Hacking a Canon Point-and-Shoot

I wouldn't see myself doing this, but have to admire the determination and ingenuity of the people responsible. Lifehacker.com has an article on how to load low-level software (a firmware enhancement, if you know the term) into a Canon point-and-shoot, often achieving many of the following:

• added information on the display screen


• RAW image support, and not just JPEG


• exposure times of over a minute and shutter speeds over 1/25,000 sec


• automatic exposure bracketing

I am surprised and impressed by the claims - though I'm not quite ready to test them on one of the point-and-shoots members of my family own.