BE CAREFUL UPDATING TO v1.03

[James Manford]

So sony released v1.03 for the A6500 and v3.0 for the A7Sii

I think my brand new barely used A6500 is bricked ! ! !

It's frozen halfway during the firmware update. I haven't pulled the battery out or disconnected the USB yet ... but it's been over 45mins. Stuck on the same thing. The red battery light is illuminated.

When I was updating my A7Sii with v3.0 I got an error message and camera wouldn't turn back on, had to remove battery for a while then when it did come back on, I repreated the on-screen steps and finally managed to update the firmware. But this time my A6500 has crashed DURING the firmware update rather than the "establishing a connection" steps before ...

I fear my A6500 may possibly be bricked ... what should I do !? keep waiting ??

[James Manford]

Thank GOD.

I was sweating so much.

So what I did was apply a bit of common sense. It appears my camera lost connection with my computer during the running of the update progress bar. So I just went straight to shut down PC after 45mins+ of waiting.

While the PC was off, I removed the usb and tried switching the camera on ... nothing. Removed battery and put back in after 20-30 seconds, nothing. Just the red light illuminating.

Tried it again. Still not turning on.

So I switched PC back on. Even though the A6500 appeared to be bricked I just ran the firmware update and the software skipped past everything straight to the "Run update" stage and continued from where it crashed.

So relieved. Now it's time to extensively test both my A6500 and A7Sii before they are used on a professional shoot again.

[Noa Put]

I thought I read that the latest sony firmware update prevented to install that hack that would take away the limited recordingtime, is that the case?

[Gary Huff]

What I have heard is that you cannot install it after the update, but if you had it installed previously, it will still work. Would be good to investigate that more, however, if there's a concern.

[James Manford]

UPDATE: I never have any issues installing the latest firmware, this was the first time ever. Any body else experience any issues with these latest updates ? or was it just a coincidence I lost connection twice on both my cameras ? Anyway the cameras appear to be working perfectly. Glad they have that measure in place where if it crashes you can continue the update.

@ Noa

In regards to the hack I had that playmemories custom hack on my A6300 but realised I never actually recorded over 30mins with that cam at a job I just instinctively stopped and pressed record again.

I don't think anybody has the balls to use one of these cameras as a unmanned Ceremony cam with the hack enabled. Just the thought you are relying on a unofficial hack some one came up with in their bedroom scares me too much.

I mean don't get me wrong ... I recorded over an hour plenty of times at home to vaguely test it but I just couldn't get myself to do it on a paid job. Too many worries ... what if the file becomes corrupt ? etc

For that reason I didn't hack the A7Sii and A6500 I bought. Left it as is with the official sony updates.

I'm sure it won't be long for the hacker to develop ANOTHER hack to bypass the new firmware updates.

[Noa Put]

I"m not a fan of hacks either, you are forcing the camera to do something which it has not been tested to do, just the thought that the camera would stop recording or even worse make a file corrupt during a one hour ceremony would make me very nervous as well :)

[Nate Haustein]

Hack worked charm for me on the a6300/a6500/A7Sii/RX10ii. Six two hour shows with four cameras. Never had a hiccup.

[Noa Put]

Like with any hack, you do take a risk using it, many, incl myself, have successfully used magic lantern on canon camera's but I also read about users having serious problems. What I would be very careful about is the continuous recording, Sony is known to have overheat issues on certain models and while not everyone has experienced this you are pushing the camera limitations if you would shoot on a hot day in full sunlight for longer periods like a full hour, disaster is just waiting to happen, maybe never or if your luck runs out the camera will lock up during a critical moment.

[Dave Blackhurst]

I tested the "hack" once installed, as it's always good to "test" things to make sure they work.

Here's my overall "take" based on the RX series cameras - the little RX100 (M3/4/5) are still prone to overheat, it's just the small size, the camera can't transfer or dissipate heat as well as a larger camera. The 5 minute 4K clip limit would only go to about 8 minutes in my test before it got too hot, and self protected (AKA shut down to cool down).

The RX10 (M2/3) on the other hand, seemed to handle going well past the "limit", with no apparent heat issues. Runs till the battery depletes just fine, from my testing.

SO, to summarize - if the camera is prone to overheat, the hack will have limited effectiveness, BUT if the camera doesn't otherwise have heat issues, the hack "should" work fine, of course this may vary with ambient heat, other conditions, and supposedly the choice of memory card may affect heat generation.

Allowing a device that has "artificial" limitations imposed (the 30 minute limit due to some archaic revenue regulations) to bypass the artificial limits is one thing, and seems quite reasonable in the face of stupid governmental impositions. Bypassing a "safety" feature that prevents damage (in this case due to potential heat damage) is a bit less advisable...


I've left the "hack" on my cameras, with no real worries, the heat shutdown works regardless, and if it gives me a couple more minutes (in the case of the RX100's), I'll take it. The RX10 seems happy as a pig in mud with the hack.

Know what the characteristics of YOUR particular Sony model are, and use within those expectations, and you should be reasonably "safe".

[Nate Haustein]

Just updated to A6300 firmware v2.00 and that sucker gets hot as a frying pan but keeps on chugging.

For testing purposes, I did a test before updating (I have the hack installed). On firmware v1.10 the camera went about 32 minutes before shutting off due to heat. After installing v2.00 and activating the new high-temp feature, I got over an hour before I ran out of batteries. No temperature warning icon either.

This is a big deal. Makes the camera usable as a B-camera for me. Very hot to the touch but who cares if it's on a tripod.