Sony firmware update

[LTK]

I’m currently at the local reservoir , so far battery maybe a little better , spot focus definitely quicker now . Focus acquisition with eye priority on so far is terrible. When it finally grabs it seems sticky but getting it to grab is proving extremely inconsistent

 

[ChrisM]

I cleaned all the contacts and put the 1.4TC back on the 600GM, and yes, this combo has moments where it sticks to what it is focussed on, even when there are eg. branches or leaves inbetween. You can then see the out of focus branches or leaves as a vague contour, but in many cases the lens will not re-focus. I then have to use manual override.
It occurs most often when the focal planes are not thát far apart: when focussing at infinity, it will 90% of the time re-focus to branches or leaves. But when I am focussed at let's say 35m, and I try to focus on branches/leaves at 20m, it has more issues then when the lens is coming from infinity or far away. It goes both ways: when focussing at 20m, it will often refuse to re-focus to something at 35m.

Is this normal or wanted behavior? It's hard to say, because it does this far less when using the bare lens at f4, and I have not been using the 1.4TC that much. It fééls defective, but I would need a camera with firmware 1.20 to compare for a sensible conclusion.
It is not related to spot af in my case: it has pretty much the same behavior when using zone, it will then also be blind to something relatively close to the focus plane. I now have manual override enabled on the 600GM, I usually have it disabled because with the bare lens it is not needed that often.

 

[arbitrage]

I guess I'll have to put down my shiny new A9III today and do a little testing on A1 2.01. Will report back if I find any AF issues and if battery life has improved. I'll be shooting alongside at least one other 2.01 user so will see what he thinks also.

 

[Camatose]

Interesting.

I watched this video and have a question. From what I've seen, in order to implement this you must download the Creator's App (let's call it CR-AP for short) in order to complete the update. Is that correct? I have only a company phone, and I cannot download CR-AP. Moreover, I don't do anything by blue tooth, in the cloud, or even by USB cable. I use a card reader. Because of that, I really don't want CR-AP on my cameras either.

If Sony ever fixes this mess, and after several months of successful use by other I decide to update the firmware, is there a way to do this without Sony's CR-AP?

 

[sh1209]

People need to get onto them , the more people the better . I keep getting the feeling people think you’re making this stuff up ,it’s ridiculous. The weather here this morning is poor , dark clouds and rain . I was hoping to get out and test mine properly to see if 2.01 is any better than 2.0 . When I updated to 2.0 my spot S was next to useless and I was getting double battery drainage.
I had my camera set where I used half shutter press for main focus (zone or wide) and AF-ON button set to focus area + AF-ON recall . I could keep my finger pressing down half shutter and if it grabbed the wrong things in foreground or background I could tap the AF-ON (spot S) with my thumb , it would quickly ramp backwards and forwards hitting what I wanted in the centre of the frame . I only use the 200-600 so don’t have the luxury of close focus recall but spot S used to work well for me . With fw2.0 spot S just sits there .
It’s so annoying because I used to love this camera when it was FW1.20 . If it allowed to downgrade the FW there would be no issue for me . I’d be back enjoying using it .
I have been mailing Sony , I’m getting the usual questions back I’ve already answered . They also want photos of my batteries etc . I was ready to get a 600mm f4 but since all the issues started with fw1.30 I’m now looking at alternatives

I contacted them twice with 2.0 whenever I was having to pull the battery out of my camera to power it down. They said they hadn’t seen any problems with the firmware and it must be something with my camera lol. After reinstalling and resetting the camera, the problem went away And I’ve seen tons of post on social media that people are having multiple problems with the software so it’s not my imagination, but they didn’t seem to care

 

[Nimi]

There is an important update to the FX3 coming, and I'm getting anxious about it. Might just wait for the FX4 to come out. Maybe that's their goal, "forcing" us to upgrade the hardware.

 

[sh1209]

There is an important update to the FX3 coming, and I'm getting anxious about it. Might just wait for the FX4 to come out. Maybe that's their goal, "forcing" us to upgrade the hardware.

I like their cameras and lenses, but as far as I’m concerned, they have the worst customer service of any company I’ve ever dealt with as far after sales support and I don’t say that lightly.

 

[LTK]

I guess I'll have to put down my shiny new A9III today and do a little testing on A1 2.01. Will report back if I find any AF issues and if battery life has improved. I'll be shooting alongside at least one other 2.01 user so will see what he thinks also.

Be really interested to see how you find bird eye priority on with zone and wide , mines hardly picking up birds or animals now , if it does pick up it’s fairly sticky . The problem is getting it to grab

 

[LTK]

I contacted them twice with 2.0 whenever I was having to pull the battery out of my camera to power it down. They said they hadn’t seen any problems with the firmware and it must be something with my camera lol. After reinstalling and resetting the camera, the problem went away And I’ve seen tons of post on social media that people are having multiple problems with the software so it’s not my imagination, but they didn’t seem to care

A tree creeper was posing nice side of a tree with an insect in its beak . All I got was dancing boxes on the bark etc, everywhere except the blooming bird . Normally it would be straight on these birds when they moving , now it’s struggling when it’s sat there

 

[BrianSmall]

A tree creeper was posing nice side of a tree with an insect in its beak . All I got was dancing boxes on the bark etc, everywhere except the blooming bird . Normally it would be straight on these birds when they moving , now it’s struggling when it’s sat there

This sounds like a situation where I'd absolutely not be using tracking and probably on small or medium spot. What were you using?

 

[arbitrage]

I mostly shot A9III today but I wanted to try the A1 on 2.01. I shot swallows in overcast, windy conditions with a mix of rippled water and green foliage as my backgrounds.
AF was great. No issues. Felt just like 2.0 and 1.32 before that. For the most part, the A1 seemed to be getting just as many shots as the A9III was.

 

[arbitrage]

Be really interested to see how you find bird eye priority on with zone and wide , mines hardly picking up birds or animals now , if it does pick up it’s fairly sticky . The problem is getting it to grab

I didn't see any issues today but I didn't do a lot of shooting with the A1. I will do some more testing in the backyard this afternoon. I was using Wide 80% of the time and Zone the rest of the time. I did use Small Flex Spot a few times for perched birds.

 

[LTK]

I didn't see any issues today but I didn't do a lot of shooting with the A1. I will do some more testing in the backyard this afternoon. I was using Wide 80% of the time and Zone the rest of the time. I did use Small Flex Spot a few times for perched birds.

Thank you, I've just done Initialise again , instead of loading settings from card I will try doing all from scratch again and try again tomorrow . I mainly use wide or zone half shutter press and spot small set to AF-ON (focus recall hold + AF-ON ) eye priority set to on

 

[LTK]

This sounds like a situation where I'd absolutely not be using tracking and probably on small or medium spot. What were you using?

I mainly use wide or zone half shutter press and spot small set to AF-ON (focus recall hold + AF-ON ) eye priority set to on. Its rare I use tracking , normally wide with eye priority on nails it , if its off I tap AF-ON (spot small) on the bird and then wide . This has always worked well for me before

 

[andrewluke]

was there anything in this update for stills??

 

[LTK]

Just watched this video about the A9iii , at 24minutes in this is one of the issues I'm getting with my A1 now since I updated to fw2.01 , the part the focus jumps back to the stick .
I used to use a combo of wide and spot small with eye priority on , once on the eye it used stick to stay on the eye quite well . Now since updating to fw2.01 it constantly grabs onto the twigs from the eye and a lot of time even if the subject is in foreground just doesn't seem to grab the eye as well .
Any ideas what I can try ? It's rare I bother with any of the focus + tracking , I tried expandable spot + tracking but that was quite erratic , I've tried changing the tracking speeds 1-5 . If wide or zone grabbed twigs in foreground or background I could quickly tap spot S on the subject and the eye detection used to grab and I could go back to zone-wide and it would keep on the eye . Now it just jumps back to twigs

 

[Steve]

I went out yesterday with both of my a1 bodies - one with 2.0 and one with whatever the last one was

I tried and tired but could tell no difference in AF. I tried a wide variety of birds - each time when I could switch cameras, each acted the same. I has no issues with 2.01 dropping swallows and blackbirds in flight, and there seemed to be no difference when is came to getting "stuck" on closer subject or similar. I'll keep trying, but so far AF seems to act the same between them.

 

[LTK]

I went out yesterday with both of my a1 bodies - one with 2.0 and one with whatever the last one was

I tried and tired but could tell no difference in AF. I tried a wide variety of birds - each time when I could switch cameras, each acted the same. I has no issues with 2.01 dropping swallows and blackbirds in flight, and there seemed to be no difference when is came to getting "stuck" on closer subject or similar. I'll keep trying, but so far AF seems to act the same between them.

Thanks for trying Steve , not sure what’s causing my issue . I’m going to try initialising again but this time do all settings from scratch instead of loading the ones from when it had fw2.0 When it grabs the eye the accuracy seems spot on . It’s just it’s a lot more jumpy stays on or keeps going back to those twigs .BTW I didn’t have this problem with the eye with fw2.0 , it’s since updating to fw2.01 .
Btw will you be updating the A1 guide ?

 

[Steve]

Thanks for trying Steve , not sure what’s causing my issue . I’m going to try initialising again but this time do all settings from scratch instead of loading the ones from when it had fw2.0 When it grabs the eye the accuracy seems spot on . It’s just it’s a lot more jumpy stays on or keeps going back to those twigs .BTW I didn’t have this problem with the eye with fw2.0 , it’s since updating to fw2.01 .
Btw will you be updating the A1 guide ?

Yes, planning to update it. Not much new in the 2.0 update that relevant for it, but it changed lots of page positions and layouts in the menu. Sigh...

 

[ChrisM]

I went out yesterday with both of my a1 bodies - one with 2.0 and one with whatever the last one was

I tried and tired but could tell no difference in AF. I tried a wide variety of birds - each time when I could switch cameras, each acted the same. I has no issues with 2.01 dropping swallows and blackbirds in flight, and there seemed to be no difference when is came to getting "stuck" on closer subject or similar. I'll keep trying, but so far AF seems to act the same between them.

Did you by any chance use the 600GM with 1.4TC and trying to re-focus within 30-50m on lower contrast targets, like fresh leaves, or surfaces without much texture/contour?
Perhaps this combo never did really well in such circumstances, but I felt it could be reluctant to change focus planes, regardless of tracking sensitivity setting or focus area (spot or wider).
When out in the field, I missed some shots because of it.
But it may have been the light (daytime and spring) and the light green colors that are pretty abundant now.
Without the TC, this hesitant focus behavior is virtually absent.

 

[Steve]

Did you by any chance use the 600GM with 1.4TC and trying to re-focus within 30-50m on lower contrast targets, like fresh leaves, or surfaces without much texture/contour?
Perhaps this combo never did really well in such circumstances, but I felt it could be reluctant to change focus planes, regardless of tracking sensitivity setting or focus area (spot or wider).
When out in the field, I missed some shots because of it.
But it may have been the light (daytime and spring) and the light green colors that are pretty abundant now.
Without the TC, this hesitant focus behavior is virtually absent.

I remember you saying something about that and I did test with the 1.4 and both camera acted the same, although I didn't have much trouble in either case with it changing focus planes. In some cases both were a little sluggish until the foreground object resolved a bit more, but they both acted exactly the same. Of course, we were almost certainly shooting under different conditions, so this is just my own anecdotal experience with it.

 

[TonyF]

I went out yesterday with both of my a1 bodies - one with 2.0 and one with whatever the last one was

I tried and tired but could tell no difference in AF. I tried a wide variety of birds - each time when I could switch cameras, each acted the same. I has no issues with 2.01 dropping swallows and blackbirds in flight, and there seemed to be no difference when is came to getting "stuck" on closer subject or similar. I'll keep trying, but so far AF seems to act the same between them

If you still have an A1 running fw1.32, it would be a great help to us if you could do a comparative battery drain test. Shooting BIFs using the Auto Power save seems to be a typical scenario where we have experienced almost double battery drain since updating to fw2.0
In the real world a 3-4 hour BIF session would regularly and reliably result in about 50% battery drain typically using auto power save set to '1 minute' so that we can leave the camera on but react quickly to opportunitiies. The same session now drains the battery by around 90%, sometimes more.

In the test world I set up on a tripod and took the lens cover off. Airplane mode is on, Auto power save is off (so it wont go into sleep mode) and rear monitor is off. Starting with a battery at 100% I switched on and left well alone except to come back to check battery percentage every 15 minutes over 2 hours.

I recorded the following percentages from 15 minutes onwards and then every 15 minutes thereafter, 96, 92, 87, 82, 78, 73, 68, 63. So that's an average of 4.6% drain / 15 Minutes or 18.5% / Hour

The test is the closest I can get to simulating the real world issue but also a test that someone else could repeat. I would love to know what this test would have shown at fw1.32

 

[DavidT]

I have two a1’s currently and keeping them at 1.32. See what Sony does if anything.

I took a leap and updated the a9III to 2.0 today and will be shooting it tonight. Fingers crossed!

 

[TonyF]

I have two a1’s currently and keeping them at 1.32. See what Sony does if anything.

I took a leap and updated the a9III to 2.0 today and will be shooting it tonight. Fingers crossed!

You're maybe too busy with the new A9iii to worry about A1 battery drain right now I'm really interested in the results from whoever can do it. It will help get to the real world issue. There are two possibilities....
1 - FW2.0 is draining the battery faster than 1.32 with auto power save 'off' in the static test as per my post above. This would be the simple linear result easily reportable to Sony.
2- There's none or very little difference in the static test. This would point to an issue with auto power save (usually set to 1 minute for me) but hard to simulate in a test.

Scenario 2 points to something changed with auto power save like EVF sensitivity has changed and its not behaving like it used to. In the real world there are two of us shooting together using '1 miunute' auto power save' and, for both of us, it doesnt seem to be happening at 1 minute all of the time for some unknown reason.

btw - I think you posted about what appears to be compulspry to download CR_AP. This caught me out when I got the 'download and use CR_AP' message on the A1 so I did it all. Second time around I noticed you can bypass it by pressing the delete button and carry on as usual without any need to take any CR_AP. It's really sneaky how Sony have hidden this option with a big full screen message about how we need CR_AP.

 

[Camatose]

You're maybe too busy with the new A9iii to worry about A1 battery drain right now I'm really interested in the results from whoever can do it. It will help get to the real world issue. There are two possibilities....
1 - FW2.0 is draining the battery faster than 1.32 with auto power save 'off' in the static test as per my post above. This would be the simple linear result easily reportable to Sony.
2- There's none or very little difference in the static test. This would point to an issue with auto power save (usually set to 1 minute for me) but hard to simulate in a test.

Scenario 2 points to something changed with auto power save like EVF sensitivity has changed and its not behaving like it used to. In the real world there are two of us shooting together using '1 miunute' auto power save' and, for both of us, it doesnt seem to be happening at 1 minute all of the time for some unknown reason.

btw - I think you posted about what appears to be compulspry to download CR_AP. This caught me out when I got the 'download and use CR_AP' message on the A1 so I did it all. Second time around I noticed you can bypass it by pressing the delete button and carry on as usual without any need to take any CR_AP. It's really sneaky how Sony have hidden this option with a big full screen message about how we need CR_AP.

That was me, thanks for the response. It's good to know.