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Canon first announced its new EOS-1D X DSLR camera aimed at the professional photographer in October of 2011. The camera was slated to launch in March of 2012 with a high-end starting price of $6800. The camera offered impressive features right out-of-the-box, including an 18-megapixel sensor and dual DIGIX 5+ processors.

The camera also offered the ability to record full HD resolution video and had a weatherproof design. Canon has announced that it now has a firmware upgrade available for the camera that adds in new features that users have been asking for. Once the new firmware supplied the digital camera is capable of AF point illumination during AI Servo AF and cross-type AF for maximum apertures as small as f/8.

The firmware update is being offered at no cost from the Canon website or the Canon factory service centers. The firmware update also allows the AF points in the viewfinder of the camera to be illuminated in red when the shutter button is pressed halfway during AI Servo AF to support the needs of photographers working in lowlight. Canon says that this feature will improve the photographer’s ability to aim the camera accurately in low light situations.

The firmware also allows an effectively expanded AF detection area size to enhance autofocus formats with subjects that are small in the frame and difficult to track such as animals or birds in flight. That is possible thanks to the four AF points surrounding the center point acting as AF Assist points. Canon says that AF points above and below the center are sensitive to vertical contrast with the points the left and right of center sensitive to horizontal contrast when AF point expansion is selected with compatible settings.

Canon offers updated firmware for EOS-1D X DSLR adding new features is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Canon has just announced that they will be introducing a new firmware update for their flagship EOS-1D X Digital SLR camera. With the latest firmware update, the EOS-1D X will be able to handle AF point illumination during AI Servo AF and cross-type AF for maximum apertures which are as small as f/8. Not only that, to sweeten the deal, this new firmware update can be downloaded for free over at the Canon U.S.A. website as well as via Canon Factory Service Centers.

When you are shooting weddings, portraits, sports, wildlife, and theatrical performance, photographers tend to work in low light conditions, and this new firmware update paves the way for AF points in the EOS-1D X’s viewfinder to be illuminated in red whenever the shutter button is pressed halfway during AI Servo AF, making it far easier to view the selected point in a jiffy. This valuable feature enhances the photographers’ ability to aim the camera accurately under such conditions, and exposure-metering accuracy will be maintained as illumination is intermittent instead of continuous. Have you downloaded the firmware update already? [Press Release]

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Canon EOS 7D gets new firmware update, Canon EOS-1D X makes a splash,

Sony’s NEX-7 may be fast approaching its first birthday, but that doesn’t mean the company’s ready to give up on pushing out updates. The camera’s first new firmware version, 1.01, should be hitting today, bringing with it the ability to disable the Movie Record button to avoid accidental taps (finally!), boosted image quality with a wide-angle lens, improved audio playback and expanded EV bracketing. An option to disable the EVF eye sensor doesn’t appear to be included with this revision, unfortunately. Other updates hitting at the same time include E-mount lens firmware v.01 that’ll enable NEX-5R/NEX-6 Hybrid AF functionality with older lenses, A65/A77 firmware v1.06 and A37/A57 firmware v1.03, both of which deliver the ability to enable/disable the movie record button while also adding a variety of lens compensation options for select Alpha optics. All of these updates should now be live — head over to the source link below for the hook-up.

Filed under: Cameras, Sony

Sony Alpha firmware updates bring record button disabling on NEX-7, DSLR lens improvements originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Oct 2012 00:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A frequent gripe of Lytro camera owners has been the hands-off nature of the photography, with that signature infinite focus about the only real fine-tuning that’s on tap. As of a fresh firmware upgrade, the light-field camera is much friendlier to demanding shooters. The unconventional point-and-shoot now lets owners manually adjust the ISO sensitivity (80 to 3,200) and shutter speed (1/250th of a second to 8 seconds) as well as lock the exposure or invoke a neutral density filter. Regardless of their precision demands, anyone who was already sold on the concept still gets a few perks with today’s refresh: the 8GB model now comes in Seaglass green and a Target-exclusive Moxie Pink, and there’s both a $30 sleeve as well as a $60, accessory-friendly case for those who’ve fully committed to the Lytro lifestyle. Neither upgrade will bring higher resolutions or video, but they’ll go a long way towards accommodating those who were at least on the fence. Check out an interactive sample of the shutter speed control’s benefits after the break.

Continue reading Lytro camera gets manual controls, new colors and accessories for exacting light-field fans

Filed under: Cameras

Lytro camera gets manual controls, new colors and accessories for exacting light-field fans originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Oct 2012 15:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CyanogenMod ROMs give Android users the latest Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean treats to their otherwise-neglected smartphones, and it’s mostly open-source except for one piece: the boarded-off ROM Manager. To remedy that, the modding organization is bringing its OTA updater back from the CM5 and 6 graves, letting users pull updates straight to their devices. Notice we say “pull,” because pushing would require the Google Apps framework, which the CM updater won’t have. However, as the screen above shows, you’ll be able to set a timeframe to check and grab the latest versions directly from CyanogenMod’s servers, and after flashing yesterday’s CM10 ROM, we can confirm that the software is working on our Galaxy S. That’ll bring a much-needed dose of simplicity to upgrading CM firmware and make all that modding slightly more mainstream.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile

CyanogenMod resurrects OTA updates for latest CM10 nightly builds originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Oct 2012 07:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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