Firmware, software updates for Olympus E-M5 mirrorless, 9-18mm lens

Japan's Olympus Corp. today issued a firmware update for its popular OM-D E-M5 compact system camera, bringing several important changes. Key among these is what Olympus is referring to as "improved sleep recovery operation", which we presume addresses issues reported by some users where the camera can lock up on waking from sleep with certain lenses mounted, especially certain Panasonic lens models.

There's also a new function for the Olympus E-M5 that indicates the autofocus target when using continuous autofocus with tracking in the Sequential L drive mode. Additionally, underwater shooters using the M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-50mm F3.5-6.3 EZ lens will find that it now automatically zooms to wide angle when the camera is switched to Underwater Wide mode, and to telephoto when switched to Underwater Macro mode.

A few days ago, Olympus also issued an update for the M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 9-18mm F4.0-5.6 zoom lens, which resolves exposure level instability for burst shooting when using continuous autofocus on the E-M5.

Additionally, Olympus has updated its Viewer 2 application for the Windows and Macintosh platforms. In the United States and Japan, users can now upload images to Olympus' [ib on the net] photo sharing service, which offers 500MB of free storage. There's also now a function allowing editing of .MOV and .MP4 movies using Viewer 2.

More details can be found on the Joint Update Service for Olympus E-System website.