Tag: Firmware update

Firmware Updates: Easy but Tricky

Years ago I remember my friend Nolan Braud telling me that updating the camera’s firmware was not as easy as it seemed. Nolan wrote instructions and it still wasn’t easy.

Today I updated my firmware and remembered Nolan’s words. Yep! It’s still not easy. Here are some instructions that might help.

Go to your camera’s website and navigate to the firmware page. Canon lists firmware on the page for each piece of equipment. Click “download” when you find the firmware. Then open your computer’s download site and double-click on the firmware package to open it.

On our computer, double-click on the firmware download and you get two files like you see above. The RF029110.afu is the firmware update for my lens. The “update-procedure-pdf” folder contains instructions in various languages.
Plug a card reader into your computer. Put a SD card into the card reader. Copy that .afu file to the SD card. Eject the card reader and put the card in your camera.

Glitch #1 — I found the .afu file would not copy to a CFExpress card. The .afu file copies without any problem to a SD card.

Glitch #2 — the card needs to be formatted for your camera. It doesn’t matter if there are pictures on the card. The card doesn’t need to be empty.

Put the card containing the firmware into your camera. Navigate to the Firmware screen. Click OK or Set or tap to open that menu item.
If all is going well, you’ll see the firmware files on the card. Select the one you want to use.
The camera shows that 1.0.8 is currently in use and we’re moving to 1.1.0. Click OK. (FYI, I’m updating the lens firmware in the photo above.)
Then you get a screen showing that the firmware is updating. Don’t push any buttons at this point. Let the camera do its work.
Be patient. Let the camera work.
Be patient. The process takes four or five minutes at max.
You see this screen when the process is finished.

Instructions from Canon say to update firmware for the camera with no lens on the camera body. I put a body cap on the camera body during this process.

Instructions from Canon say to update the firmware for the LENS with the lens attached. That’s what’s showing in the illustrations for this post.

Was it easy to update your firmware? Problems or tricky situations with other camera brands? Post below. I’d love to hear from you.

This is a screen capture to illustrate Mark’s comment below. Mark wrote that the download file “mounted like a drive” when double-clicked. You’ll see in the photo (above) that the file does look like a mounted hard drive. Slightly different icon on my Mac but similar to the G external drive below in the photo.

Firmware Update for Mirrorless Cameras

I have to admit that historically I didn’t worry about updating the firmware in my digital SLR cameras. The cameras worked and they always worked. So why update the firmware?!

Mirrorless cameras, on the other hand, have a lot more electronics and keeping the firmware up-to-date is a good idea.

There have been three firmware updates for my Canon R5 since it was introduced. One in August, another in September, and another in November 2020. Canon wouldn’t issue these updates if they weren’t necessary. These updates fix a “bug” or tweak a setting.

Get the firmware updates from the Canon site. Sony, Olympus, and Fuji users will find the firmware updates on their camera manufacturer’s site.

Download the firmware to your computer. Then double-click to open the folder. You’ll find instructions and an EOSR5110.FIR file. The name might change with the update but the file extension remains the same.

Copy or move the EOSR5110.FIR file to an SD card. (I do this with a card reader.) Plug the card reader into your computer. Open the card reader on your computer, open the firmware update in another window, then click and drag the xxxxxx.FIR file to the SD card.

Put the SD card in the Canon R5. Turn the camera on and go to the wrench menu 5. Scroll down to Firmware Update. If you’ve done everything right, the camera will find the file and show the screen blow.

Click the OK button and you’ll see the screen below.

It’s a pretty simple process and worth doing to keep your camera in tip-top shape.

Hope this helps!

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