Q. Does the CHDK firmware consumes additional battery power?
A. Some people measured the battery consumption rate and found that using the CHDK does not affect battery consumption (either not at all, or just minimally). It makes no difference whether the live histogram etc. is activated or not, because the CPU of the camera always works (looking for keyboard presses in the loop). Btw, histogram is calculated even it is not displayed.
But, with CHDK user usual increases the time when shoot button is half-pressed. Because he is looking at the histogram, zebra, etc. Not just at the green/yellow rectangle.
Here are some measured power consumption rates. The absolute numbers may not be totally accurate. But they should give you an idea about which camera mode consumes how much power.
A610 (Maksym)
mode |
LCD on/off | shutter half pressed y/n | flash on/off | (special remarks) | power consumption in mA |
rec |
LCD on | shutter half pressed | flash on | 900 | |
rec |
- | shutter half pressed | flash on | 800 | |
rec |
LCD on | shutter half pressed | - | 500 | |
rec |
- | shutter half pressed | - | 400 | |
rec |
LCD on | - | - | 300 | |
rec |
LCD on | - | flash on | review of photo | 800 |
rec |
LCD on | - | - | review of photo | 500 |
play |
LCD on | - | - | review of photo | 150 |
A710 (Andrey-nag)
mode |
LCD on/off | shutter half pressed y/n | flash on/off | (special remarks) | power consumption in mA |
rec |
LCD on | shutter half pressed | flash on | 350-450 (shooting with flash 400, peaks up to 1400) | |
rec |
LCD on | shutter half pressed | - | 400 | |
rec |
LCD on | - | - | video recording | 350-375 |
rec |
LCD on | - | - | 325 | |
rec |
- | - | - | 25-50 | |
play |
LCD on | - | - | some user activity | 100 |
play |
LCD on | - | - | idle | 75 |
Additional power consumption when using the CHDK: none
A710 (EWAVR)
mode |
LCD on/off | shutter half pressed y/n | flash on/off | (special remarks) | power consumption in mA |
rec |
LCD on | - | - | 600 | |
rec |
- | - | - | 150 | |
play |
LCD on | - | - | 200 |
Additional power consumption when using the CHDK: +20 mA