so finally their firmware 3.0 for the Sony a7 3 is here I'm gonna quickly show
you how to upload it onto your camera and then I'm going to show you what
we've got in this new firmware I've put a link in the description below that'll
take you to the firmware update page make sure you download the correct one
for the operating system that you're using I know with a last firmware update
there are a few problems with different operating systems so make sure you have
access to different computers and different operating systems just in case
they should be ok but I'm just saying that because I know there were a few
issues with different operating systems especially on the Mac you'll also need
your multi port cable that came with the camera I think this is the one that came
with mine but I'm gonna try it anyway first things first make sure your
battery is fully charged I use the Sony one that came with a camera remove the
SD card if there's one in your camera if you use third-party batteries I've heard
that there's not too much of a problem with those it just flashes up the
warning when you put the battery in the camera and turn it on i've got links in
the description to each operating system so if you're using windows go to the
windows link if you're using a Mac click on the Mac link I'm using the 10.14
operating system on a Mac you need 600 megabytes of space on your hard drive
and 512 megabytes of RAM these specs are pretty low so most computers will work
with your camera make sure the USB connection on setup page 4 of 7 is on
mass storage so I'm using a Mac so I'm gonna click on this one that says
version 3 Mac on this page it gives you the benefits and improvements in this
list down here and also it has a written out way to upload the firmware to your
camera so click on the download button scroll to the bottom of this and then
click on download so it looks like they have an additional stage to download the
new firmware I haven't got an account with Sony so I'm gonna create account
for download now if you already have an account on the Sony pay
sign in and then it'll let you download the new firmware once you've created an
account and verified it with an email it'll start to download the firmware all
you need to do is wait for this to download now once the file is downloaded
find out where it's gone and then double-click on the dmg file so I'm
going to double click on this and expand it if you're on a PC you might have to
extract it next thing we're going to do is click on this update setting tool
sometimes your Mac will give you this warning yeah I know who I've downloaded
it from a reputable source so I'm gonna open and put in your password then it
asked you to connect the device to the computer with the USB cable you need to
make sure you're using the micro USB port not the USB C port on your camera
if it doesn't show up try disconnecting and reconnecting or use a different USB
port if this still doesn't work try a different USB cable I've got a Mac with
USB C ports so I have to use one of these annoying adapters I then use the
cable that came with a camera and plug it into this adapter now it's plugged in
I'll click on OK if that doesn't do anything then click on resources and
then click on system software updater then click on open and this will open
the updater program so in this program it goes through the stages again I've
done all this so I'm gonna click on next next it's kind of try and find the
camera as you can see my current version is 2.0 I didn't actually update the
firmware to the 2.1 one last thing i need to do before uploading is make sure
that the sleek mode is turned off on my computer so i'm going to go into system
preferences energy saver and it's already there so i'm never going to let
my display go to sleep and i'm going to keep it there so I'm gonna click on next
you'll see on your camera it says follow computer instructions then the screen
will go blank now I'm running the update this will take around about 10 minute
so all you need to do is wait until this process is done it's really important to
leave everything alone at this point I always make sure my laptop is plugged in
and that nothing can knock any of the cables out once it's completed it'll put
this message up on the screen and it will say finish the update so I'll just
click on finish and I'm done the camera will switch off at the end of the
process and switch back on and then it will just have the USB mode mass-storage
on the back of the camera so now it's safe to unplug so I'm going to unplug it
and there we go as instructed I don't have a memory card inserted now I'll
just check the version so I'll go to setup page seven and click on version as
you can see here it says version 3.0 hell ok that and come out so now I'm
just going to have a quick flick through the menus just to see what's different
that looks all the same there we go so in tab one page four or 14 you have
interval shoot function in here you got interval shooting should start time the
interval number of shots auto exposure tracking sensitivity which is
interesting silent shoot in interval mode then shoot
interval priority the next one that's new is this face I oughta focus set here
you can change between human and animal I'm going to keep it on human for now
face detect frame display animal eye display on face eye priority in
autofocus I'm guessing this is where you switch it on and off so when you press
your shutter button it automatically tries to detect eyes in the shot or
maybe a face in the shot as well this week I'm gonna test for stability in the
firmware update and I'm also going to have a play around with the
intervalometer so hopefully next week we'll have a video on this built-in
intervalometer I'm gonna try it in a few different situations and see how well it
works one thing I want to know is whether I can leave my intervalometer at
home now with this update whether I still have to bring it along
that's about it firmware 3.0 does have quite a few changes let's just hope it's
more stable than the firmware 2.0 that was released last year but only time
will tell as always if you like what you see give
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