I LOVE CHDK. It lets you do so much cool stuff on canon powershot cameras, from shooting timelapses, to enabling RAW file options, to shooting video on cameras that never had video before. For the uninitiated, CHDK is an alternate firmware that your camera loads from the memory card. That keeps it relatively safe and allows you to reset your camera simply by switching the memory card! I’ve been using CHDK on and off since 2009, and I recently decided that I wanted a new camera to play around with. One of the toughest things about finding a good camera to run chdk on is that most, but not all canon cameras are supported. It is really hard to find a canon powershot and KNOW that it is compatible with chdk without doing a lot of work. Earlier today I had a tab open with the CHDK FAQ and a page open on amazon. I kept switching back and forth to find a good resolution, well featured chdk supported camera at a good price. That meant I had to keep a lot of info in my head. I quickly gave up on that and made this whole slew of amazon product links. It’s not the absolute best (that would be a database of megapixels, features, and price) but it definitely helps to hone in on your ideal price point.
Just in case you came here looking for a suggestion: go for the G series if you can swing it. They are amazing cameras in a small package. On the other hand – if you are dropping that much coin you might want to consider going for a dslr and running Magic Lantern on it. Magic lantern is like chdk, but coded explicitly for Canon’s dslr line.
On the other end of the line if you are just beginning and you don’t know how useful this will really be, don’t feel bad about buying an older camera. I would even recommend buying it used, but make sure that you get the charger and battery with it. Even if you get a mid level camera you will still end up with a better camera than the phone in your pocket!
Note: I’ve done my best in order to keep this clear and correct. I strongly urge you to cross reference any camera that you find with the CHDK FAQ before you click buy. So without further ado, here are the links. I plan on keeping it updated, so if it is useful – spread the word!
– UPDATE –
It seems as if Amazon doesn’t love the idea of having a solid page of ads, so they may have blocked them. I will break it up into separate pages by camera family in order to see how they feel about that.
CHDK compatible A series cameras
CHDK compatible ELPH series cameras
CHDK compatible S series cameras
CHDK compatible SD series cameras
CHDK compatible SX series cameras
CHDK compatible G series cameras