i think its semantics. posting a link isn't bad per se, but posting a link to a file that the general public's access is in question... that's the sticky point. You can't blame him/them for not wanting Sony of Korea coming after this site for leading people to a download they might not want people accessing.

Just my $0.02 cents

My previous point related to the illegality of *uploading* or otherwise *redistributing* a corporation's intellectual property.

As far as downloading from their own server, that depends on whether or not they want it to be publicly accessible. It may be there for internal use only, I don't know. But certainly you'll understand my wanting to play it safe by removing the link from this site (at least until I'm told by Sony that it's okay to link to the file).

The web is a big place, and there are plenty of other sites out there which are less scrupulous and / or not as well looked after as this one is... so I have no doubt that if you look hard enough, you'll find it elsewhere. My concern for liability issues goes no farther than the boundaries of my own domain.

from sony canada
 

1.11 upgrade summary

http://www.sony.ca/xdcamex/files/XDC...20Upgrades.pdf

Sent my cam to Sony repair center to fix battery drain issue and to replace the panels (letters rubbing off) I also put a note on the repair order to upgrade cam firmware to 1.11 Got a call yesterday from the repair rep he said the panels are back ordered and did not know when my cam would be returned. on the plus side he did do the update on the cam. Bought another Ex1 last week from Tape Works do any of you guys have problem with the letters rubbing off on the B stock cams. Also I see the battery drain issue as been fixed.

When I was at Sony HQ in June, I had raised a bunch of the issues that EX1 owners were having with their cameras. At that time, they indicated that all of the problems had been ironed out in the production line such that newer cameras should not have the battery drain, letters coming off, ND back focus shift, etc.

Don't know when your recent purchase went through the line, but hope it was June or later and you should be ok.

-gb-

One word...."Success" 1.11

Lucky Guys. Wish I could get my hands on it :)

Sony Canada is just waiting to liberate more money from you to do the firmware upgrade. The 64 dollar question -- are these Canucks even qualified or skilled enough to successfully upgrade firmware. Perhaps like the poster from Hawaii, Canadians may discover that their EX1 was sent to the Mainland USA ... for the procedure.

No news yet from Canadian EX1 owners and I suppose that should be encouraging??

I upgraded mine to 1.11 and it went as smooth as butter. I had 1.03 The process is very simple and almost easier than upgrading my PS3. Also the voided warranty stuff may have been an issue if the firmware was different for each country but this is not the case... 1.11 is worldwide and for all cameras. Remember this is not just an NTSC camera and the reason the PDF in the download is in english is because this zip is meant for all the service centers not just Korea. The install is very straight forward and like someone else said it performs checksums and is pretty bulletproof unless you lose power mid install. I have performed much more difficult firmware upgrades on other devices.

I did not do this to avoid paying Sony.... I do not even plan to use 32GB cards or the hard drive unit... I just wanted my buggy menu fixed with no loss of work by not having a camera. My downtime without the Camera (well actually camera was on my desk in front of me) was about 20 minutes instead of 20+ days..... No shipping or insurance and the fear of it being actually damaged or lost in shipping.


Wake up Sony!

DITTO
smooth as butter ...just finished the update on my new Cam.. Still waiting for my other one to come back from service.

for those that have upgraded themselves, when you installed the 1.10 update first, did you notice whether the install program indicated that 1.10 was the new version, or did it show your previous version number? the 1.11 install does come back from the camera as 1.11, but am curious about the interrim update...

BRENT

When I checked after doing the 1.10 upgrade the cam showed the previous version number.

Thanks Brian! it showed that way as well for me - since the instructions made no note of this (probably should have), I wanted to double-check.

I think Sony need to address this issue urgently. It is becoming a big deal. A piece of cake USB update being charged for in some places. You have to get it picked up and dropped off and also flown somewhere. Waste of money, waste of fuel, bad carbon footprint wise!

Getting in done on Prime Support is fine but it means being with livelihood for a few days. But again waste of energy and every little bit helps.

Why do Sony not let people update the EX1 themselves? It seems crazy to me when the procedure has been proven to be really easy. If a small percentage get it wrong then get them fixed at a charge or on prime support. It seems a lot of resources are being wasted on something my mother could almost do.

No phil if mother could read english she could do it. It was that simple.

Like you said, let the EX1 owners do it, and if they get it wrong, then send off to Prime support.

But it really was that easy to do. I have don far more complex firmware updates in the past which have seemed mind boggling when compare to this.

In the words of our American friends, Sony have "dropped the ball" on this one.

if they start getting shirty with people saying they have invalidated their warranties there will be open revolt!

It does seem as though Sony (having bribed us with a free 8 gig card) feels that it owes us nothing, even though we have put up with their lax production expertise. Paint rubbing off, back focus faults and all the rest should mean they are extra helpful. Having said that no manufacturer likes to acknowledge that when kit has to go back to them operators may have no income.

Reading the paper this morning has lead me to think that Sony is like Gordon Brown - in denial on obvious issues. Having said that of course we are owners of the best low end HD camera around.

Maybe we should look at this as Sony's way to get their complete installed base "up to par".

When you send in the camera they will fix flaking body shells, battery draining circuit boards, adjust the backfocus, give it a "once over" AND they will do the FW upgrade.

A costly move indeed but one that would ensure that everyone gets up to spec in one "swift" move...

George/

P.S. All of this should be covered by warranty, IMHO, and if you already had all the work done previously I'd say Sony owes you an easy way to upgrade to 1.11. How about a booth at IBC?

Some people here on the list reported after they get their camera back from sony :
- no backfocus correction but FW upgrade
- backfocus OK but FW not the latest
...

In fact, Sony only check for what you tell - they will not repair the battery drain if you don't tell them to do so - and even, some said they still have the backfocus problem after "repair".

I've asked for all this (backfocus, FW, battery drain) and my camera will go back to sony on the 8th (after a shoot on the 7th). Then, I'll be able to give my experience :)

I'll try talking to the sony guys at IBC. If we all do this at different times during the convension, they have to listen.

Might it be possible to organise some kind of group response?
 

I was always very impressed with how JVC seemed keen to listen to users when releasing their recent 100/200/250 series cameras so perhaps we can sting Sony into action?

Might it be possible to get a signed e-petition going or something? Never done this myself but get sent them from charities all the time. Anyone have any experience setting one up? Surely with all the users on here and elsewhere we could encourage Sony to see the virtue of keeping users happy and possibly keeping them positively disposed towards Sony for longer?

Jus.

I did a demo of the backfocus fix procedure and posted it on vimeo

Paul Kellett Channel on Vimeo

Has anyone done a demo of how to do the firmware upgrade ?


Paul.

Just to drag this back to a technical arena, should one upgrade to 1.10 then 1.11 from the package which was on the Sony site - that is to say if you decided to do this - and has anyone upped from 1.02 without problems?

Paul

My cam has been at with Sony service now for over two weeks to fix flaking body shells, battery draining issue , and poping sound 720 60p audio I also ask them to upgrade to 1.11.
Just got an email today informing me that it would be a $100.00 charge for the upgrade.

I went from 1.02 to 1.10, and then put on 1.11 with no problems. When you put on 1.10 continue straight away to 1.11. If you check your firmware after 1.10 it will still show 1.02.

Thanks Steve, all good and working perfectly, shot 39 mins onto Lexar 8Gb card that cost
£40 at a London airport on Wednesday, yes it's 1080 50i sp but what the heck, this is fantastic.

Just testing how long HQ works for... records 14 mins before displaying media error, although file is fine.


Paul

Charging for the firmware upgrade is just wrong.

While it's possible to install 1.10 and move right to 1.11, the instructions do say to reset the camera after installing 1.10 and then install 1.11. no clue as to whether there really is a difference between the 2 methods...

i did it with a reset between the 2 and everything works fine now
Yes even in ecuador we use the fabules xdcam EX1

greetings jurgen

Especially when East coast US does not charge, but West coast does?

Just received my new EX1 from B&H yesterday. I'm happy to report it shipped with the new firmware.

well... Reading this thread had me kind of nervous about being charged for the upgrade, so I contacted Prime Support. I have to say, I couldn't be happier about the service.

I contacted them on the Friday afternoon. They dropped the box off for me on the Monday morning and picked up the camera later that afternoon. Seven days later, first thing Monday morning and the camera was back to me. They fixed the battery drain issue. Upgraded the firmware and did a "complete function check" which was "all to spec".

Camera is back now and working fine.

Im in Manchester in the UK and the camera was sent to Sony in South Wales for those who are interested.

Dean, do you have contact details for sony in south wales ?
That's about 1 hour's drive from where i live, i'd like to try and "book my camera in" and just take it there and wait, even if it means waiting outsie in my van for a few hours, i'd rather do that then let the camera get shipped around with a courier.

And was the upgrade free of charge ?

Paul.

Hello guys,

Yesterday i had a presentation from Sony Latin America, and they told me that the firmware upgrade for the ex cameras will be free in this continent.

Hey Paul. The upgrade/shipping/(ups) was all completely free. I guess it all comes as part of the two year prime support I got with the camera.

Im afraid I don't know where abouts Sony is based in south wales. But I'm sure if you called Prime Support they could tell you if what you want to do is doable or not.

The guy I spoke to seemed eager to help in any way he could. He even rang me this afternoon to double check I was happy with the camera/service and not to hesitate to call him back if I had any other issues.

I've found sony in south wales, according to the website it's the only factory outside of Japan which assembles sony HD camera's.
The factory is only 1 hours drive from my house so i'm going to ring them and see if i can book my camera in for a firmware upgrade, i'd rather sit outside in my van for a whole day than post my camera off for a trip round the country with a courier and then get it back a week later.
Paul.

Sony South Wales is a first class facility. I took a Z1 in and the service was second to none. Years ago I filmed Mr Morita the founder of Sony opening the factory with the Queen.

i tried calling the sony support and as expected they said that i definitely would have to pay them $100 to get the upgrade even though i bought my camera when the 1.11 firmware was available. when i mentioned that there was information online saying it would be possible to do this upgrade by oneself using any computer he said it would void the warranty. this is all a bit of a pain. i guess ill take it up with my vendor since i specifically asked them if it would come with the latest firmware when i ordered it. of course i ordered my camera literally the same week that reports of 1.11 firmware started showing up so it is likely my vendor didnt even know about the new firmware.

what do you think i should do? i am definitely into the idea that i could record to other kinds of flash media...

This seems crazy...
What's to say the software was not upgraded by another authorized Sony service.

Looking at my packing lists when I've had any work done, it's not very descriptive (not itemized) and lists all work done as upgrade.

That is crazy...

How can you loose your warranty if you download a firmware from an official public sony site? There was no information of loosing your warranty.

No way...