Firmware Friday: New features, improvements for Ricoh GR III; Canon hears our pleas for 24p video

 

 

As another weekend arrives, it's time once more for our regular weekly summary of all that's new in the world of camera firmware. And this week, our Firmware Friday roundup brings with it something pretty cool. Not only do we have news of a camera receiving some new features -- which we always like to see -- but also we've learned that several more will be updated to address a concern we'd specifically raised in our own reviews. Awesome!

Let's get right down to what's new!

Canon EOS M6 Mark II, RP and 90D; PowerShot G5X II and G7X III

We'll kick things off this time around with Canon. In our reviews of some of the company's recent EOS and PowerShot-series cameras, we've mourned the loss of a 24 frames per second capture rate for movies -- and it seems the company was listening, because it's now announced that it will be bringing 24p capture to five different models. The Canon EOS RP and 90D will be first to gain 23.98 frames per second recording for both 4K and Full HD content later this month, while the PowerShot G5X II and G7X III will gain the same capability by year's end. Finally, the EOS M6 II will be receiving a firmware update giving it 24p capture some time in the first half of next year. Watch this space for more news in a future roundup.

Fujifilm Camera Remote

Next up, we have Fujifilm. This one's technically not firmware news, but we frequently cover software in these roundups as well, since it often goes hand-in-hand with firmware updates. The company is advising customers that, having tested Apple's new iOS 13 release, it has discovered that some unspecified iPhone models show Wi-Fi issues when using the Fujifilm Camera Remote app. There's no fix yet, so if this feature is important to you then you'll want to delay upgrading to iOS 13 while Fuji investigates and prepares a fix for the problem.

Panasonic VariCam 35

Panasonic has released a new V-Log to V-709 lookup table for its VariCam 35 video camera this week, along with variants for Quantel Pablo and DaVinci Resolve. You can grab a copy here.

Ricoh GR III

Finally, we come to Ricoh. The company has released the only firmware update shipped this week for its GR III compact camera. Firmware version 1.30 for the Ricoh GR III (download here) brings with it several new features and functional improvements, as follows:

New features:

• [Cross Processing] has been added to [Image control] of the [Image Process Setting] menu in the [Still Image Settings].

• [Cross Processing] has been added to [Image control] of the [Image Process Setting] menu in the [Movie Settings].

• [Crop] and [Touch AF] can be registered to [ADJ Mode Setting] of the [Customize Control] menu in the [Customize Settings].

• [Touch AF] can be registered to [Fn Button Setting] of the [Customize Control] menu in the [Customize Settings].

Improvements:

• Improved the AF performance of [Macro Mode] in dark places and low contrast.

• Changed to take over as the initial value after the next time when developing with [JPEG Recorded Pixels] setting changed in RAW development.

• When preparing to shoot with the shutter button, change the point that the electronic level is hidden by the guide display.

• Improved stability for general performance.

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

**Worried you might've missed a critical update lately? Don't be! Just click here for all recent Firmware Friday articles!**

• See all the latest Firmware Friday updates •

(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.)