There are many options to prepare the SD card:
1. Firmware Update Method
2. Bootable SD Card Method
3. Using EOSCard
4. Windows Method 1
5. Windows Method 2
The beauty of a long hacked development process. Right now you are better off just using the
STICK program.
I got rather confused very quickly after reading the Wiki. It seems all the methods state that none of the changes are permanent yet, there are so many methods to choose.
All three statements are true.
With all the methods, you have to load the CHDK each time.
False. If you use the "Card Lock Autoboot" method, CHDK will be loaded every time you start your camera. Long winded though it may be, this is always the best source for information about loading CHDK on your SD card :
http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Prepare_your_SD_cardBut what do you mean by turning off? After taking the battery out or after pressing the OFF switch on the camera?
The later.
I often turn the camera off and on when taking pictures, to conserve battery. If have to load the CHDK each time I press the off switch, how long does it take to load?
Using the firmware update method, its basically instantaneous once you have navigated the Canon menus. The autoboot method takes even less time.
One of the methods says to lock your memory card. That blows my mind completely because when you lock your memory card you can't save any images onto your memory card.
Almost like magic, isn't it? But it works. The CHDK code basically masks off the SD card lock switch input bit in software so that the Canon firmware does not see that the card is locked.
Formatting the SD card via Cardtricks takes a looong time. I find the FORMATTING CARD display very intrusive. It won't disappear from my screen.
Cardtricks is obsolete. Use the STICK utility. But formatting takes time whatever method you use. however you should only have to do it once.
When I do a full format of my SD card, it never takes this long as with Cardtricks when formating through Windows. Why can't we just format the card via Windows, either Quickformat or the regular format?
You can.
Which method of loading the CHDK firmware is the most common?
Autobooting.
Is it possible to have a .BAT file created so that within the Windows environment the SD card can be formatted and the vers.req installed?
You don't need either if you use STICK.
I also find the key captacha very difficult to use. I am using CHROME.
That apparently goes away after you have posted a few times. Spammers used to be a big problem on this forum.
Sorry if my questions seem stupid, but I find all this terribly confusing and I am not a computer noob unless we're talking about programming and Linux/DOS tasks. Too bad there wasn't a youtube video or more descriptive illustrations to help us noobs out.
There are a lot of CHDK youtube videos - did you search on youtube for the word CHDK ? The quality varies and most have mistakes as the people that do them tend to be newbies themselves.
