Not being able to check the camera's firmware before I buy, is there anyway (perhaps a particular camera) to maximize my chances of getting a camera with supported firmware ? ...my luck, I'll have to buy several cameras to get one with supported firmware !
There are a couple of ways that you might be able to check firmware, depending on where & how you are buying the camera.
If you are in a retail environment, can put your own SD card in and take a picture? Or if you are buying used or online, can you ask the vendor to email or dropbox a sample picture (a wise precaution regardless)?
If so, then put the picture into this program
http://www.zenoshrdlu.com/acid/acid.html and you can find out the firmware version.
Search the porting thread of any camera you are thinking of buying to see how many people have requested different firmware versions. Might give a clue about how many versions are out there. For the A530, the thread is here
http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php/topic,586.0.html and I only see mention of the 1.00a version being needed so you might get lucky.
The problem with buying several cameras from the same source is that you will likely get the same firmware version each time.
