Photography Bay

Digital Camera News, Reviews and Tips

Firmware Friday: Sony A900/A850, Fuji HS10, Panasonic FZ100/FX700/FX75, Ricoh CX4

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Camera Firmware Update

Below you will find this week’s firmware updates.  Hit the manufacturer website links for more details and download instructions for the firmware.

Sony A900 / A850 version 2.0 – “You can release the shutter even when no lens is mounted on the camera (P/A/S/M and Auto mode). The range of the exposure compensation is expanded to ±5 EV (Before the update: ±3 EV). The following setting has been added to the continuous bracket and single bracket shooting functions: The exposure bracket can now be set in 3 EV increments and the camera shoots three images ([3.0 EV– +3.0 EV]). (Before the update: Up to 2.0 EV). The speed of autofocus has been improved. The improvement will be most noticeable when using a tele lens, however the effect is dependent on the shooting condition.” [Sony Website]

Fuji HS10 version 1.04 – “1. Custom white balance can be set correctly when an external flash is mounted. 2. On slide show mode, sound of movie recording data can be performed on the HDTV which is connected with the camera via HDMI interface.” [Fuji Website]

Panasonic FZ100 version 1.2 – “1. Image quality improvement of Motion Deblur in iA Mode 2. Performance improvement of autofocus in taking pictures while recording Motion Pictures” [Panasonic Website]

Panaonsic FX700 and FX75 version 1.1 – “1. Image quality improvement of Motion Deblur in iA Mode (FX70/ FX75/ FX700) 2. Performance improvement of autofocus in taking pictures while recording Motion Pictures (FX700)” [Panasonic Website]

Ricoh CX4 version 1.05 – “Modified the following phenomenon. 1. In the Night Landscape Multi-shot, when pressing the shutter release button half way, the camera shake warning symbol camera shake warning will not be displayed in the screen.” [Ricoh Website]

 

Bower SFD926 TTL Flash Review

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The Bower SFD926 TTL flash is a hot shoe flash that is available for just about every DSLR on the market now.  At around $100, the SFD926 is an affordable alternative to the more expensive hot shoe flashes from Canon, Nikon and the likes.

The feature set is also rather impressive for a flash in this price range.  The SFD926 will operate as a normal TTL flash, which means that your camera can communicate directly with the flash to provide commands for the correct amount of flash output needed for a proper exposure.  Additionally, the SFD926 can be operated in manual mode with adjustments from full power down to 1/16 power (i.e., a 5-stop power range).

The SFD926 has an optical slave, which makes it an attractive option for the strobist-on-a-budget crowd who want to shoot in full manual across the power range. [Read more…]

Cyber Week Continues with Deals on Tokina Lenses, Benro Tripod & More

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Amazon is pushing well past Cyber Monday with a whole week of deals on a variety of products.  Just browsing through today’s “Lightning Deals” – it’s serving up deals on the Tokina 16.5-135mm lens in Canon and Nikon mounts (starting at 9:20AM ET), a Benro tripod and monopod, with more to be revealed throughout the day.

If you aren’t familiar with Lightning Deals, they are limited availability products that are reduced in price (sometimes significantly) for only a short period of time (usually 1-4 hours if the stock lasts that long).  You can check them out on Amazon’s Cyber Week page and you’ll get a feel for how the deal system works.

Canon 5D Mark II and 7D Get Locking Mode Dial Upgrade Option

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Canon has announced the availability of a locking mode upgrade for the Canon 5D Mark II and 7D, which will prevent the settings from accidentally being changed.  For now, the service upgrade has only been announced for Japan and will cost 10,500 yen (roughly $125 USD).

No word yet on the availability of this service upgrade in the US or other markets.

Is this a feature that you would want?  Will you pay for the upgrade if/when it becomes available in your market?

[Canon Japan via Rob Galbraith]

New Compact Flash Specs Proposed by Sony, Nikon, SanDisk

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SanDisk Extreme Pro 64GB CF Card

The future of camera memory cards may be a new CF card that offers transfer rates of 500 MB/sec and capacity in excess of 2 TB. The development of these proposed specifications were announced today as part of a joint effort among Sony, Nikon and SanDisk.

Nikon, SanDisk and Sony have submitted these high-powered specs to the CompactFlash Association in hopes of a future standardization of the format.  The new card specifications are based on a PCI Express interface (in order to achieve a 500 MB/sec transfer rate) instead of the Parallel ATA interface used in current generation cards.

According to the statement issued by SanDisk, Sony and Nikon, the new cards will be similar in size to existing CF cards.  Hopefully, that also serves as a hint that the new cards will do away with the pins inside camera, which are so susceptible to being bent.

Complete details of the announcement are below. [Read more…]