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A few nebie questions

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Offline rijnton

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A few nebie questions
« on: 20 / March / 2010, 11:33:51 »
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Having a Powershot G11 (firmware 1.00J), this looks fantastic to me. But unfortunately a few things are not clear to me. May I ask a few questions ?
1) I tried it first on an "old" Kingston 2GB SD card, using Cardtricks Utility for installing. Although the card is unlocked, I get an error saying "could not write to card, please check write protect tab", when I click on Format. How can that be ?
2) Nevertheless, when I subsequently download CHDK (the right version for G11 1.00J) and unzip it to the card and lock the card, I get the CHDK logo when switching the camera on. But the G11 stays in Playback mode. To go to the Shooting mode (or do you say Recording mode ?), I always have to press the shutter release halfway. It doesn't go to Shooting mode normally/automatically. Is this normal ?
3) When I am in Shooting mode, I see a small white bar on the left bottom of the display. What is the meaning/function of that ?
4) I gathered that when I want to use a 4GB card, with FAT32, I have to format the card first to FAT 16. But does this have any disadvantages for the card ? I mean FAT 16 instead of FAT32 ?
I hope these are not too many questions at once and that you can give me some help and advice.
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Offline fe50

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Re: A few nebie questions
« Reply #1 on: 20 / March / 2010, 13:36:06 »
Hello & welcome, rijnton !

Quote from: rijnton on 20 / March / 2010, 11:33:51
1) I tried it first on an "old" Kingston 2GB SD card, using Cardtricks Utility for installing. Although the card is unlocked, I get an error saying "could not write to card, please check write protect tab", when I click on Format. How can that be ?
Maybe a problem with your card reader...
You can format the card in the camera with the Canon format menu item, on cards up to 2GB the card will be formatted correctly with FAT16.
To make the card bootable, you can use CHDK, after you've started manually (with the "Firmware update" menu item from the Canon menu)...

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2) Nevertheless, when I subsequently download CHDK (the right version for G11 1.00J) and unzip it to the card and lock the card, I get the CHDK logo when switching the camera on. But the G11 stays in Playback mode. To go to the Shooting mode (or do you say Recording mode ?), I always have to press the shutter release halfway. It doesn't go to Shooting mode normally/automatically. Is this normal ?
Yes; you can try holding the power button for ~ one second to start directly into record mode...

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3) When I am in Shooting mode, I see a small white bar on the left bottom of the display. What is the meaning/function of that ?
SD card file space indicator... --> CHDK user manual

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4) I gathered that when I want to use a 4GB card, with FAT32, I have to format the card first to FAT 16. But does this have any disadvantages for the card ? I mean FAT 16 instead of FAT32 ?
No. All known configurations (PC / Mac, Windows / Mac OS / Linux) works flawless with such cards, also all known Powershot cameras; normally there's no speed difference between FAT16 / FAT32, FAT16 could be a little bit faster.
Since you normally have "big" files (images) on the card, the larger cluster size don't matter...

Have fun with CHDK !
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Offline rijnton

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Re: A few nebie questions
« Reply #2 on: 20 / March / 2010, 17:17:50 »
Thanks fe50 for your quick reply. I am gonna try using CHDK, although it looks rather complicated atm and I will have to do some reading.

Btw, if I don't want to use Cardtricks how do I format a SD card that is FAT32 (i.e. the 4 GB card I have), to FAT16 ?
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Offline fe50

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Re: A few nebie questions
« Reply #3 on: 20 / March / 2010, 17:41:57 »
Quote from: rijnton on 20 / March / 2010, 17:17:50
Btw, if I don't want to use Cardtricks how do I format a SD card that is FAT32 (i.e. the 4 GB card I have), to FAT16 ?
With the OS format tools...
On MS Windows 2000/XP or higher use the format command with parameter /FS:FAT in a cmd session:

* open a cmd session ("MS DOS Prompt", WIN+R keyboard hotkey or run cmd from the Windows start menu)
* call format X: /FS:FAT     where X: is the drive letter of your card reader (always check this first !!!)

You'll get a warning about the unusual 64k cluster size, confirm this...
« Last Edit: 20 / March / 2010, 17:45:31 by fe50 »
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Offline rijnton

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Re: A few nebie questions
« Reply #4 on: 20 / March / 2010, 18:01:41 »
Thanks again. That worked.
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Offline rijnton

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Re: A few nebie questions
« Reply #5 on: 21 / March / 2010, 11:10:56 »
One more question, if you don't mind. What build should I use for my G11 ? Under FAQ's I read that it would be best to start with Allbest, but where do I find that ? When I click on Download I go to the Autobuild page where I only find 3 different (firmware) beta builds. Or should I just one of them ?
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Offline fe50

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Re: A few nebie questions
« Reply #6 on: 21 / March / 2010, 11:17:57 »
Quote from: rijnton on 21 / March / 2010, 11:10:56
What build should I use for my G11 ? Under FAQ's I read that it would be best to start with Allbest, but where do I find that ? When I click on Download I go to the Autobuild page where I only find 3 different (firmware) beta builds. Or should I just one of them ?

Allbest is an older (ancient) version, the current CHDK is the one from the Autobuild Server.

The CHDK build must fit to the cameras firmware version, so always use the package with your camera's firmware version in the package name...

s2is-100e-0.9.9-865-full_BETA.zip
  |    |    |    |    |    |
  |    |    |    |    |    +-- optional: BETA means: port is in beta state, some minor features may not work
  |    |    |    |    +------- optional: package type, full means: complete package incl. lang files, fonts  etc.
  |    |    |    +------------ SVN trunk version, the development build number (automatically set)
  |    |    +----------------- CHDK version number (manually set)
  |    +---------------------- firmware version
  +--------------------------- camera model
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Offline rijnton

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Re: A few nebie questions
« Reply #7 on: 22 / March / 2010, 09:58:25 »
Quote from: fe50 on 20 / March / 2010, 13:36:06
To make the card bootable, you can use CHDK, after you've started manually (with the "Firmware update" menu item from the Canon menu)...

I didn't try this yet and made the card bootable with Cardtricks, but should it work meanwhile with the G11 ?
I ask because on the G11 page I read that "Firmware update" still doesn't work for the G11 ?

And, for a better understanding, is the cmd formatting to FAT16 the only way ? I mean, is it not recommended to do it by right-clicking on the card and choose Format>FAT ?
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Offline fe50

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Re: A few nebie questions
« Reply #8 on: 23 / March / 2010, 02:03:07 »
Quote from: rijnton on 22 / March / 2010, 09:58:25
I ask because on the G11 page I read that "Firmware update" still doesn't work for the G11 ?
Correct.
This won't work on the G11 and also not on the SX1 since on those cameras CHDK can only be started from an already CHDK-bootable SD card (autoload).

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is the cmd formatting to FAT16 the only way ? I mean, is it not recommended to do it by right-clicking on the card and choose Format>FAT ?
You can use whatever method you want, e.g. some third party software...only the result (=FAT16) matters.
On M$ Windows you can use the GUI (i.e. with right-click & format as FAT) with SD cards up to 2GB, on 4GB cards this will use FAT32 format - since you can't choose FAT16 in the GUI, you have to do it in a cmd session where you can add the /FS:FAT parameter...
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