if you own a canon point and shoot, chances are you can upgrade its software using the nifty little CHDK package;

opens up a stack more options with the camera, plus more info on battery life and camera settings

very useful!

just upgraded my ixus 70 and appart from not being able to autoboot it (memory card too big), looks pretty nifty!

http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ

ORLY! Looks awesome, if only because it has a BATTERY INDICATOR!!!!!!!

it has a battery indicator;

yuo wonder how canon didnt include one with the original firmwares/!?!?

Damn, looks like mine isn't supported :( (Ixus 60)

Mine certainly isn't:( Ixus 30. I think mine was around $500 when it first came out... now you can't really get anythign less than 7MP for ~$300.

Unfortunately, mine isn't either. IXUS 40. I hear you Billy... I still have my receipt for $599 + $100 for a 512mb SD card. I only bought it in June 2005.

Unsurprisingly my s50 wasn't listed.

Its old... but it still takes good shots.
Only complaint is its macro settings.

doesn't look like mine is supported either but from what I can tell, it just adds most of the features a DSLR has to point and shoot style cameras plus a few extra toys, is that right?

off hand id say

* Shooting in RAW, with RAW Average, RAW Sum, and RAW Develop features
* Live histogram (RGB, blended, luminance and for each RGB channel)
* Zebra mode (live-view under/over-exposure subject-area alerts)
* DOF-calculator, Hyperfocal-calculator with instant Hyperfocal and Infinity focus-set, and more
* Battery indicator
* RAW and Video space-remaining gauges with custom low-limit alerts
* Scripts execution (exposure/focus/bracketing, intervalometer and more)
* USB-cable remote shutter-release
* Motion-Detection triggered photography (fast enough to capture lightning strikes)
* Customizable high-speed continuous (burst) Tv, Av, ISO, and Focus bracketing (unlimited shots)
* 99 constant bit-rate and 10 constant-quality video compression levels
* 1 Gig video-size limit removed in earlier cameras
* Zoom during video for cameras without
* Shutter, Aperture, and ISO Overrides (shutter speeds of 64" to 1/10,000" and higher)
* High-speed Flash Sync at all speeds up to 1/64,000 second (even faster in some cameras)
* Custom framing, cropping, and alignment viewfinder Grids (user editable)
* File browser
* Text reader
* Calendar
* Some fun tools and games :)
* Fully customizable CHDK display, info placement, user-colors, fonts in menus, etc.
* Custom CHDK User-Menu (for instant recall of up to 10 favorite functions)
* And other features too numerous to mention here. See the CHDK Firmware and Allbest Firmware usage pages for a more complete overview.

nice WAG spook, that's pretty close to exactly right.

I've been thinking about upgrading my Ixus 60 to one of the newer IS models (I bought my sister an IS a while back and it is really great, especially in lower light conditions). Knowing this thing exists will certainly help make a decision.

PS, go buy an Ixus if you don't have one. SRSLY they are awesome, I can't imagine being any happier with a digital camera (unless it had a f***ING BATTERY INDICATOR)

dick smith was selling ixus 70's for $200 on sale the other day (ebay still has them for 250/260+)

of course they all sold out immediately, but it means there are cheap quality cameras out there

Looks awesome, installed it on mine and the first thing it shows is the battery is almost out of juice .. I'll have a fiddle once I recharge the battery :)

which one have you got saint ?

Canon PowerShot SD800 IS (Digital IXUS 850 IS)

Stupid different numbers and names, the model printed on the camera is 900IS because it's a japanese model .. why can't they conform to the one model!

I scored one hella rad priced 300D kit of eBay

<3 Canon

cool, ixus 860 is on there

might have a butcher's at this when i get access to a sd card reader

The only thing I dislike about my IXUS is the lack of zoom. If they made a model along the lines of the of the Panasonic cameras that have 6-10x zoom in a small package, I'm sure it would sell like wildfire.

Spook smellz.

Also someone please work out how to get an ixus70 to shoot faster than 1/1000 of a second.

because i know you have issues with "words" and "reading"

http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK_firmware_usage/AllBest#Extra_Photo_Operations

yes I did read what was on that page and from the looks of it, my DSLR has most of those features. Since I can't actually test the thing I asked if that's all it does if so YAWN