 / February / 2016, 14:16:49 »
Hey thanks for your answers. I didn't answer earlier because it seems I am more proficient programming embedded systems than migrating my hard drive to another computer. But that is past.

Regarding the possibility of public commercial exchange for porting I think I got the message, although I didn't know about Akond. They seem to have support for more cameras than CHDK, although I did not see any direct reference to CHDK. If I happen to come by any new port I will release it accordingly to the license.

Regarding the suggestion of IXUS160, it so happened that the store next to my place had 2 of them so I ordered one and successfully installed CHDK without any of the scary bricking stories. I think I will make a post about it in the relevant thread.

All and all thank you a lot for your answers and if there is any community effort to raise funds please publish it visibly.




 

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