CHKDSK(?) for a A610?

[raven15]

I will shortly be receiving a Canon A610. My experience with this camera is that the image quality is not good enough for even 8x10 prints, largely because of jpeg compression. However, if I could convert it to shoot RAW it would be OK. I recall that a third-party update called "CHKDSK" (or something like that) is available for this camera but after a quick search of the thread I didn't see anything. Does anyone know anything about it?

Thanks.

[Anthony]

CHDK is what you want - http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/A610

I tried it once but currently do not have a spair SD card.

It can be a fight to get it working and took me about 3 goes, the instructions are not great and the RAW format was not a standard one. I had to download a program to convert it to a dng format before I could view the photos.

Anyway its worth a try and see what you get, I used it on a A650IS.

[raven15]

Alright, thanks.

[David Metsky]

BTW, the A610 will produce images that print at 8x10 just fine. No reason not to use the CHDK hack, but it's not needed for prints like that. I'm surprised that you think the image quality is insufficient for that.

[raven15]

Well, I would have said the same thing, but in a photography class I took last fall I had one miscellaneous shot from the A610 I decided to include in my final portfolio. The clouds in the shot looked distinctly blocky, by which I mean they literally formed several right angles many pixels long. This was clearly visible in the print, even after about 10 minutes with photoshop's blur tool. I also thought the highlights were excessively clipped (but this may not be fair). It was the only A610 shot I examined that closely, but it left the impression I could expect similar things normally.

That may not be totally fair because I was just borrowing the camera and don't know what compression it was set too. Also, I was dinking around in photoshop quite a bit trying to adjust exposure, lift shadows, darken the sky, etc. Looking at the shot again, I guess it really isn't fair, as it was taken in a contrasty situation (clouds? where did I find them? but something in the sky was blocky). Never the less, RAW would help. Note that my print was in black and white, allowing greater latitude in photoshopping.

I had already posted the shot, but labeled it incorrectly, it was taken with the borrowed A610 because the batteries in my A710 had died. Mountain goat seen here: http://www.dcresource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34809&highlight=wildlife&page=3

[David Metsky]

I've seen shots with the A610 blown up to 20x30 that looked pretty good. Except in some rare cases if you set images to the least compression you should have no problems at 8x10 with this camera.

But using the CHDK hack is worth it for plenty of reasons.

[Dark Cobra]

WoW! I gotta really agree with David. I've got two A610's. I bought the second when they started to disappear because I wanted to make sure I had a backup. This camera may well be one of the finest PowerShots Canon ever produced. Larger sensor (1/1.8), a very reasonable 5mp and ISO 50. I have many very fine images printed at 10 X 8 and even some larger.

I'm not sure what happened in your B&W cloud image, but that is not representative of the two A610's that I've got. PBase, Smug Mug, Flicker, etc. are loaded with exquisite images from this same camera. Could be something wrong with that particular camera or just a weird anomaly that occurred.

[raven15]

All right, you're making me feel better. I'm sure once I have looked through the settings I'll be able to eliminate most problems. Plus, the flippy LCD will be great :). I can practice for my future Oly E-620 DSLR with flippy screen.

[Dark Cobra]

Sounds great and good luck with that class. Please give the A610 another "go" as it is a very capable camera. I think what happened with that image was a mere "hiccup". Good luck with the Oly E-620 when you get it!

[Csae]

I've had multiple A550 images blown up to 8x10 no problem :o

i would like to think the next version would be a step up ?

[raven15]

Don't know if you meant the A620 when you said the next version?

[David Metsky]

Don't know if you meant the A620 when you said the next version?
I think he was implying that the A610 succeeded the A550. It didn't, they are different lines in the A-series. The A550 was succeeded by the A560/70/90. The A6XX series had larger sensors and better image quality from the start.