Canon does not list the firmware installer for the one and only version of the firmware for this model. Strange. What would anyone do if their firmware were to get corrupted for any reason? There must be a link to download the official installer SOMEWHERE.
Thank you for writing to us. We value you as a Canon customer andappreciate the opportunity to assist you regarding the firmware for yourPowerShot A530.The firmware for this camera is not available for download. I regretany difficulty this causes.Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance with yourPowerShot A530.Thank you for choosing Canon.
I wonder if the ROM is a static ROM. Then there would be no risk. Maybe that's why they never updated it.
Nope - it an EEPROM. If you are nervous about that, maybe CHDK isn't for you.
There is no installer involved - the camera will allow you to install firmware directly if a firmware update file is available on the SD card. That's one of the methods used to load CHDK. However, Canon typically does not make firmware files available unless its for a major bug fix. If you trash your firmware, you return the camera to Canon for repair.
Well, given the chance of bricking without any way back, obviously there is cause to be, um, "nervous." But that must be lost on you . . .
Almost any product with a microprocessor will have 2 or 3 bug fix updates in its life cycle, including most cameras. And Canon does provide convenient installers for firmware updates. That's why I find it strange they don't supply one as a backup. I can understand their not providing just the binary. That would be beyond the typical user.
Well, as far as it's known there's no need to backup anything from the camera. The CHDK has no even one routine that writes anything into ROM. So nothing should happen with your existing firmware*.CHDK is not in fact a firmware, it's an extension of the Canon firmware. It loads dynamically from the SD card and disappears on power-off. Again - nothing is changed in Canon firmware that is placed in camera ROM.
The only possibility od a kind of camera damage is forcing a camera to do things it was not designed. CHDK allows you to use 'very' long shutter times (even hours, depending on camera), moving lens (by setting zoom, focus), aperture overrides. Nevertheless even in these cases a firmware backup can't help you. There were only a few camera damages while using CHDK and most of them is nor clearly connected with using CHDK, rather just coincidence.
One of the most popular failures that are said to be caused by CHDK by users is "Lens error". But it's also one of the most common Canon failure in cameras without CHDK. So CHDK is rather not the reason...
*(Actually there is a possibility to access to the ROM-writing if you'd compile your own version of CHDK with native Canon functions enabled, but that's not a case for the standard binaries from autobuild and you probably not want to use this).
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