p.7 #1 · A1 Firmware v 2.01 is out now. On the fence about installing it though. :)
arbitrage wrote:
Yes, all my 3rd party batteries now give the warning message after 2.0
As long as you hit OK the message won't come back until you power off and turn on again. If you hit Cancel the message will return.
Thanks, Geoff. I will probably not take my SmallRig batteries on my next safari trip, I usually turn off the camera between sightings and it would be a PITA to have to turn the warning off every time I turn the camera on and start to shoot.
p.7 #2 · A1 Firmware v 2.01 is out now. On the fence about installing it though. :)
jhapeman wrote:
I don't have my A1 in front of me right now, but there is a setting for sensitivity that you can adjust that will keep it from jumping from the bird's (or animal's) eye. That said, the A1 is an older system so it's just not quite as accurate or as configurable as something like the A9III or some of the other cameras that have the AI AF system.
Watching that video...he doesn't know how to configure his sub-settings in the A9III's AF system. The AI AF has a lot more deep functionality that allows you to tweak it extensively so that it performs exactly as you want for the subjects you are shooting. Also, if he's shooting both birds and wildlife, then he needs to leave it on Bird/Animal hybrid--that works extremely well for recognizing either. He briefly mentions that, but honestly, criticizing how it didn't work well on animals when in bird mode just reveals that he shouldn't have been reviewing the camera without having used it much more extensively to learn how it works. It's a very intentional design choice by Sony to have such deeply configurable settings, and when you know what subject you are shooting and how to configure it correctly the accuracy is incredible. ...Show more →
Thanks , I mainly only posted this because the video was showing problem I had , I thought it was better than me trying to explain it . I’m going to try initialise again but instead of loading setting from saved fw2.0 I’m going to do them all from scratch again .
I’ve been trying the tracking sensitivity, usually I always have it in 2 . That used to work well for me with both birds in trees, reeds or BIF . I tried 5 and then 1 but ended up going back to 2 .
p.7 #3 · A1 Firmware v 2.01 is out now. On the fence about installing it though. :)
For those wondering about battery performance with the new v2.01, we found some batteries might be older than we thought (check the date on the bottom right back of the battery). Also here are three ways to check if your Sony NPFZ100 Z-series are authentic. I never bothered to check for authenticity until now:
p.7 #4 · A1 Firmware v 2.01 is out now. On the fence about installing it though. :)
I am thinking about upgrading.
But, to confirm, even with 2.01 all my camera settings will be wiped out, cannot be saved to a card and then reinstalled.
So, I have to spend an hour or more writing down all of my custom settings on paper, and then hours more after the upgrade to re-do everything from the factory defaults?
Also, when I am working for long periods in the menu, my A1 gets VERY hot, even shutting down due to overheating after about an hour or so. Is this normal?
I suspect the camera will get hot if the screen is used for long periods especially at high brightness setting, though I have not experienced that myself as I tend to use EVF mostly.
p.7 #6 · A1 Firmware v 2.01 is out now. On the fence about installing it though. :)
guyharrison wrote:
I am thinking about upgrading.
But, to confirm, even with 2.01 all my camera settings will be wiped out, cannot be saved to a card and then reinstalled.
So, I have to spend an hour or more writing down all of my custom settings on paper, and then hours more after the upgrade to re-do everything from the factory defaults?
Also, when I am working for long periods in the menu, my A1 gets VERY hot, even shutting down due to overheating after about an hour or so. Is this normal?
Take phone pics of the screens... that's much easier than writing things down.
p.7 #7 · A1 Firmware v 2.01 is out now. On the fence about installing it though. :)
LBJ2 wrote:
For those wondering about battery performance with the new v2.01, we found some batteries might be older than we thought (check the date on the bottom right back of the battery). Also here are three ways to check if your Sony NPFZ100 Z-series are authentic. I never bothered to check for authenticity until now:
All three NIB batteries I recently bought from an authorized Sony dealer, and the battery that came with my 2 new cameras bought this year were made in 2023, nothing made in 2024.
I suspect the camera will get hot if the screen is used for long periods especially at high brightness setting, though I have not experienced that myself as I tend to use EVF mostly.
Quote:
"I suspect the camera will get hot if the screen is used for long periods especially at high brightness setting"
Yup. When switching my A1 off I had to wait a bit before it would switch back on.
No issues though when shooting pictures.
p.7 #9 · A1 Firmware v 2.01 is out now. On the fence about installing it though. :)
2 observations so far after the update:
1) Need to download latest copy of ACR to be able to convert the A1 RAW to DNG
2) Focus zone is now shown in black + white brackets (only black before)
p.7 #12 · A1 Firmware v 2.01 is out now. On the fence about installing it though. :)
Does anyone know exactly which settings are saved for the presets so I can make sure I don't lose any thing?
I have photographed every screen but am now going through my setting saved in preset 1, 2 and 3 on the dial and finding little things are set differently that I hadn't considered.
For example, in 1 and 2, I have focus area = white (page 23 of 'old' menu) but on 3, I changed it focus area = red
p.7 #13 · A1 Firmware v 2.01 is out now. On the fence about installing it though. :)
Jeffgraham wrote:
Not sure I am seeing any advantage at this point in updating mine for the still work I do. I have not heard of anything improving still photography.
Also sounds like a lot of risks that that could be avoided by leaving well enough alone.
p.7 #14 · A1 Firmware v 2.01 is out now. On the fence about installing it though. :)
That list is very helpful, thanks. I will print it out and take notes.
But I still have to go through all of the "my menu" items and "quick menu" items and write them down, as well as my C1 through C4 settings, and write all of those down (or take phone photos of every single menu settings page for each of the 4 custom modes including the distinct my menu and quick menus I have in those modes).
What a ridiculous pain! And for features that are not really major upgrades.
p.7 #16 · A1 Firmware v 2.01 is out now. On the fence about installing it though. :)
LiveShots wrote:
As far as I am aware, everything is deleted with the upgrade….. everything
Right - but my point is I don't know what camera settings are specific to the preset 1, 2, and 3 on the dial. Some are very obvious and show on the display but some are not (like the color of the focus square). The list above does not seem to specify those either.
p.7 #17 · A1 Firmware v 2.01 is out now. On the fence about installing it though. :)
guyharrison wrote:
That list is very helpful, thanks. I will print it out and take notes.
But I still have to go through all of the "my menu" items and "quick menu" items and write them down, as well as my C1 through C4 settings, and write all of those down (or take phone photos of every single menu settings page for each of the 4 custom modes including the distinct my menu and quick menus I have in those modes).
What a ridiculous pain! And for features that are not really major upgrades.
Well of course you are right.
It took me a couple of evenings to work through all these settings.
I used it as an opportunity to develop a better understanding of my A1.
Still have to deal with the communication features though.
p.7 #20 · A1 Firmware v 2.01 is out now. On the fence about installing it though. :)
V2.01 has caused the loss of WiFi and Bluetooth functionality on my A1. Both Bluetooth and WiFi were working just fine with 1.32, and as soon as I installed 2.01, my camera (and many others) are reporting that the Bluetooth/WiFi unit is malfunctioning.
I called support this morning. Sony support says that it's a hardware problem and they will not cover the repair. No additional firmware is planned to address the problem. If this is indeed a hardware problem, my guess is that there is some variance in the Wifi/Bluetooth modules that were used by Sony over the course of A1 production, and that the defects have always been there. Sony should do the honest thing and recall the affected units for repair at their cost. It is more than suspicious that these problems suddenly happened after people installed 2.01, even though their cameras had full wireless functionality before the update.
I know you're happy that your upgrade went ok, but you just happened to be lucky enough to get a unit that wasn't built with defective or more likely, out of spec hardware. Many of us were not so fortunate.
I think the most plausible explanation here is that there is some variation in the wireless modules that Sony has used since the A1 was introduced. They're on the push for cloud services now, and the decision was made to migrate everyone to the new Creators app and shut down Imaging Edge. Creators app is now using functionality that was not part of the original hardware test matrix, and so some lack of capability in the chipset, or perhaps an obscure protocol issue is causing this to happen.
Test is no doubt rapidly adding the requirements of the new Creators app to its automated test matrix to avoid any more of the faulty boards getting into production.
In the meantime, the company is struggling to deal with the PR fallout, and the potential cost of replacing main boards for thousands of A1s in a recall. And so, a decision has apparently been made to convince customers that their wireless module has somehow failed (even though it was working just yesterday with Imaging Edge before they updated to v2.01), and that it's only because of this wonderful new update that they are finally being made aware that their camera was broken all this time, and so they are now responsible for the cost of repairing their own camera, just like any other out of warranty malfunction. There are many Sony fans in online communities who are defending this idea.
This solution that Sony has chosen is a triple-win for them. 1) Avoid the cost of a recall. 2) Earn revenue for the Support division. 3) Flush the defective A1s out of the market (at customers' expense) so the flagship doesn't get a bad reputation. They know that consumers will forget in time. And they reinforce this by minimizing the problem, calling it "Internet hysteria", etc. Every manufacturer does it in these situations.
And they realize the logic facing customers. What are customers going to do? Toss a $6500 camera into the bin because they're angry that the manufacturer is gouging them for a new main board? Unlikely. Sell the defective camera at a great loss on the secondary market? Well, maybe, but unlikely given the hit to their own reputation as a seller or the likelihood that they'd have to accept a return. Switch to a different system? Probably not, since they have so much invested the walled garden already in the form of lenses, etc.
jhapeman wrote:
How so? I have it on two cameras and it's perfectly fine.
