S100 CHDK ?

What is it? What does it do? Good or safe? Pros and cons?

I know nothing at all about this. Can someone please educate me on this CHDK thing for the Canon S100

CHDK runs off of the SD card when you start the camera, it does not change anything in the camera itself, so it is safe to use. I don't really see much reason to use it on the S100, except maybe auto-ISO features or the ISO100 limit for long exposures. I used CHDK on my SD70IS which enabled RAW and a bunch of things, but the camera's processor was so slow that I did not see much point in using it.

CHDK is a 3rd party firmware that runs on top of your canon compact camera's firmware. it provides a lot more manual control than one canon's UI provides. it adds additional features such as more flexibility with shutter speeds, scripting, etc.

Is it safe? Well that depends what you mean by safe. CHDK is safe as in it wont overwrite your existing camera's firmware. It wont void your warranty as the firmware is not actually being installed. However, misuse of the CHDK firmware can damage your camera as you can push your camera's abilities beyond spec.

The Pros and Cons are harder to define. It really depends on what you want to do with your camera. Generally, people find more benefit when they use CHDK on cheaper Powershots as the firmware offers manual control and raw support which the S series cameras already include.

You can check out the CHDK features here: http://chdk.wikia.com/​wiki/Features

I find the additional display info of use, detailed battery %, near and far in focus distance (DOF), current focal length, and it allows faster shutter speeds than 1/4000 sec. and can increase auto ISO range to beyond 1600. Then you can run motion detect scripts

Hans

Can the current version for the S100 do timelapse (does it have an intervalometer)?

Yes it can do timelapse, check the CHDK forum S100 porting thread near the end a post about a week ago for a script


Hans