Ever since the Canon 1D X and 5D Mark III were released, photographers have been complaining about sometimes not being able to see the black AF points in the new 61-point system. In July we wrote that Canon was reportedly working on a fix. It now looks like the fix may soon be upon us, in the form of a firmware update.
A press release announcing the new firmware appeared briefly on Canon’s website today but was quickly taken down once the news started getting around. The release mentioned two impending upgrades to the 1D X: red AF point illumination and cross-type autofocusing at f/8.
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The Olympus OM-D EM-5 is a powerful little camera, but what owners are using these days many only be a portion of what the camera is fully capable of. 43 Rumors writes that an anonymous hacker is claiming to have hacked the camera using some firmware update trickery. What he or she found was quite interesting: hidden and locked features such as clean HDMI 4:2:2 output and focus peaking!
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After months of dedicated hacking, Magic Lantern has finally been released for the Canon 7D. The new alpha version of the firmware add-on introduces a slew of new features to the camera, including focus peaking, zebra stripes, magic zoom, spotmeter, liveview customization, image review tweaks, and much more.
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If you thought the design and hardware specs of Canon’s upcoming 4K-capable 1D C are strangely similar to the company’s flagship 1D X, you’re right: the two models feature identical hardware loaded with different firmware. At Photokina 2012, DSLR filmmaking blog EOSHD spoke to Canon representatives, who confirmed this fact to be true. They write,
The 1D C is a 1D X with a 4K firmware update. Canon’s man told me that the only hardware change was to do with the flash sync jack [...] So essentially the 1D X hardware – sensor, processor, everything – is capable of 4K video, 100%, no heat or bandwidth issues either.
What’s crazy is how much the difference in firmware affects the camera’s price. With a suggested retail price of $15,000, the 1D C more than doubles the 1D X’s price tag of $6,800.
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In addition to the new X-E1 announced this morning, Fujifilm has also unveiled its upcoming version 2.0 of its X-Pro1 firmware. Autofocus has been a much-griped-about feature of the X-Pro1 (and the X100, for that matter), and the new firmware addresses that issue by improving the AF capabilities of the camera in different ways.
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Nikon might be releasing an entirely new camera to upgrade its Nikon 1 lineup in small ways, but Canon is going a different route with its 7D DSLR. The company has rolled out a major firmware upgrade that makes major improvements to the features of existing cameras.
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For those of you who have never heard of Magic Lantern (or know it only as a 17th century image projector) as far as Canon HDSLRs are concerned, Magic Lantern is a firmware add-on that first appeared in 2009 for the 5D Mark II. Since then it has been ported to most Canon HDSLRS and, for years, it has been known as a hack that brave and/or curious Canon owners have added to their cameras in order to squeeze out more functionality — in some cases a lot more. The risk, of course, was always stability. Read more…
Ever since people started getting their hands on the 5D Mark III and the 1D X’s 61-point AF system, they have been complaining about the black AF points for one reason or another (mostly regarding visibility). Whatever the complaints, however, the resounding request has been the same: bring back the red-when-active AF-points from the last 1D. And even though we’re not sure if that’s how Canon intends to fix the problem, Canon Rumors is reporting that the the Japanese camera giant has heard the complaints, and is currently working on solution.
Admittedly, the fact that CR was told the solution “may not be ideal for everyone” is anything but heartening, but at least Canon knows there is a problem, and is very likely going to fix it in an upcoming firmware update.
(via Canon Rumors)
Update: It looks like the update is working on Macs just fine, even if it isn’t showing up online. Thanks to all our E-M5 toting readers for letting us know!
Firmware updates come pretty often, so they don’t typically make news unless they bring with them a particularly impressive set of improvements, like v2.0 for Canon’s 7D a few weeks back. And although Olympus’ firmware version 1.2 for the OM-D E-M5 does help improve the functionality of your camera, it’s also being talked about for another reason entirely. Read more…
Earlier this month we reported on rumors of a significant Canon EOS 7D firmware update that was possibly in the works, and today that update became official. Not surprisingly, the rumors seem to have been spot on, as firmware v2 for the 7D brings many of the highly-anticipated and frequently-requested features that users of Canon’s flagship APS-C SLR have been pining for. Read more…
