Firmware Friday: Improvements for the Canon 5D Mark III, Sigma SD1 and Fujifilm lenses
posted Friday, November 8, 2013 at 2:31 PM EST
Friday is here once more, and with it, our weekly wrapup of all that's new on the firmware front -- although this time around, we've two weeks of updates to cover. (With news editor Mike Tomkins out of town last week, we didn't have our usual Firmware Friday piece.) That means more to discuss than usual, including bug fixes for the Canon 5D Mark III, a picture quality improvement for the Sigma SD1 and SD1 Merrill, and a raft of lens firmware updates from Fujifilm.
We'll start with the Canon EOS 5D Mark III, as its update makes the most changes. In all, there are five tweaks in the Canon 5D Mark III v1.2.3 firmware, relating to autofocus, flash, and image review. Perhaps the most significant change is a fix for the flash not being triggered when the shutter button is pressed, and there's also an important fix for the camera straying from its configured autofocus microadjustment.
With its latest firmware, the Canon 5D Mark III no longer incorrectly displays the histogram of live view images, and it also now allows LCD monitor brightness to be adjusted even when an HDMI cable is connected. Finally, the new v1.2.3 firmware fixes an issue with false color on high-contrast edges when images are reviewed on the LCD monitor.
You can pick up the new firmware update from Canon USA's website, or your local Canon agent in other countries.
The update for Sigma's flagship SD1 digital SLR, as well as its rebranded variant the SD1 Merrill is more straightforward, but no less important if you're shooting with the company's 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM lens. After applying Sigma SD1 firmware v1.11, the camera will yield improved color in the corners of images shot at or near the lens' f/1.8 maximum aperture.
Grab the Sigma SD1 firmware update from the company's global website.
Fujifilm's firmware, meanwhile, is applicable to lenses rather than cameras -- but it enables use of each optic with the recently-announced X-E2 camera body. The Fuji X-E2 hasn't started shipping yet in the US market, but it's expected to arrive some time in the next couple of weeks. If you're planning to be among the first shooting with it, you can download the firmware now to prep your lenses for its arrival. In all, six lenses are updated to support the X-E2's phase-detection autofocus system, as well as its lens modulation optimizer technology. (The latter aims to combat diffraction and aberrations.)
You can pick up Fuji's firmware for each lens at the links below: