Sony Exec on Demand for Firmware Updates: ‘Sony Knows About It’
Sony cameras have for years held significant advantages for photographers but one issue has come up recently that has many upset: a lack of after-purchase support for even the company’s most expensive cameras.
Nikon and Canon regularly update their cameras with new features and options, but it is Nikon that is perhaps stealing the show. Since releasing its Z9, for example, Nikon has pushed out three major firmware updates that have significantly updated the performance of the flagship camera. That kind of treatment at the very least assures customers that the large investment in hardware isn’t taken for granted.
Perhaps looking longingly over the fence, Sony shooters have for a while now wondered why their cameras aren’t getting the same treatment. While Sony does push out firmware updates, they rarely amount to more than minor bug fixes or slight performance enhancements. Sony instead reserves major feature enhancements for brand-new models. So as the Z9 gets more powerful and more useful over time, the opposite can be said about Sony’s Alpha 1.
This issue was raised as the main issue with Sony cameras by PetaPixel‘s Chris Niccolls in a recent opinion piece highlighting each camera manufacturer’s weak points, and he isn’t the only one to bring it up: online conversations about Sony cameras always come back to a lack of after-purchase support.
It appears that Sony is at least listening. In an interview with Lensvid that took place at the recent IBC show in Amsterdam, spotted by Sony Alpha Rumors, Yann Salmon-Legagneur, Head of Imaging Products and Solutions Marketing at Sony Europe, says that while the company can’t respond directly to anything unreleased, Sony is listening.
“We know the need, the will of the market,” he says in the video below, timestamped. “I can tell you that the highest instances at Sony knows about it.”
While it’s obvious based on Salmon-Legagneur’s facial expressions during his response that it is clearly a conversation that has taken place within Sony, whether the company plans to do anything about it remains unclear. For example, Canon has repeatedly commented the same when it comes to questions about opening the RF mount to third-party autofocus lenses yet it has not done anything to respond to market demands.
Image credits: Sony
