Yesterday Zeiss said that a new NEX-5-6-7 firmware update is due for August. This also indirectly confirms the rumor I posted two months. There I wrote that a new A77-NEX-7 firmware is coming in August. A77-A65 owners can expect some of their requests to be fulfilled by Sony…some, not all 🙂
What I don’t know yet is if there will be a new A99 firmware update too. Some source got some information about that?
105 Responses
ABOUT F__KING TIME!
LOLz…..
my KING DOM FOR A TIME
As a A77 user I am not getting my hopes up. Please, Sony, prove me wrong!!!!!
My wishes are
Higher ISO in Video
Do not keep setting when switching from Video to Still and back
Propper Braketing
F/Stop with AF in Video not only F/3,5
Audio Monitoring
Better JPG Engine
FINE JPG+Raw
Higher Video Bitrate
Customizable EVF and Screen Menu (for example, hide logo that smile shutter is off)
…
I’d like 720p recording for videos to take less space…
How much are you prepared to pay for such an update?
I am not a Sony A77 user but why should he pay for a firmware update ?
This is a wish list. Of the above I am hoping at least the JPEG engine gets better. Sony JPEG sucks big time.
No one said you have to pay for firmware update, so what are you talking about?
Just asking how much are you prepared to pay for such an update?
Any jpeg sucks so it should not be a surprise that Nikon, Canon and Sony jpeg sucks.
fuji’s x-series ooc jpegs are pretty darned good, me thinks.
Fuji raw sucks. So I rather have jpeg that sucks than raw that sucks.
How much are future Sony a77 buyers willing to pay for an a77 if it is not updated?
Please stop with this “Sony doesn’t earn anything from firmware updates” nonsense.
Firmware updates on a current model is something a manufacturer does to keep the model competitive so he can sell more cameras or sell them at a higher price.
And the a77 will be the current model for some time, since the successor has been postponed to somewhere in 2014.
Thank you for answering my question! Not…
Firmware updates are for sold camera’s. New camera’s don’t need update because they already have latest firmware.
Next!
Firmware updates are for new and old cameras. New cameras have the latest firmware before being sold, but it still needs to be programmed to be available for the new cameras. And the day a company choose to make an updated firmware which they ship with new cameras without releasing it for old cameras is the day they loose a lot of customers. To not make firmware updates is acceptable, but to make them and just tease existing customers with it is suicide.
Camera bought in store and having the lasest firmeware, You are so funny!
You can’t expect new firmware for old camera’s. Still waiting on you A100 firmware update? I think it is a bit sick to imply that only new customers would get the latest firmware.
Thank you for not understanding a word of what I tried to explain to you.
Let me make it really simple for you to understand:
1. Sony may need to make a new firmware for the camera models they have in stores, so they can stay competitive and sell those cameras.
2. Owners of a camera model which is still in stores will also benefit from such firmware updates.
3. The a77 is still in stores.
Thank you for stating the obvious… 🙂
What’s not to understand? I understand but I couldn’t care less. It has nothing to do with firmware update.
So I return to this question: how much are you prepared to pay for such an update?
agreed
update to support more lens only?……
+1
I’ll get my pants wet if the firmware actually addresses things that need fixing that improve the use of the camera, not just the addition of lens profiles (which are welcome additions if you use JPEG, but useless for RAW if your software has a lens profile that already corrects those flaws).
If it’s just more lens profiles, then yawn. The A77 is a superb camera but the damn firmware does slow it down and refrain it from being the awesome powerhouse it can be. If Sony has trashed the A78, then they really could make us happy with a GREAT firmware upgrade.
If it will be reheated stuff, then I’ll pass. I only upgraded to V1.07 for the AF improvement and the EFC flash problem, otherwise, I would have stayed in V1.06.
I hope Sony does the right thing for us. Fingers crossed.
+100 🙂
Realtime clipping would be helpful… Also automatic magnification of the active af point when using dmf
If this time the Nex-7 firmware is 1.03 I will be really disappointed.
I hope big changes and just remember a time when the Nex-5 had 5 huge firmware with true improvements.
For now I can’t understand why at least there is no update for lens compensation for all e mount lenses
Better high ISO
Tethering please!
+1
There were a few improvements added to last release that were not in the release notes (start/shutdown speed, etc), so even if its just a lens only release, other things will be undocumented but improved.
Since last release, the A77 has actually become a very good camera for typical use except for the usual issues (high iso and JPEG engine, neither of which I think can be improved that much because they are in architecture and hardware, not firmware… the camera has to convert to JPEG at the frame rate for example, and that will be done in hardware, so you can’t compare it to a a simple JPEG plugin or software-only routine in Photoshop and call it a quick fix).
Also worth noting that Sony firmware has to support a LOT of older lenses to support (i.e. Minolta AF – If you get the Minolta mini-beercan and beercan you have f4 up to 210×1.5mm for peanuts, throw in a couple of minolta f1.4 primes and along with your 16-50 2.8 you have some cracking glass that works really well), so Sony have to do a LOT of regression testing, because many of the clued up A77 users will have a lot of older lenses.
However, Magic lantern can now do RAW video, so I think some improvement in max video quality is long overdue, especially when Sony are selling video as a big plus for SLT. Sound isn’t such an issue (for me at least) because I do that off camera (a simple PCM recorder like the Tascam DR07 or Zoom H1 is much better than the camera mic will ever be).
Also, something to fix the slideshow in fast fps shooting would be really really good (but again, I have a feeling that is down to architecture).
Oh, and of course, if they’re not going to do anything else to video, clean HDMI out like on the A99 would be the best single thing they could add. That actually sounds feasible because they would be taking something out (ui overlay) rather than adding anything.
The A700 v4 firmware made improvements, so yes, it can be done in firmware.
Fair point. I hope you’re right, and the move from 12MP to 24MP did not result in stuff like JPEG conversion migrating to a hardware pipeline.
I could easilly sacrifice a few FPS for better JPEG quality / ISO performance…
Video quality should be main focus !
Of course tethered too, but i dont think they are going to fix it.
There is a rumour on a new jpg engine being developed. Fingers crossed.
heart die, nothing to expect more… 🙁
I want to be able to use my wireless anytime. In bracket mode expecially. It should be removed from the drive mode and activated elsewhere. Either that or give me a corded remote. Having to press the shutter button in bracket mode is just plain wrong.
on the NEX-7
Yep, that’s a big oversight. Same on the NEX-6.
I wonder if it’s possible to make a remote for the NEX 6 for the MI Shoe. Checked the pin-layout on wiki, but didn’t see anything that could trigger the shutter.
There is a remote for the MI side port: Sony RM-VPR1
You’re welcome.
@Peter, Are you sure this is compatible with NEX? On the Sony Canada site it is listed for Alpha DSLR and makes no mention of NEX.
I’d love to see the rumored focus peaking improvements for the NEX7N being applied to the A65/A77 or nex7 via firmware upgrade.
AF micro adjustment in the A65 would be nice to have too.
And better video quality.
These would do it for me 😛
What i R E A L L Y want in an upgrade for the A99 is support for a decent tethering directly to lightroom instead via the proprietry software which clearly sucks. It is way to slow! And the support for full functionality for the WIFI SD-card.
Thats Adobe “problem”, not Sony.
It seems it is Donald’s problem!
A77 firmware update COULD be released in August. Or not.
Maybe updates for the A65 and A57 too ? I guess tethering on the A77/A65/A57 is too much to ask for.
and NEX-7 as well
I need only one update: replace my A77 to A99
Tethering please sony. I don’t want any lens profiles, etc. please do something about tethering. I will live with all the bugs in my A77. I love it. great camera but small things make you feel disappointed. please add tethering. plssssssss
It’s time as part of the entire SONY rethink to also as part of the much larger goal of capturing market share in the high-end market to:
1. Include tethering – a must for serious shooters!
2. Open up the firmware, look what Magic Lantern has done for those cameras!
3. Less proprietary on the camera system, without a good 3rd party market you are wasting your time, you can have an awesome camera but without the 3rd party vendor support, you will continue to struggle.
I love SONY cameras – i just hope part of the overall “new” strategy this stuff is part of it!!
There are too many firmware requests to even mention, and traditionally SONY doesn’t even listen anyways, tethering has been a request for 4+ years now!! SONY i challenge you to show me that this was all in the past and that the “new” strategy is one in which you truly intend to compete!
I’ll not get too excited, it’ll probably end up being lens updates.
I welcome lens updates. You don’t like them? 🙂
A77 with newest firmware is still too slow to follow my finger-actions when changing the ISO value while shooting a wedding in the church. I don´t want to use auto-ISO, I want a speedy camera!
Well …
I wish Tethering, clean HDMI output, audio monitor, good bracketing, timelapse 😀 …
But Sony will update only for new lense I think 🙁
I agree with you. It sucks to know that there are cheaper cameras out here that have better tethering capabilities then the A77. Not to mention you cant even turn off the display features in Live view when you hook it up to the HDTV or to an external device.
Keep your expectations low and you won’t be disappointed.
That should be Sony’s brand message.
Your message is ‘I want it all and I don’t want to pay for it’.
JPEG Engine Quality (Definitely can be helped)
High ISO Quality (not sure this can be helped at this point)
If the update merely adds lenses to the auto correction list, then it doesn’t bring useful improvements. Why? Because you’re only making additions to JPEG shooting, which is the downfall of this body.
The main thing needed for the NEX series is to make the remote control and delayed action work with the multi-exposure modes such as HDR and HHT.
And if the saving format is set to JPG+RAW, then HDR should save a RAW file as the single exposure rather than a JPG. (The HDR output has to be a JPG of course.) This would be a big help in difficult exposure situations.
An option to cut out the pre-flash would make it possible to use the kit flash as a trigger for studio flash equipment.
better to trigger studio flash with radio imo. With a slave cell I’m always wondering if it will fire and I don’t want direct flash of any kind
Already there: manual popup flash, intensity set to lowest.
Then there’s always Phottix for true wireless rather than optical (full manual on the Flashes though as you’re on trigger only).
I’ve never seen a studio flash that wasn’t manual. I currently use Buff Einsteins with a cyber commander and it is the bomb. Speedlights are a different animal altogether and that’s why they have a wireless feature.
I hope these fixes/enhancements on next A77 firmware:
– JPG quality
– lens correction also in RAW
– tethering
– better noise reduction algorithm
– realtime preview off-scale colors
– better personalization of EVF
– more configurable settings for in-camera effects
– lens-correction support for Minolta/Tamron/Sigma lenses
– user friendly micro-focus adjustement
– high ISO quality miracle! 😀
Why are you so interested in the whole “lens correction” thing? What does that add to you experience? If you shoot RAW i’m pretty sure you can do some minor adjustments, and in lightroom you can even make custom profiles for your lenses, so i don’t think that should be a priority!
“– lens correction also in RAW”
NO! NO! NO!
No cooking of my raws, please.
– tethering
YES
“– better personalization of EVF”
YES! YES!
I hate having my view filled up with status of toy functions I don’t need. But right now the choices are only some minor variations of All Or Nothing.
“– user friendly micro-focus adjustement”
YES! YES! YES!
How many button presses should it take to change the micro adjustment?
Testing out differen micro adjustment values is extremely cumbersome.
Oops. You forgot one:
Auto ISO in M.
YES! YES! YES!
YES! YES! YES!
YES! YES! YES!
If you don’t like lens correction in RAW, then simply turn it off. I would welcome the feature, since the lightroom profiles available for download don’t seem to match my 16-50 distortion, but the in-camera profile works great. And I don’t have a studio or time to work on custom profiles. All I want to do in lightroom is to work with light. Last thing i want to worry about is lens distortion.
Something tells me that you don’t understand what a raw file is if you want lens correction for it.
Something tells me that you can’t think out of the box.
About Sony firmware updates. I just got from eBay a SEL P 16-50. It’s great for what I want it for, so we need to deal with the lens details. So, I have both a Nex 5n and original Nex 5, both very good cameras. I knew about the firmware u
About Sony firmware updates. I just got from eBay a SEL P 16-50. It’s great for what I want it for, so we need to deal with the lens details. So, I have both a Nex 5n and original Nex 5, both very good cameras. I knew about the firmware update before buying. What I don’t get is why they support an update for some cameras and not others. I cannot believe that the update cannot be done on both. Even so, what about future firmware updates on future cameras. If lens and camera pairings are going to need significant firmware updates, then then will we not run into sun setting issues on an ongoing basis, and how does Sony decide when a camera is no longer going to be supported by its own product line? By the way the 16-50 on the Nex 5n is a very nice small package. Going to try it out at Disney World. My Pentax k5, although small, isn’t near as tiny.
I would like time lapse. But it will remain a dream, i’m very sure about it.
Isn’t the only reason the NEX series is getting updates because of compatibility with the Zeiss Touit lenses? If so, why would this guarantee an A77 update?
who cares about jpegs, the last time i used jpegs was when i had an a100 and the only time use them now is on my iphone, jpegs
So true…
People keep finding new excuses for complaining.
I might be stating the obvious here, but maybe, just maybe, because it saves post-processing ALL images rather than a small minority that require extra work…
But hey, you carry on using software to get the best out of an image that should be just fine straight out of the camera.
So use your camera phone, you won’t even have to upload them to google+ yourself. I care about my images so I use raw files…
As we already saw it with the new NEX, the only way to improve your camera will be to buy an app to run on it!
Aren’t we forgetting something? (a57…hinthint)
Discontinued, get used to the lack of updates.
Once again you are talking crap. I got firmware update for discontinued camera so stop being an ass.
So far it seems like these firmware updates don’t do very much, but I’m hopeful that the 5r can get:
-better AF from the PDAF
-better controls by allowing the rear ring to have independent function
-more options to choose for the Fn button (ISO, Exp comp, etc)
These things would greatly improve my opinion of my camera. What would be better but won’t happen? Switch everything to Alpha menus!!
For Sony a99 update, allow more exposures in HDR bracketing mode, and make it in RAW. PLEASE!!
Nikon d800 is around the same price point as the a99, and it has that function!!
Why is this so hard to make happen??
will sony did like canon, released ultimate fw to their 7D….
I find it funny that topics on alpha systems always have nex/e-mount comments in them.
Topic clearly states a77, why all the wishes for NEX firmware fixes?
Stay on topic please!
Did you Read the article? It says A77-NEX. In the article so the nex farm is going to chime in. Why get so hurt its all sony anyway.
well, a feature already in the A99 is CLEAN HDMI. This is absolutely something sony CAN do on the A77, but do they WANT to? I’m not optimistic…
Dear Andrea, yesterday I was busy with shooting a classical music concert. My partner was shooting with 5Dmk3 and I was with my A99. After the shoot, I collected all videos for post processing. I shoot 1920×1080 50p and 5Dmk3 shoot 1920×1080 25p. What I saw was; 5Dmk3 has a bit rate of 87.0Mbps (A99 bit rate is 28.0Mbps). On the sound side 5Dmk3 audio bitrate is 1.536kbps and A99 bitrate is 256kbps. As a result, 5Dmk3 did a better job in video. The files were uncompressed, huge, more friendly for post processing. The thing comes to my mind is this is because of the difference of algorithms in the cameras, which can be changed through firmware revisions. But I think A99 as it’s hardware bottlenecks that it cannot process such a bandwidth. What do you think? As all of you know, A99 was introduced as a video king but it is not.
I know I’m going to get flack for this but I would like to actually pay for updates or features I want.While I don’t think it would be AL-cart it would be sold in package levels.
While not like windows or mac when they are fixing security holes or other small details that are included in basic operating features. We are asking for new features.
Apple seemed to figure it out. Charge a Nominal amount and people will update. Like some I think they need to unify base software across all nex and alpha lines. This would create a platform for developers and programers to work with and then they can update. Cameras now are not unlike computers/phones. When you buy a phone from a premium vendor like apple or Samsung you get updates to OS for a certain period. After which you buy a new phone because they stop supporting it.
Don’t be stingy like windows were its full locked in software. Apple you own apple while apple knows a limited number of PC’s are running there apple software its not main stream. Its not like people are out there hacking Canon’s and Nikon’s and putting the sony firmware on it.
Give me a camera OS and support it like apple and you will become the #1 camera company in the world. While I don’t thing Samsung is going heavy after the market yet there are a potential world leader. I read Android OS was originally going to be a camera software OS.
Sony Listen to my plea.
Unify your software/firmware nex-alpha. This will also bring your development costs down. HMMM Profits go up?
We should stop hyping this firmware update thing. It’s not like we are going to see a magic lantern version of Sony. It will most likely be an update to fix some known bugs. If we asked for some new features that are standard in other cameras, they will say that our feedback and requests will be used for future product lines.
I love my A77 but im jealous of what Canon users can do with their cameras and their hacks.
How does a NEX FW upgrade confirm a A77 FW upgrade?
The A77 FW will probably be updated to support lens correction for the upcoming 50/1.4, but this has nothing to do with NEX.
So this is a reminder that there is a rumor about something?
I hope for a lot of things in the next update but am sure to be disappointed in some respects. We will get lens profile updates, perhaps some tweaks but will we get any major improvements..?
One thing to be sure, the basic specifications of an A77 will not change, they will not sacrifice fps (as advertised) for jpg quality or some other such change.. However, given the change of direction for Sony of late, deciding not to release a new models unless they are a feature improvement gives me hope that they will integrate some features into firmware for existing hardware. Tethering would be one of those, the A78 is not coming any time soon, tethering is possible in the A77 so perhaps (fingers crossed) this would happen given the new release and development path. It may or may not be possible to improve hdmi out, jpg quality or other such things, if they are not working on new models yet then perhaps the software developers have more time allocated to working on these features for existing equipment..
Just be sure that any changes will not contradict the current features and specifications in the manual or as the unit is advertised, they can only add to it.. So be a little selective or thoughtful for what you wish for.
Yes pigs can fly.
I love my A77.
The only thing I wish for is better high ISO performans.
My best friend has a D800 and I`m a bit jealous.
Otherwise I´m really happy.
Hope that they will bring jpeg (including live effects) + raw!
I hope they will give us the option of turning off the display features in live view.
RAW + 5mpx JPG please! 24mpx JPG files are useless with Eye-Fi Card
Any news about an update as we are now half way through August.
+1
Of course, no upgrade. SAR is full of crap!
Hey today is 11-12-13!
Nifty date, next and last time a sequence occurs during this century is 12-13-14. Hopefully Sony will have a firmware update out before January 1, 3001
Mais que se passe t’il enfin !!? Pour ma part si quelqu’un est au courant de la mise à jour de fin 2013 ou on sait donc pas plus tard !? Merci sony laisse tomber l’A77 ?? Si vous avez une info merci de pas mal de personnes ! C’est hyper important…etc..
It seems that rumour was completely false.
what the heck is the deal its now 2-26-2014 and still no update.