Firmware update: where the heck is my cable?

[Fmrvette]

... so why should camera updates be done any differently?

But...but...but Ray! That would mean I have to change...

It's taken me nearly nine years to stop trying to advance the film by hitting the lever...



Regards,

Jim

 

[Fmrvette]

Since I tend to take quite a few photographs, my cable is permanently connected to the rear USB port on my PC and that way the cable is always there for download/updates. It's not as if modern computers are lacking USB ports, requiring you to store the cable anywhere but attached to the PC.

Ray, if you've taken multiple cards - do you put each into the camera and download it in turn? Or do you use a card reader for the cards not in the camera and the cable for the one still in the body?

(I have a USB cord attached to my desktop for charging the Bluetooth keyboard of my tablet. I kept losing the cord so finally did what you've done - just left the thing in place . Haven't misplaced it since!)

Regards,

Jim

 

[OzRay]

Ray, if you've taken multiple cards - do you put each into the camera and download it in turn? Or do you use a card reader for the cards not in the camera and the cable for the one still in the body?

(I have a USB cord attached to my desktop for charging the Bluetooth keyboard of my tablet. I kept losing the cord so finally did what you've done - just left the thing in place . Haven't misplaced it since!)

Regards,

Jim

When I did news and sports photography, I had a portable HDD and I had to remove the cards to download to the drive (using a new card with the previous as a backup) and then simply connected the HDD to my PC to download the day's take. In those days, the cards were far more expensive and of smaller capacity, so several cards were necessary for a day's shooting (as well as having a backup). Nowadays, my work isn't as critical and I rarely fill a 16GB card, so there's no reason to remove the card for downloading. If I did use more than one card, only the one that's been removed would be downloaded via a card reader, the other would be via the camera. But this situation is quite different to updates.

 

[owczi]

I use the cable all the time to download the pictures off the camera. So it's always plugged in. Do people always take the card out to download?

I don't know the type of photography you do and volumes you process, but with a thousand images + RAW on a fast card, USB 3.0 and a good card reader really comes in handy...

 

[OzRay]

The most that I've shot in one session was around 1440 RAW. I downloaded those via the camera and it didn't take all that long. It was a mere fraction of the time that it took me to go through all of the images, select and process.

 

[AussiePhil]

The cables are a few bucks each on Ebay, I bought a few when I got the EM1 and have at least one plugged into a PC, with the low cost of a generic cable it's wrong not to have a couple of spares.


I'm with owczi, a 90Mb card in a USB Card reader downloads at around 70-80Mbs and I've found that to be at least 3 times faster than from the camera, maybe not a big deal for a lot of people though.

 

[jnewell]

I use the cable all the time to download the pictures off the camera. So it's always plugged in. Do people always take the card out to download?

I do...I have worried since my first digital camera about breaking a connector off the circuit board or something like that. People do that all the time with laptops. Downloading via the card has always seemed to present less chance for an expensive disaster.

 

[Jfrader]

... that's how it was with my older Pentax ...

Still is, or at least as of my K-5II. I agree that it makes no sense for Olympus not to have a manual update method. I guess they just don't want to deal with the ensuing problems of "bricked" cameras when the more clueless among us don't follow directions properly.

 

[budeny]

Never understood why they didn't have the option to download the firmware onto a blank card and to boot up with it prompting the update. (least that's how it was with my older Pentax, and it insured I could check the file for MD5/etc checksum and not rely on slow internet before I even break out my camera).

Oh, I remember Panasonic LX3 updates that were done exactly by downloading firmware file, placing it in SD card and power on camera.
Guess what? DPR forum was flooded with threads asking for help with updates.
So far, I haven't seen(recall) a single therad about update here, so probably Olympus way works better.

 

[KBeezie]

So far, I haven't seen(recall) a single therad about update here, so probably Olympus way works better.

I see a few on other sites, but it's usually complaints like the firmware won't download, or it's showing 6 hours left to download it in the auto-updater and they can't get it to complete.

 

[Fmrvette]

...So far, I haven't seen(recall) a single therad about update here, so probably Olympus way works better.

Ya shoulda been here yesterday, ya really missed it***:

https://www.mu-43.com/showthread.php?t=45926



A search of the website will reveal a 'brick' on updating here and there. I still like the Nikon method (CF card) but I'll take any free updates Olympus cares to toss my way in anyway they wanna toss 'em.

Regards,

Jim

*** (Reference Bruce Brown's "The Endless Summer").

 

[barry]

Someone bricked a 12-40mm lens a few days ago:
https://www.mu-43.com/showthread.php?t=72850

Barry

 

[dhazeghi]

Still is, or at least as of my K-5II. I agree that it makes no sense for Olympus not to have a manual update method. I guess they just don't want to deal with the ensuing problems of "bricked" cameras when the more clueless among us don't follow directions properly.

On the contrary I've seen far more reported failures with the Olympus method than any others.

 

[jnewell]

I think you're right, but the anxiety factor is always higher, especially (going by memory) with people who post at DPR.

 

[wjiang]

I'm actually implementing OTA updates for embedded devices at work currently, making it survive power loss and other nightmare scenarios...

IMO it's a bit silly that Olympus didn't make it obvious which stages are critical.

 

[Ross the fiddler]

I use the cable all the time to download the pictures off the camera. So it's always plugged in. Do people always take the card out to download?

Yes! It's much quicker.

 

[Ross the fiddler]

Since I tend to take quite a few photographs, my cable is permanently connected to the rear USB port on my PC and that way the cable is always there for download/updates. It's not as if modern computers are lacking USB ports, requiring you to store the cable anywhere but attached to the PC.

Using the camera's connection is slow because it is only USB 2 whereas the card reader is USB 3 speed (on my laptop) or I can use a USB 3 card reader instead (& is fast if plugged into a USB 3 port).

 

[Ross the fiddler]

I do...I have worried since my first digital camera about breaking a connector off the circuit board or something like that. People do that all the time with laptops. Downloading via the card has always seemed to present less chance for an expensive disaster.

I managed to stuff up the connector of my E520 (plugging in the remote release in the dark the wrong way round & again the download cable) & so that was enough motivation for me to only use the cable for updates etc & to remove the cards to download the photos. It's so much faster & safer!

 

[agentlossing]

I found my cable! Now with my EM10's firmware 1.2 I shall be free from the dreaded shutter shock which has crippled micro four thirds from its inception

EM10•GX1•EP1•GF3•9mmBCL•17mm2.8•30mm2.8

 

[Ian.]

Yes! It's much quicker.

Thanks. OK. If there is no other benefit, then I'll continue with the cable. As that is permanently plugged in to the monitor hub. So it's less plugging for me. And I just let the download run.