Firmware Friday: Canon Cinema EOS C300 update returns, Olympus and Fuji firmware arrives
posted Friday, November 29, 2013 at 7:24 PM EDT
Right as the weekend arrives -- and in the US, the post-Thanksgiving shopping weekend continues -- we've got our regular Firmware Friday roundup for you. This week has been particularly active on the firmware front: We have news from Blackmagic, Canon, Fujifilm, Olympus, and Ricoh for you.
We'll get the ball rolling with Canon, whose latest update follows on from one that had to be withdrawn recently due to color balance issues in the previous firmware release. The updated Canon Cinema EOS C300 and C300PL firmware version 1.1.1.1.00 fixes this color balance issue, and integrates the same changes made in the previous release. These include peripheral lens correction , increased ISO sensitivity to ISO 80,000 equivalent, a record button lock function, and the ability to move the magnified view area to check focus of off-center subjects. Also included are the ability to have simultaneous Wi-Fi camera control and metadata input from two users, as well as to assign ISO and aperture adjustments to certain camera controls, plus GPS support, a new 1440 x 1080 35Mbps video mode at 50i/60i, wide DR gamma, flicker reduction, and various new exposure / control options.
Get the Canon EOS C300 firmware version 1.1.1.1.00 here.
Olympus, meanwhile, has updated two cameras and a lens. The camera updates are applied through Olympus' Digital Camera Updater application, and make several changes. The Olympus E-M1 gets better image quality wheen combining Live Bulb mode and noise reduction, improved autofocusing, better stabilization in sports / children modes with continuous autofocus, and reduced chromatic aberration with the LUMIX G VARIO 14-140mm 1:3.5-5.6 ASPH/POWER O.I.S lens (H-FS14140). The Olympus XZ-2 has improved low-light autofocus performance in single target mode.
Finally, the lens update is available through Digital Camera Updater for Olympus shooters, or from this page for Panasonic shooters. It makes only one improvement, specific to Panasonic camera bodies: Instability after using EX. Tele. Conv. on the camera has been fixed.
Ricoh's firmware is for two related models, the Ricoh G700 and G700SE. Both cameras get a fix for a problem where the specified cycle time in interval shooting isn't obeyed. The G700SE also has fixes for two Bluetooth connectivity issues: You no longer need to re-pair after every Bluetooth file transfer session, and when sending in Quick Send mode to an FTP server, the second file transfer doesn't fail.
Get the Ricoh G700 and G700SE firmware at the links below:
Finally, we've already mentioned the Fujfilm and Blackmagic firmware earlier this week. Fuji's updates for the X-Pro1, X-E1, X-E2 and X100S are covered in an article published yesterday, and the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera firmware update was covered on Tuesday. Hit the links for info on these.
(Camera parts image courtesy of Kelly Hofer / Flickr; used under a Creative Commons CC-BY-2.0 license.)