Firmware Friday: Nikon fixes camera power-on issues; Panasonic improves Wi-Fi for Apple Macs

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posted Friday, August 30, 2013 at 8:30 PM EDT

Apologies for the tardiness of our weekly Firmware Friday update today. A few technical issues mean we're a few hours later than planned in getting the article online, but we're back running on all cylinders now.


This week, we have updates for no less than eleven cameras to report on, but most share the same changes, so they'll be quick to sum up.

First, we have a raft of no less than nine updates from Nikon. They actually shipped two or three weeks back for US-market cameras, but slipped under the radar until the folks at Photography Blog picked up the news from a subsequent Nikon Europe update. For all nine cameras, an issue in earlier firmware could cause the camera not to power on, or stop it from being operable. (We're guessing here, but reseating the battery would likely resolve the issue temporarily.) Either way, you need worry no more, as the new updates fix this issue.

For one model -- the Coolpix S6500 -- the update also allows use of the Take Photos mode in Wireless Mobile Utility ver. 1.2.0 to capture photos and have them transferred immediately to your smart device.

All of these updates can be downloaded from Nikon USA at the links below:

Panasonic, meanwhile, has updates for two Micro Four Thirds mirrorless cameras this week. Both the Panasonic GF6 and G6 receive fixes for Wi-Fi connectivity issues with Apple Mac computers. The Panasonic G6 also gets improved stability of the eye-switching function that determines whether the LCD or electronic viewfinder should be active, using the proximity sensor adjacent to the viewfinder.

Download Panasonic's updates at the links below: