I've been asking myself the same question. I've been over the documentation and instructions twice and their is no mention of it. The file sizes are also nearly the same for both versions and very small for a camera of this complexity. So who knows?

Please report :)
Here is a blessing for you.

I've been through the thread but can't find a link to this site. Can you past it here please ?

Thanks.

For me the concern is not the cost of the upgrade. It's the other costs. The cost of shipping, insurance and downtime are far greater than the cost of the upgrade itself. I'd gladly pay the cost of the upgrade if I could drive to an authorized Sony service center rather than ship the camera 3000 miles to San Jose, CA USA and wait for 10 days including shipping time their and back for the 15 actual minutes it takes for the upgrade.

As far as I know the Sony repair centre where EX1 is fixed located in France ( in Europe)
at least that was where the box came from when I sent mine in June.
The Silver Support also gives you a camera if the process takes more than 7 working days.
( I got one in June)
So if you need the firmware now, go ahead

Atti

*Older PMW-EX1 models can be upgraded to the new firmware for free thanks to Silver Support which is supplied as standard with all XDCAM EX Camcorders sold by Sony Specialist Dealers in the mainland EU, Norway and Switzerland.

Registered Silver Support users should allow approximately five days for pick-up, upgrade and delivery of your camcorder. Please note this upgrade is only free from September 1st until November 30th 2008, after which it will become a chargeable service.

Sony : New PMW-EX1 firmware available now : United Kingdom

Thanks for the reply. Yes the repair center is in France, but they can't say it will be fixed before the 7th (I imagine it all depends on theire actual load of work).
I should have the box tomorrow, they will pick up after tomorrow, then the week-end, then they repair and they send out... even if it take time, i'm not sure to receive the loan camera in time.
I just called them and I will send the camera on the 8th.
I have the back focus problem since purchase in december so I can live one more shoot with it :)
If one of you is in France with an EX1, it will be a movie on the Suzuki Vanvan Paris World Tour ( le site des Vanvan ) ... it will really be fun to film, and help is welcome :)

My camera went away to france last tuesday and when I called them today to see if it was shipping back tomorrow (day seven) I got a cold shower...

Even though I had confirmed with the support person on the phone before I sent in the camera that they would indeed send a replacement camera after day 7 I was now told that this does not apply for "modifications" only "repairs"!! Apperantly Sony does not consider bad back focus, flaking paint and batteries being drained by a shut off camera faults that should be repaired, but "modifications"!

I was flabbergasted and got quite upset. I told them that I had taken their word that there would be a 7 day guarantee and that I had planned work with my camera on monday. After talking to two support persons that both asked me to stay on line while they talked to their boss they finally changed their mind and told me that they would send a replacement tomorrow. I hope it will arrive!

What are your experiences with this? Anybody else get the same rap? And by the way - can anybody point me to this exception in the fine print of the Silver support agreement. Can't find it anywhere on-line.

Just sent my EX1 off to Sony Support in Los Angeles. I'm waiting to hear back from them and will report when I do. This is so sleazy of them.

Ola, According to a local Finnish retailer the Silver Support supplies a cover unit when the repair takes more or presumably will take more than 7 working days. I guess this latest fw up is also such as you CAN'T use otherwise the device with the parts you purchased, so that's no longer modification it's a repair in deed.

I think Sony Silver support is promising more than they can deliver on the first place, one probably need to fight for the proper treatments. E.g. in Finland the earlier provided toll free phone number is not in use anymore ( it worked in June). This I noticed when today tried to get a pick up because of the FW up. :-( what comes next??)
I left a message as the answering service suggested in three languages, but they haven't called me back yet. ( 6 hours)
( By the way the 1.11 FW it's only free for a limited period according to Sony UK. website)

Firmware Upgrade
 

Hi. FYI. I took my camera into Los Angeles Sony on August 4th to have the Battery Drain warranty fix. I received it back today, August 27th. Battery Drain seems to be fixed and Firmware updated to V1.11_0531. No charge.
PS. They lost the bnc plastic plug!

20+ days is unacceptable....I would lose a ton of money!!! Sony better just recall the cameras and send us new ones... I can not afford to be down for almost a month.

The turnaround time is UNACCEPTABLE for a small business. Given the lost income even at a modest $1200 a week it's almost worth bricking the camera to do the firmware upgrade yourself. My gosh why not the have the ability to use a local service center.

Sony, if you read these boards at all, understand we are BUSINESS people not people video recording our vacations. I'd PAY for the upgrade if I could do it locally!

For my own company I invested in a second camera, in case one gets trashed for whatever reason. We also do two-camera shoots on a routine basis.

We have a very good service center here in Hawaii, so turnaround times are very good for the most part.

In NYC we have a very good authorized service center in Queens NY as well as Teaneck New Jersey which we can NOT use. The service center in Queens will supply a loaner camera if it takes more than 48 hours to service your camera.

Apparently Sony will NOT allow us to use either the Queens or Teaneck service center. These are SONY AUTHORIZED service centers.

Sony will allow the Hawaii center to do the firmware upgrade. If so why the bias against the east cost against using SONY AUTHORIZED PROFESSIONAL service centers local to us.

I think you need to check whether the service center in Hawaii can actually do the firmware upgrade.

Craig...

Are you saying Sony Hawaii can or can't do the firmware upgrade?

My experience has been that ALL USA EX maintenance goes to San Jose, California.

You need to ask how Hawaii is handled but I suspect you'll find you'll have to ship thousands of miles with shipping, insurance, downtime.

Please tell me otherwise. It would make much more financial sense to have it done locally but, so far, Sony has NOT handled maintenance on the EX series that way that I know of or personally experienced.

I'll go check with the service manager here to see what the procedure is.

According to Cokie Roberts Hawaii seems like an exotic and foreign destination. Maybe Sony thinks the same way and gives us the status of a foreign country. :-)

Phil,

Did you send your camera in with the broken external mic holder or did you have it fixed before sending it int?

Sony are refusing to take my camera for firmware upgrade because of this issue (their reasoning: external mic holder missing = "physically damaged" camera = not supported by Sony Prime Support - see separate thread for details).

Ian

I spoke to sony norway (!) and they were sure all service centres had received the firmware..

Have just checked Sony UK. We have till November 30th to get firmware updated without charge. This is under the terms of our Silver Warranty.

SUCCESSFUL 1.11 update!

I just successfully updated the camera to 1.11 with the files from the korean site!
No problems what so ever. My firmware was 1.03, and it updated fine.
It now shows 1.11 in the hidden menu and the added features appear in the menus!

Anything you want me to look for?

Excellent Oyvind! How do you check what firmware version one has again?

Oyvind.
How long did the process take ?

Were the instructions easy to follow ?, i only had a quick look through them.

Paul.

Great news... will need to get me a PC first... Mac user.... ;p

The first process (updating camera engine) took about 3 minutes.
Then the software update to 1.11 took about 15 minutes.

The instructions were easy to follow.

To check firmware version you just push menu, cancel and the select wheel all at the same time.

As I said. I had 1.0.3. Would surely work with 1.0.5 also.

Good luck to all.

make sure your battery got enough power to last through the entire upgrade

It's recommended to use AC power. It says "do not attempt to update with battery power"

Sure use AC power, but with battery attached as a backup. You cannot be sure what happens when there's a blackout, and the camera switches from AC to the battery - has anyone experienced this while shooting? Any TC discontinuity?

Of course use a battery as backup.. Of course, if you're not using a laptop, you're screwed either way if you have the battery on the camera. But again.. what are the odds?

just don't try out your 4 new 4kW tungsten lights while updating ;)

oops the link is gone from the Korean site alr!

I've already posted this to a similar thread, but it's worth repeating here:

Just a quick forum policy note: the firmware is Sony's own intellectual property and as such they are the only entity that can rightfully distribute it. I know that some of you have offered to share the firmware with others via email, bypassing the rightful IP holder in the process.

That's illegal, but if you want you to do that, it's happily none of my business. However... you will not use my site to advertise your willingness to violate copyright law. Therefore I will withdraw from public view any post that offers to redistribute this material outside of Sony. I've just withdrawn one such post. As the forum owner, I have no choice but to look at this as a liability issue: if you want to redistribute a major corporation's intellectual property and risk the associated legal repercussions, by all means use your *own* web site for that purpose. I'll have absolutely no part of it whatsoever.

Thread stays open for now... take care,

question about audio distortion bug fixed in 1.11
 

when reading through the 1.11 bug fix list, it refers to a fix of an audio distortion issue. Anyone know if this was an issue that shipped with the first rev of the firmware and not fixed until now, or was the problem introduced in an earlier firmware update? This issue above any would cause me to consider updating to 1.11

I am surprised to hear the negative response people have received from Sony. I sent my camera in due to the ND switch falling into the camera 29 July. On my list of items to repair I also asked for the newest version of the firmware. Once the camera was with the tech he called and said it would be a few day delay since he wanted to upload version 1.11 and was I willing to wait. Sure if it is only a few days. Two days later the camera was at my house and to my surprise they installed a new mic holders. I always remove the mic holder since it is just in the way. So my experience with Sony in New Jersey was great. No charge all covered under warranty.

Sony in New Jersey did your repair and installed the 1.11 firmware?
Oh happy day if that's the case. That's a relatively short trip for me.

First of all, I think the firmware update should be free!

But, if Sony wants us to pay for new firmware, why wouldn't they create a site where we could pay with a credit card and download the update? We all do it with other software. I update firmware on my other equipment as needed, and am fully aware not to interrupt the process so I don't damage the hardware.

As others have mentioned, sending your revenue generating camera in for up to weeks is crazy, and it can be devastating to small companies like mine. My kids like to eat!

Forrest

OK I have just risked it and installed version 1.11 on my EX1. It went on very easily from version 1.02.

OK I unzipped the files into two folders, 1.10 and 1.11. Unscrewed the secret usb port ( had to go and buy a jewellers screwdriver set for a few pounds) connected the camera. The camera is recognised and your just follow the instructions in the PDF file.

Now first of all I installed version 1.10. At the back of the camera below the eye piece the red light flashes whilst the install takes place. Once I had installed 1.10 and closed the executable, the red light at the back of the camera continued to flash. I left it a few minutes then disconnected the camera and turned it off. I then turned the camera back on and went to the maintanance menu ( hold down menu, the select wheel and cancel at the same time. I checked the version. It still said 1.02. So it didn't install.

OK I thought, I will do it again, and this time continue straight on after installing 1.10 with 1.11.

1.10 took about 5 minutes. It said installation complete, so I then went and installed 1.11 whist the camera was still connected and red light at the back of the camera flashing. It took over ten minutes this time (a bigger file). Again it said installation complete, so I waited a few mins just to be safe, disconnected the usb, turned off the camera. Waited a few seconds then turned it on again.

I went into the maintanance menu, scrolled to the bottom and there it said........ (drumroll)..........1.11!

So it was easy really and takes from start to finish less than 30 mins, as long as you have a very fine philips screwdriver.

Job done, no hassle with finding out where to send it, no hassle with getting the relevant insurance, no hassle with not having the camera for a while.

Why on earth Sony want us to send our cameras in is crazy. For the times when the installation gets corrupted ( of which I should imagine there would be very few) then send the cameras in, but for 99% of us we could do this job very easily with the minimum of hassle.

Thanks goes to Oyvind for being the Guinea Pig and risking it, and also to Sony Korea for making the error of putting the software online in the first place.

Tonight one happy chappy.

Now, what exactly have I updated which will be of any use to me?

Good Job!

So now you're calling me "The Oyvind". Thanks! Sounds cool.

I'm the kind of person that has got to have the newest version of everything.. So I figured I had to be the first :) Glad I could help.

I was hoping the S&Q motion would stay as it was set when the camera went off or to media mode.. and then stay that way when rebooting.. But it didn't..

Could you change speed with the select wheel in S&Q mode before? If not, you can now..

Other than that.. I didn't see much difference.. The main thing I found was that they changed "return" to an arrow.. Wooh! :D That was my #1 firmware wish.

Sean I got my upgrade done at Sony Singapore free of charge. You can call them they will do the same.

I remember hearing something about the firmware 1.05 fixing back focus issus BUT after upgrading the optics needed realignement. Could this not be the reason Sony wants to do the upgrades? The actual flashing is easy but after that you need to recalibrate stuff? I would not want to gamle and do it myself.

Delete this if you disagree, Chris.

If you still haven't got the firmware. It's still available from Sony's website. It cannot be illegal to download a previously published document, can it?