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I was really frustrated over weekend with my Canon 720. This is really great camera but have couple of software glitches that are really annoying, and one of them is that batteries drop death while I was taking some video, grrrr... Main reason for this is that stupid Canon OS will not alert you that batteries are low until last 1-2 minutes before it will shut down camera completely.

This was not the first time this happened to me, but this time this was really frustrating. Well maybe one year in the past I stumble on internet on some open source procedure that will allow you to upgrade Canon with many nice features - and one of them is also constant battery indicator - unfortunately they didn't have support for A720.
So I have searched again and found that project again - and this time A70 support was complete :))

Introducing CHDK

So what's CHDK anyway. From CHDK main site:

CHDK is a firmware enhancement that operates on a number of Canon Cameras. CHDK gets loaded into your camera's memory upon bootup (either manually or automatically). It provides additional functionality beyond that currently provided by the native camera firmware.

CHDK is not a permanent firmware upgrade: you decide how it is loaded (manually or automatically) and you can always easily remove it.

Support for my A720 was there so I decided to give it a try. Actually installation is really very easy. The only extra thing you need is card reader and that's all.

1. First download appropriate update - now there are many different builds of CHDK available, but for a start best would be to download basic version. You can grab basic CHDK install from SourceForge
2. Then insert your memory card in card reader and plug it in to computer
3. On linux (there are manuals for win and mac) start gparted and mark memory card to be bootable
4. Then open console and type

   echo -n BOOTDISK | dd bs=1 count=8 seek=64 of=/dev/sdx1
    

5. Then unzip CHDK zip file and copy content to card root
6. Lock memery card - that's that little switch on memory card
7. Put mem card back to camera and that's it :))

Windows users don't worry, go to this link and read excellent tutorial how to do it in MS Win.

So what else do you get whit CHDK:

• Save images in RAW format
• Ability to run "Scripts" to automate the camera
• Live histogram (RGB, blended, luminance and for each RGB channel)
• Zebra mode (blinking highlights and shadows to show over/under exposed areas)
• An "always on" full range Battery indicator
• Ability to turn off automatic dark-frame subtraction
• a higher compression movie mode, and double the maximum video file size
• exposure times as long as 65 seconds
• exposure times as little as 1/10,000 of a second
• ability to use the USB port for a remote trigger inpu
• a depth-of-field (DOF)-calculator
• File browser
• Text reader
• Calendar
• Some fun tools and games

There are even CHDK distributions that give you ability to do even stereo photography!

Anyway CHDK is working excellent on my Canon 720 and low batteries is not a problem anymore :)