[Northern Soul]

I've been thinking about getting a compact camera to put in my pocket, as one does, and in doing so have stumbled upon CHDK - Canon Hack Developers Kit. This basically allows you to hack the firmware of Canon cameras to do all sorts of cool things. After all, features on modern cameras are mainly about the software rather than the springs and levers of old.

The feature that really caught my eye was focus bracketing, which is brilliant for macro. This allows you to set up the camera to take a number of shots with the focus moving tiny amount between each shot.

I used to use remote assistant with my K10d a fair amount when I was doing product shots so I'd love to see it make a comeback, and it really makes sense for the 645d. The code for remote assistant already exists so I can't imagine it'd be too much of a job to update it.

I know there is nothing new here; just wanted to add my thoughts on something that Ricoh could do for not much that would add great functionality. I'm not holding my breath though!

[Docrwm]

I went and looked at the CHDK Wiki site and it presents quite a remarkable range of added features for a huge list of Canon P&S cameras.
CHDK Wiki

[Sagitta]

I used CHDK with my old Powershot A470 up until the camera died. I was able to pull off some amazing shots (I used it mostly for bracketing) that otherwise would of been impossible with that cheap-o camera.