Reading this thread, I think that maybe it's time to share something that I've been working on for the last year or so. Kind of a part time project but I'd be interested in any feedback.
This project stems from my recurring concern that CHDK is about photography and yet it doesn't really assist much with the most common aspect of just taking pictures. I think this is also part of what
hwntw started this thread for.
As it happens, I have make a couple of critical observations over the years here.
- My first observation has been that the CHDK <ALT> screen is a huge waste of screen space as it really does not let you do anything other than load the CHDK menu, go to the Script menu, or start the current script running.
EDIT : forgot to mention that the user menu can open or you can have a script run on entry to <ALT>
- My second observation has been that using CHDK to control exposure is extremely primitive. There is no real M mode as while you can override Tv, Av, or Sv individually, CHDK leaves the other parameters under Canon control. And Tv or Av priority modes are also missing.
So I've created an updated CHDK UI of sorts. Naturally it's not really pretty - CHDK screen drawing has it's limits. But it does let you use the
<ALT> mode screen to set a shooting mode (camera default, Tv priority, Av Proirity, M), pick exposure parameters, load a script, or enable/disable RAW/DNG, Histogram, Zebra, Edge Overlay. All from the
<ALT> screen without navigating the huge and intimidating CHDK Menu structure.
The GUI works with just the up/down/left/right arrow keys and the Func/Set key so should work on every Powershot. The yellow box in the attached images is the "cursor". You move to what you want to change, click Func/Set, and then use the up/down keys to change that value. Pressing Func/Set again sets the value and returns you to cursor mode. And you can change the current script by navigating to that field and clicking Func/Set to bring up the script menu (by default the GUI starts the cursor there so pressing Func/Set on entry to <ALT> works like before).
Currently it's configurable so that it can be disabled or loaded via a specified key or simply when you enter
<ALT>. The override values work just like the current menu based ones - except all three are set in anything but Canon mode. I have it setup to allow different "themes" (colors, font sizes, outline boxes, labels, etc) but have not created many standard ones yet.
Rather than try to describe a GUI any further with just words, I can share a patch file with anyone interested (or "on request" build a version for a specific camera & firmware version for anyone not setup to build CHDK from source). You could also try the
CHDKplus script, which works the same way but with less features and integration with
<ALT> mode.
I think this is an example of something that can be done by a script but might be better as a built-in option - enabled by default so that the newbie to CHDK sees it right away and can use CHDK without learning the ins & outs of the menu system.
This projects fulfills what I want originally wanted CHDK for personally (i.e. full manual exposure control on my simpler Powershots). I'm sure it will hit snags on some models (hello Powershot N touchscreen) but if there is enough interest that can be worked out.
