My dad bought me this Panasonic ZS3 digital camera from Hong Kong, that I’ve been wanting for quite a while. It’s going to be a replacement to my beloved Canon SD1000, and it’s going to mainly serve as my video recording device for use when I travel. It’s got a sweet 12X optical zoom, plus HD (720p) video recording capability. However the most impressive feature to me is the camera’s ability to let you zoom in/out optically while you’re recording video - there are very few, if at all, compact cameras in the world that are able to do that. My dad bought me a spare battery, a Sandisk 16GB SD card, and a pouch as well

I played around with the camera for a bit, it seems to be quite easy to use, in fact “too easy”, as it lacks manual controls. I think it’s alright since it’s just going to a camera for casual use, when I get serious I still have my Olympus E-3 DSLR. I’m going to bring it with me now whereever I go

I came across this little utility called CHDK today, which claimed to be able to add extra functionalities to most if not all of the Canon point-and-shoot cameras. One of the super cool feature was to enable optical zoom in video recording mode. I couldn’t wait but grabbed my trusty Canon SD1000 camera, followed the online instructions (which involved loading some files onto the SD card, and then loading a software up in the camera, pretty straight forward), and it WORKED…! I was able to do optical zoom in video recording mode in addition to the standard digital zoom! The drawback was that the built-in mic picked up huge noise from the zoom motor, which I found was super annoying on playback. Well the optical zoom capability was invaluable though, I thought I would keep it set as the default. CHDK also added lots of other cool options to the camera, like saving files in RAW format (I was in shock pretty much when I got to know this), adjusting video file compression rate on-the-fly, displaying an icon that showed the level of remaining battery (super useful)….etc.

A list of CHDK’s cool features:

• RAW - CHDK can record raw files, giving you access to every bit of data the sensor saw, without compression or processing. Raw files can be manipulated on the camera, or processed on your PC. CHDK also has experimental support for the open DNG raw standard.
• Override Camera parameters - Exposures from 64s to 1/60.000s with flash sync. Full manual or priority control over exposure, aperture, ISO and focus.
• Bracketing - Bracketing is supported for exposure, aperture, ISO, and even focus.
• Video Overrides - Control the quality or bitrate of video, or change it on the fly.
• Scripting - Control CHDK and camera features using ubasic and Lua scripts. Enables time lapse, motion detection, advanced bracketing, and much more. Many user-written scripts are available on the forum and wiki.
• Motion detection - Trigger exposure in response to motion, fast enough to catch lightning.
• Edge overlay - Detect the edges in a scene, and display them later. Ideal for timelapses, stop-motion, stereography and much more.
• Live Histogram - CHDK includes a customizable, live histogram display, like those typically found on more expensive cameras.
• Zebra-Mode - Displays under and overexposure areas live on the screen.
• GRIDS - Create custom grids and display whichever one suits your shooting conditions.
• Multi-Lingual Interface - CHDK supports about 13 languages, and adding more languages is simple.
• DOF Calculator - Display detailed DOF information on the screen.
• Customizable OSD - Improved display of battery status, free space, camera parameters, and much more. Fully customizable with an on-screen editor.
• Filebrowser - Manage files without a PC.
• Textreader - Display text files on your camera.
• Games - Play Reversi, Sokoban, Mastermind or 4-in-a-Row on your camera.
• USB remote - Simple DIY remote allows you to control your camera remotely.
• Benchmark - Compare the performance of your SD cards.
• User Menu - Edit your own customizable User-Menu for fast access to often used features.