Firmware Friday: Fuji X-Pro1 update returns, plus more updates for Fuji, Panasonic cameras

With news editor Mike Tomkins moving house, there's been a brief hiatus in our Firmware Friday roundup lately. We return with good news for Fuji X-Pro1 owners: the firmware update which, yesterday, we reported had been pulled for a bug fix has now returned.

Fuji X-Pro1 firmware v3.01 includes the same features added in v3.00 -- that is to say, improved autofocus speed and accuracy, focus peaking, and an improved manual focus zoom control -- but fixes an intermittent problem with inability to record movies. Customers who've upgraded to the faulty v3.00 update should immediately switch to v3.01, which is also recommended for X-Pro1 owners who had yet to update. More details here.

Alongside the original update earlier this week, Fuji also released new firmware for four other cameras and five X-mount lenses. We already discussed the X-E1 mirrorless camera and lens firmware in an earlier article, the X-E1 update being basically identical to that for the X-Pro1, and adding the same features. That leaves the firmware for the FinePix XP200, F900EXR, and S8400W fixed-lens cameras. Fuji XP200 firmware v1.01 fixes an issue with USB charging and data transfer sometimes failing to work. The Fuji F900EXR firmware v1.02, meanwhile, solves an issue with camera lockups during wireless or wired data transfer. Finally, the Fuji S8400W firmware v1.04 fixes a camera lockup when movie capture was started or stopped. It also improves image stabilization.

And so we come to the Panasonic updates. Three model numbers are covered, but in essence they're pretty-much the same camera, and indeed they share the same firmware. The Panasonic FH10 is also known as the Panasonic FS50 in some markets. The Panasonic XS1, meanwhile, is essentially an FH10 in a slightly different body, and with Creative Control effects added. The shared version 1.1 update for the three models can be found here, and it brings two changes: improved picture quality when playing back images shot at 3 or 5 megapixels, and a tweak for the panorama mode.