EX1r firmware update: does it make sense?
 

Having my EX1r for about 2 months, I am happy with its overcranking and I only use MxM adapters with ATP SDHC cards. Never got any error message in any shooting situation.

Now scratching my head... update or not? I need advice from EX1r users who updated, what was the gain? From the Sony site its not that obvious what improvements to expect, definitely it seems for EX1r its way less than for EX1 or EX3.

If anyone has the update with EX1r, please share experience.

thank you

I have an EX1 but am in exactly the same position as you. I'm going to wait for a while.

Early adaptors always pay the price. I upgraded my laptop to Snow Leapord pretty much as soon as it came out and it was a pain. But I only upgraded the edit suite after Christmas and everything worked fine. It's always best to let the dust settle with these upgrades before making the jump.

I have EX1.
The increased reliability of SDHC cards is worth the upgrade. It seems overcranking is now possible where it wasn't before. More cards seem to work. The latter is particularly important if you need to go to the local office supply store for cards in a pinch on a shoot. It makes it a bit easier to give the cards to client as one would with tape stock.

Given that, I'm going to wait too. I can NOT risk bricking the camera. I have yet to see the cost and coverage if I have a local dealer do this. True I don't want the Sony 3 week turnaround for the 30 minute procedure. I have a local dealer who is an authorized Sony service center who I might be willing to pay if they can assure some kind of turnaround and cost if THEY brick the camera.

BTW when Sony did the previous firmware upgrade on my camera, it too had issues and I had to bring it back a second time. The first round took 3 weeks but at least, since I am 30 minutes from their USA East Coast center I brought it back and they re-did the update while I waited.

Overall I have NO problem paying Sony or an authorized service center to do this. It's the 3 week turnaround and not knowing how they're handle the issue if the update fails while they do it.

Craig - Just curious but I have seen maybe two cases of "bricked cameras" from the firmware upgrade and both of these were EX3's one of which was run on Mac emulation of Windows using the PC updater and another was using the Mac updater. Have you seen any mentions of EX1 (not EX3) here or the other active forum (dvx-user) being bricked with firmware upgrade - using a PC and not a MAC? I have seen one instance (EX1) and that person was using a MAC.

My particular upgrade went smooth as silk - just took my time and waited until certain windows popped up on their own rather than getting impatient. I had firmware v. 1.13 on the camera before the update. I used Windows XP Pro with all the very latest service packs and updates and the whole process took around 15 minutes or so. Midway through the process I realized I hadn't taken all the precautions I should have and had a few anxious moments since there was a storm system approaching our area at the time - I had the camera hooked up to the DC converter only (had left the battery out of the camera) and perhaps should have done the upgrade on my laptop with battery backup.

Yes, bricking certainly seems rare. I have both Mac and Windows boxes here although I'd be inclined to use a Mac (just my personal preference).

As a professional (and I'm even a former video engineer at a major nationally known company) I have no problem paying $100 as "insurance" against a bricking though. My only issue is the lack of costs expressed anywhere. I don't see cost of repair if one brick's it or how it would be handled if a service center bricks it. If I were fully informed by Sony I can that properly evaluate the risk.

It's the same with the seat belt analogy I've used elsewhere. Fatal accidents are NOT common but they do happen. Personally I'd rather wear the seat belts. It's just not worth what might be thousands of dollars worth of risk should an accident happen.

All I'd really like is some straight and honest info from Sony regarding costs and I've yet to see that anywhere. If someone has, please do point the way.

Keep in mind my experience from my previous post as well. The previous firmware upgrade performed by Sony did not brick the camera but it did result in issues which resulted in having to do it a 2nd time. Basically a superficially successful upgrade may yet point to issues not yet discovered. Given my other experiences with the camera ranging from zoom control to vignetting to battery drain (all fixed) I'm not confident in doing anything to the camera not covered by Sony.

With the EX1R you simply extract the firmware from the zip file and copy the firmware to an SxS card and go into the menu and select "version up". You don't have to use a computer to perform the update. It is much safer than the update process used in the original EX cameras, the EX1R and PMW-350 were designed to be user upgraded while the older EX's were not.

I'm afraid that the cost to repair a bricked camera may be rather expensive as I believe the only way to fix a camera that won't start is to replace the main board :-(

I have the same circumstances and I'm loathe to "upgrade" the firmware when I'm currently 100% happy with the EX1R performance and it performs so flawlessly with either SxS or the MxM/ATP combo.

Like Zsolt, I'm interested to find if any actual EX1R owner/operator has made the upgrade and can point out any possible benefit from having done so. There's no question of the benefits for an EX1 owner. But Zsolt's question, and the thread title, specifically concern the EX1R. Has any EX1R owner or operator risked the potential pain and found a tangible gain from a self-installed firmware upgrade?

Thanks.

P.S. Also, thanks to Alister for the info about the greatly reduced risk and procedure for an EX1R upgrade. That's very useful to know if I decide to go ahead!

I can certainly understand the hesitation, but as Alister says, the EX1r update is fairly painless (took about 15 minutes total and you don't really do anything but format a card in camera, place the unzipped firmware file on an SxS and place in the camera, then hit version up. If the file on the card is incorrect, I don't think the camera would allow anything to happen.

The EX1r doesn't have a lot of new bells and whistles with this new update, but I do like that you can now use 26 letters to name clips. It makes it very nice to be clear about what's being recorded. Being able to have the clip labeled as "specific project name_So and so Interview" will probably alleviate some issues down the road if I ever have to come back to all the footage.

I agree with Cliff.
Updating my EX1r was very simple compared to what I'm reading about the EX1/3, and really hard to see how it could go wrong. Clearly the EX1r was designed for user upgrade.
Perhaps the benefits are rather marginal with this upgrade, but we don't know that for sure. There may be improvements that aren't readily noticable.
My feeling is that it seems easy and low risk, so why not keep the camera up to date?

i can think of 2 reasons to not blindly do a firmware update on anything.
they do something to change the "software" internally that someone asked for that you dont like at all.
after some Lawsuit :-( they disable some great (patented) feature that existed in the camera, or disable the use of cheap 3rd party add-ons.
but as long as you can get BACK :-) then all is well.
(which might be a good reason to have Downloaded them and stored them for future use anyways)

if they fixed the unorganised menu system in the R1 i would update in a second, but if all we get so far is longer names , then i am not likely to be doing it just yet.

Update LOGS (firmware history) are so very valuable, but it is rare that i have seen MY needs in update logs, so then i dont worry about firmwares.
When a USER says "you gotta see/have that" then i might look a little closer, and see what the ramifications of the change will be for me.
add a feature add a bug, the numbers of times that firmware for other things has added in some new little Bug into the software , i doubt that cameras will be different.

Hello, today I received EX1R new camera ,i have not sxs cards.I only MXM adapter and Transcend 16GB card.Someone tried to install EX1r firmware update with these cards?
'MUST' installed this update?
Thanks

I just upgraded my EX1 without any problems , i use the hoodman cards & adapter, they work as flawless as the original cards from sony.

I say go for it

I did my EX1r update using adapter/SDHC card and had no problem at all.
I was careful to follow the Sony instructions; the update process was quick and easy.