Is A CHDK For Nikon Around The Corner?
After last month's notice about Nikon firmware getting decrypted by Simeon Pilgrim and Vitaliy Kiselev, I thought we may see a nice NHDK (kinda like CHDK, but colored yellow).
If you are unfamiliar with CHDK, it is a <cough, cough> custom firmware for Canon cameras that adds features to low end models, stuff like Raw shooting, manual modes to low-end models, scripting ability and more. It is great if you want to capture hi res time-lapses or capture lighting shots with little effort. I used it in a lot of projects with my faithful G9.
There is also a higher end <hi end cough> custom firmware that is oriented more towards the Canon HDSLR users called Magic Lantern. This one adds video related features to the DSLR Canon line.
I was wondering what the decryption of Nikon's firmware will mean to the Nikon community and it seems like the first bird is a Star Wars themed control menu. Not too shabby for a test run. For now it only includes a text change for some of the menus, but I would be surprised if this pilot does not evolve into a bigger-better thing.
Here is the list of text changes (geeky, yet fun)
- Holocron - Playback menu
- Weapon System - Shooting menu
- Super Stardestroyer - Custom Setting menu
- Hyperdrive - Setup Menu
- Go to Dagobah Luke - Format Memory Card
- Death Star Codes - Firmware Version
- A Jedi? - Update? (new update screen)
- (help: StarWars v1.01)
- The Cantina - Retouch Menu
- My Menu - unchanged
- Dark side of force! - Subject is too dark
- Light side of force! - Subject is too light
I wonder what's in store for the NHDK, and what features it will offer. One cool thing for sure would be the ability to load it from a card, similarly to CHDK, rather than install it on the camera's flash. Anything you'd like to see?
