If you have a Canon digital camera, you may not realize that your camera probably has a lot more features and power than you are currently seeing. Most Canon digital camera have the hardware to support advanced features, but the software that comes with the camera doesn't make these features available.

If you want access to the more advanced features on your Canon camera, it's pretty easy to hack your camera to get them. There is an open-source firmware project (firmware is the software inside your camera) called CHDK that extends your Canon camera software to support more advanced features.

Some of the available features are:

- Additional picture taking settings such as longer exposure times (over a minute), much faster shutter speeds (up to 1/25,000 sec), and automatic bracketing of your pictures.

- Enhanced methods of storing images which all you to capture still pictures in RAW format or JPEG. For video recording, you can have increase the recording time and length. You can also choose from a wider range of compression options.

- Additional data displays on the LCD screen like histogram, battery life indicator, depth of focus, and many more.

- CHDK also allows you to write scripts (or select from the existing large library of scripts) to run on your camera. You can use these scripts for all sorts of cool things like having your camera take a picture when it detects motion, perform time lapse photography and more.

If you have a Canon camera, unlock the power within it by upgrading your firmware today. CHDK is a tried and tested product with a large user base behind it. Their Wiki explains how to load the new firmware and how to use it to get the most power from it. CHDK make no permanent changes to your camera. If you don't like it, you can just remove it.