Just add another data point, I used my T4i (since others had reported success with the 5DIII) and it installed just fine. Used my Mac with OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion).
Fred, I'm probably not allowed to link to another Canon forum from here but I found two other people have reported the 2978% complete message and update failure. One guy was able to complete the update on a retry but the other was like me and ended up with a dead pancake after a failed update.
Found on other forum:
"Exact same problem here. Update goes up to about 65% and then shows "2978% done" and freezes there forever. Camera dead, and needs to be rebooted (batteries out). My pancake is fried. It will not longer work."
Canon will do the firmware update for you, if the update fails, send it to them and let them update it. Claiming the electronics are fried seems to be making a big assumption, it was likely corrupted firmware and they can overwrite it.
I got the error the first time (as described above). The second time worked fine. Here was my exact procedure.
The first time, I had the camera power on, removed the CF card, wrote it (and flushed it) on the PC, put it back in the camera, and updated firmware.
After this, the camera was locked up at 2978% or something so I yanked the battery. When I powered it back on, I got a message that the lens update had failed and that I should try to update it again. I removed the lens, power on just to make sure the camera is still okay, power off, put the lens back on.
Then update again and it works.
So probably, just have the camera power off, CF card in (with the lens firmware on it), the lens mounted, and then turn the camera power on and update first thing. Also, I had a formatted SD card in the whole time that I didn't touch. Hope that helps.
Matt Howell wrote:
Well, I still recommend this lens. New ones will already have the update. It is simply very good by any standard and one of my favorites.
I'd rather wait until the lenses on sale are all the updated ones, as Monito has suggested, but I'm really not sure how accurately this procedure will be carried out in this country. Might order from abroad instead of course...
I have Mac osx 10.7 and I have successfully upgraded my lens with 5dmklll. I was very nervous though and I made sure I read every single word and follow the instructions very carefully.
Bricked mine with my 5D3 last night, despite multiple tries with different cards, batteries, etc.
Saw on another forum this morning that deleting the registered battery info allows the update to complete successfully. Tried this, and it worked! So happy right now!
I'm not kidding. This WILL fix it. I read this on canonrumours forum, and tried it with my own 5D3. Delete all registered Battery Info.Delete all registered Battery Info.
I just received a copy of the lens from B&H. Initial shots seem fine. How would I know if I need to update -- if there is a problem? I hate to mess with the f/w if not needed. So far, no complaints here.
Also, it is a one time only for the lens, or does every body need the f/w run through it as well?
Mine starts with 891, so the "1" indicates it is subject to the f/w mod, yes? I guess I'll re-read the thread.
I'll read the Canon link on downloads, but I don't understand from the comments if this has to be done once with any camera, or each time for each Canon body you intend to use this lens on.
I found that mine back-focuses pretty severely, so it may be making a trip to Canon anyway.
Checking focus showed severe back focus on the 60D, strong back focus on 5D2 (-9 correction), moderate front focus on 1D2, and no problem on 1Ds2. All my other lenses focus fine on all these bodies without correction (except the 5D2, which has -2 for all lenses as a body correction).
Also, I didn't mention in my letter, that the first time I used the lens on the 5D2 and removed/reattached, it shut down the functioning, viewfinder, LCD/menu -- only the top display turned on, but was inoperative until I removed and re-inserted the batteries. Weird!
The shots that were in focus (more often the in-focus areas) were great -- beautiful color, very soft edge roll-off, not unlike the 45 TS-E, both having a Leica-type imaging. So, I'm hopeful it will come back fixed.
Mine updated without any glitch whatsoever. I used a leftover, slowish 2GB Sandisk especially used for firmware updates only on my 5D Mark III. I just followed the guidelines on Canon's site and didn't do any deletion of battery info, etc.
