According to our sources (Thanks!) the new Sony A850/A900 firmware will be announced on December 2th. The main improvement will be the auto focus speed and performance. We have no reliable info about a possible image quality improvement.
Stay tuned on SonyAlphaRumors!
P.S.: In US you have tons of Instante Rebates on Sony cameras and lenses. I couldn’t find any deal in Europe (I am one of those guys waiting for some nice european A850 deal).
32 Responses
We’ll see, I would also prefer;
– dual card write raw/jpg split
– dual card write auto change card when full (!!)
– improved exposure and flash exposure program
I hope they do this with af;
– improved autofocus in dark environment
– greatly improved af-c tracking
Fully agree with you, Rodeo 🙂
Suppose it will substantially increase Sony MS PRO Duo sales if mentioned card settings will be available.
No information about image quality improvements is worrying.
I really don’t know what you want to have improved in IQ. In my eyes, the IQ of the a900 is next to perfect up to ISO 1600. At ISO 3200 I have only very little noise (if at all), but nothing with bothers me at all.
(Okay, the JPEGs out of the camera are a different story… But who cares for them?)
Indeed… who gives a crap about jpgs. people keep talking about the jpgs
I mean, if you’re really shooting for jpgs then why did you buy a full frame camera
Actually I can imagine alot of scenarios. Post if you want me to imagine for you.
I’m sure there are many imaginary scenarios, but in the real world, people using FF use RAW.
Why is it worrying? Image quality is bloody good already. I am happy for any improvements & focus is a good one to get.
No, that is not true. I don’t, for example — I use RAW when I need it to but nt when I don’t. And I know a couple of outstanding photographers that only shoot JPEG.
and the Moon is made from cheese too
I think the AF speed is more important than marginal image quality improvements. Wonder how we are going to measure the decreased AF time?
Cheers, Josh
2nd December just also happens to be my birthday :).
I guess Sony really do care about us a900 owners after all =D.
It’s called a strategic firmware release. Just before Christmas, and since a new full frame camera won’t be released for some time. A firmware update will keep the consumers quite for a while longer.
Not my birthday!
There MUST be more to it than a minor tune up to an already fine autofocus. Either that, or it’s just a setup by Canikon trolls to let them bleat on yet again about things that aren’t problems.
yup… or maybe it’s just Sony’s way of saying “don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten about you”
Thanks for that “ps:” 😉
Me too.
It seems we’ll have the longed firmware very soon.
I’m sure some IQ refinements have been made. Just for marketing…the present IQ is very good.
HHIS I should have thuhogt of that!
This has to be a major update because Sony was having such a hard time with system crashes. This leads me to think that they are making changes to the core software. Too bad the noise can’t be helped(iso800 and 1600 would be very handy with super tele). I might just wait for a A950.
from what I hear, it might take up to a year for that… do you really want to wait that long to see your lenses work at their full capacity.
Besides, it’s just an awesome camera as it is right now
System crashes?
not sure if this is what Arthur is referring to, but I’ve gotten “Camera Error” several times now. I had to turn the camera off and back on in order to reset that message.
It gets pretty annoying when it happens 3 times in a row.
Strange, it never happened to me, but I’ve shot only 15k frames so far. As for the ISO, I don’t know ISO 800 and 1600 are both very usable on the A900. I wouldn’t hesitate to use them.
15k and still ticking without any problems?
At least those are encouraging words for other A900 owners.
With Capture One, ISO 1600 is almost as good as ISO 200. ISO 3200 is almost noiseless (in-camera NR switched off). Yes, I even turn down the default settings for NR in C1 in order to see more details in the image…
Mine is over 30k frames – no serious problems so far.
Confirmed. I’m at 40k frames now. No “camera error” or whatsoever so far.
RB: any diffrent between capture one and Lightroom?
Well, C1 and LR3 are complementary programs. C1 is a pure RAW development program — and gives outstanding image quality, IMHO far above LR3 — especially once you’ve learned the behaviour of the settings, which share only the name with other programs: E.g. “Saturation” does in C1 something completely different than “Saturation” does in other programs.
LR3, on the other hand, has (more) image editing functionalities, database, print module, etc. The RAW converter of LR3 is Adobe Camera Raw 6.2 (also found in Photoshop Elements 9 and CS5) offers a larger dynamic range (“fill light”) and a more radical noise reduction, which makes even the ISO 6400 of the a900 usable. Of course for the price of details. Me, personally, I prefer the fine details C1 reproduces over the radical noise reduction of LR3. If you want to do it “right”, use both programs… 😉
C1 IMO gives a better looking default image. Also, Lightroom feel more jpeggy than C1 for me.
Chinese version manual for the firmware upgrade!
from DCHome
http://www.dchome.net/viewthread.php?tid=957717&extra=page%3D1
新增一個［無鏡頭釋放快門］項目
即使相機沒有安裝鏡頭，您仍然可以釋放快門。
擴大曝光補償的範圍
曝光補償的範圍擴大至±5 EV （本次更新之前：±3 EV）。
階段式拍攝新增其他曝光級數設定
階段式連拍和階段式單張拍攝功能新增下列設定：曝光轉移3.0 EV且相機可拍攝
三張影像（本次更新之前：最多2.0 EV）。選擇這個項目時就會顯示
［3.0EV3］。
改善AF功能
自動對焦的速度和效能已經改善。使用某些望遠鏡頭時可以獲致清晰的結果。不
過，這取決於相機安裝的鏡頭或被攝體的拍攝條件。