Cameras for the Hackerspace Scanner

[daniel_reetz]

I dunno, you'd be surprised. The A590is came up end-of-line, then refurbished, and then b-stock over the course of a year and there was always another source. Personally I have something like ten of them. While we should definitely be looking forward to its replacement, I wouldn't hesitate on buying one now - provided the tests go well. My camera should be delivered today.

[dtic]

The A810 is another upcoming candidate. 16 megapixels. Released this spring so should be widely available in stores for at least one more year.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_PowerShot_A
http://www.steves-digicams.com/camera-r ... eview.html
No working CHDK yet, but there are at least some things happening.
http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=8144.0

[Gerard]

why not Canon Powershot A3300 IS ?
16 megapixel
chdk yes
95,93€ @ amazon

[daniel_reetz]

Looks like a good replacement. I got my A2200 today. I will be testing it this week. However, I'm going to be spending some time with my family so I will not be as present on the forums as I have been.

[wambold]

why not Canon Powershot A3300 IS ?

I ordered two refurbished A3300s from Canon's own US shop this week. If you have an old Canon camera to return, you can get a 10% discount on a camera with free shipping. The Canon phone person also gave me free shipping on the second camera even though I was turning in only one camera. (Their website did not work properly.)

AC adapters are available for the A3300 too.

-sew

[pleonard]

Regarding the Canon A2200, I notice on the CHDK thread that this model does not support Remote Capture. There's a workaround that involves the PTP extension, but maybe somebody can chime in and explain how important Remote Capture is for various software packages used by the group?

[daniel_reetz]

Ooh, good catch pleonard (and thanks for all the content you're putting online, I enjoyed your flickr pix very much). Once I get through shipping the current batch of orders I'm going to close the store for a while and work only on documentation.

The short answer, in my opinion, is that we have few options suitable for the Hackerspace Scanner.

There's Scan Manager, by OG200, which was basically designed for it. I've only spent a little time with it so far, but it seems pretty wonderful. If you want to do remote computer control, that's basically the best/only option for that scanner.

The next option (and the one I'm most familiar with) is the "use a battery box and a button" remote solution. No computer/tether, just the cameras running CHDK and looking for a signal. Combined with eye-fi cards this can mean a scanner that self-unloads and needs no wired computer connection.

The next option (and the most experimental and least tested) is the bike-brake remote trigger I've been offering. Also works with eye-fi cards.

I welcome corrections and additions to this list.

As far as camera recommendations go, I am quite sorry that I still haven't nailed down a "perfect" camera for this rig. The A2200 and A3300 look like great options, but as you point out, there are some limitations, at least with the A2200. Personally I will probably be trying to run this system with Scan Manager as much as possible, so remote capture is important enough to me that I will be trying the PTP extension for CHDK that you are talking about. I think the Scan Manager back-end is designed specifically to work with it, but it would be worth checking with OG200.

[cgott4242]

Ooh, good catch pleonard (and thanks for all the content you're putting online, I enjoyed your flickr pix very much). Once I get through shipping the current batch of orders I'm going to close the store for a while and work only on documentation.

The short answer, in my opinion, is that we have few options suitable for the Hackerspace Scanner.

There's Scan Manager, by OG200, which was basically designed for it. I've only spent a little time with it so far, but it seems pretty wonderful. If you want to do remote computer control, that's basically the best/only option for that scanner.

The next option (and the one I'm most familiar with) is the "use a battery box and a button" remote solution. No computer/tether, just the cameras running CHDK and looking for a signal. Combined with eye-fi cards this can mean a scanner that self-unloads and needs no wired computer connection.

The next option (and the most experimental and least tested) is the bike-brake remote trigger I've been offering. Also works with eye-fi cards.

I welcome corrections and additions to this list.

As far as camera recommendations go, I am quite sorry that I still haven't nailed down a "perfect" camera for this rig. The A2200 and A3300 look like great options, but as you point out, there are some limitations, at least with the A2200. Personally I will probably be trying to run this system with Scan Manager as much as possible, so remote capture is important enough to me that I will be trying the PTP extension for CHDK that you are talking about. I think the Scan Manager back-end is designed specifically to work with it, but it would be worth checking with OG200.

When I use scanmanager w/2 A2200's - it performs a shutter release on each camera, however immediately after it shuts off the cameras. Any idea?

[markvdb]

When I use scanmanager w/2 A2200's - it performs a shutter release on each camera, however immediately after it shuts off the cameras. Any idea?

As you can see in the chdk porting thread, there were quite a few new A2200 firmware releases (latest ones today). I have remote capture perfectly working. Focus distance override is still somewhat problematic (needs manual intervention), but we're getting there.

[mellow-yellow]

I have 2 of these and CHDK working. The cameras are not slow. In fact, they're faster than my two SX200IS, but you must default 2 second Review mode. Also, CHDK is more difficult to get working than the SX200IS, but it's possible. The SX200IS also has more zoom stops (see my post here http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=8277.0), which helps remove the gutter when using the Hackerspace Build. I've updated the recommended Cameras list with this info too.