Firmware Friday: Olympus E-M1 II, Fuji X-A5 / X-T100, Ricoh Theta V and Sigma sd Quattro-series updated

 

 

After a brief hiatus in the midst of a busy stretch last week, Firmware Friday returns this week with a healthy selection of new firmware updates for cameras from a variety of manufacturers. Fuji, Olympus, Panasonic, Ricoh, Sigma and Sony all have new firmware releases in the past fortnight, catching us back up from where our last roundup left off.

So what's new? Let's get right down to it!

Fuji X-A5 and X-T100

Starting off with Fujifilm, the company has released new firmware for two of its compact system cameras. The new firmware version 1.20 update for the X-A5 and the v1.10 update for the X-T100 both include all of the following five changes as per the official release notes:

1. Advanced Filters “Rich & Fine” and “Monochrome [NIR]”
   “Rich & Fine” filter is recommended for food and other tabletop photography. It simulates brighter and more vivid colors at the center of the image and adds slight shadow at the four corners to emphasize the subject. “Monochrome [NIR]” simulates Monochrome effect as taken by near-infrared cameras. These modes will allow photographers to add additional artistic flair or film-like color tones to their photos.

2. SQUARE MODE
   The “SQUARE MODE” allows users to switch to 1:1 format with a single flick on the touchscreen. The “SQUARE MODE” enhances compatibility with social media networks where 1:1 format has become the standard image format for posting photos.

3. Improvement of AF accuracy when pressing the shutter button halfway in AF-C mode.

4. The phenomenon is fixed that the highlight warning doesn’t appear in the Info display.

5. Fix of slight defects.

In addition to all of these, the X-T100 gets two further tweaks:

6. Initial setting of ISO is changed to “AUTO” when switching to P, S, A, M, Adv modes.

7. The phenomenon is fixed that the AF frame in the navigation window in the EVF can shift from the set position when enlarging the focus position display.

You can download firmware version 1.20 for the X-A5 here, and firmware version 1.10 for the X-T100 here.

Olympus E-M1 II

Moving along to Olympus, firmware version 2.2 for the E-M1 Mark II makes just two changes, per the release notes:

1. Stability of operation when shooting still images has been improved.

2. Corrected issue of C-AF not operating correctly when using the "LEICA DG SUMMILUX 25mm / F1.4 ASPH.(H-X025)" interchangeable lens produced by Panasonic.

You can install the update using Olympus' Digital Camera Updater application for MacOS or Windows machines.

Panasonic AU-EVA1

Next up, we have firmware version 2.52-00-0.00 for the Panasonic EVA1 video camera. Here, there is just a single change made:

• The firmware is improved so that the “CHECK CARD” warning is displayed if there is a difference between the information detected in the card slot and the information inside the SD card when it is inserted in the slot, and the recording won’t be started in error.
  
  Details
  When a UHS-II SD card is inserted in the card slot, it may not be correctly detected as UHS-II on occasions (= pushing it for more than one second, etc.). In this case, it is detected as a card with a write speed of less than 400Mbps. So, if the format is set to 4K/UHD 422 All-I 400M and the recording is started, an error will occur in a few minutes and the recording will stop. To address this problem, the specification has been improved as described above.

You can download Panasonic's update here.

Ricoh Theta V

We can keep things extremely short and sweet in discussing the firmware version 2.41.1 update for the Ricoh Theta V, because we've already told you literally everything we know about the update. Ricoh tells us only that it has fixed bugs, but doesn't specify which, or what they entailed. Download the update using the Ricoh Theta app in the Google Play store for Android devices, or using the Mac and Windows apps available here.

Sigma sd Quattro and sd Quattro H

Sigma's firmware version 1.11 release for the sd Quattro, as well as its v1.07 update for the closely-related sd Quattro H, are also bug fix updates. However, the company does us the favor of actually telling us what's changed, and so we know that these updates both resolve a problem whereby if you captured a multi-shot .X3I raw file and then extracted a single X3F raw frame, then adjusted values using Sigma Photo Pro, the extracted raw file could no longer be edited. The problem has now been fixed, and you can get the fix for the sd Quattro here, or that for the sd Quattro H here.

Sony CineAlta Venice 6K

And finally, we come to the Sony CineAlta Venice 6K video camera, which is now running version 2.01 firmware. Here, there are two changes made. Firstly, startup stability is said to have been improved. Sony also says that it has improved noise levels in AXS recording. The v2.01 update isn't yet available from Sony USA, but we'd expect to see it arrive soon. Watch this space!

And that's all for this week. Be sure to check back next time for more firmware news!

(Camera parts image courtesy of Kelly Hofer / Flickr; used under a Creative Commons CC-BY-2.0 license. Image has been modified from the original.)