a77 Firmware, v. 1.07

scovell001 wrote: I wish they'd have added auto iso to manual

+1

I've done some extensive testing on my A77 to find any difference between V1.06 and V1.07.

Startup and shutdown: No difference.
Startup was measured with a stop watch, camera on tripod en in manual mode. After inserting the battery, the camera was turned on and I measured the time it took for I was able to shoot the first picture. I conducted a few trials and averaged the results. And there is no difference between V1.06 and V1.07.

Shutdown is a different story. I measured shutdown times by measuring the powerdraw from the battery, because it may seem that the camera is off, but in reality is still shutting down. There is no real difference between V1.06 and V1.07. There isn't any real difference at all between all the firmware versions. Sony did however change the shutdown sequence (I think it was with V1.04). In older versions, the last thing to happen was the lens turning focus to infinity. In later versions, the lens turns to infinity somewhere in the beginning of the shutdown sequence, so it seems the camera shuts down faster. But in the background things are still happening, because the powerdrain on the battery is still at a high level after the lens turning to infinity.
The shutdown time in total improved about 1.5sec max from V1.02 to V1.07. I can't determine if the shutdown sequence is changed between V1.06 and V1.07, but the duration of the drain on the battery is the same with both versions. So no real difference in real life.

High ISO noise - No difference what so ever, even when pixel-peeping in RAW or in JPEG mode. Noise is hard to quantify and random in nature, but comparing before and after shots, I can see no apparent difference.

General JPEG quality - No difference as far as I can see. If there is a difference, it's negligible.

Flash-exposere - With firmware V1.06 I had my flash exposure compensation set to -0.7\-1.0 to combat overexposure. With firmware V1.07 all the shots I made where underexposed at -1.0, so now flash exposure compensation is set to 0 and all is fine. Tested with internal flash and external Sony 56 flash. So it seems something changed in the flash exposure. It's seems to be more consistent with version V1.07. I did not test wireless flash, only with the external flash mounted on the camera.

Viewfinder brightness - The viewfinder brightness (when set to auto) is consistently to dark for my tatste, resulting in me compensating and overexposing my images. I set the brightness of my viewfinder to +1 to get the viewfinder to give me a more realistic level of exposure. No change here comparing V1.06 to V1.07. Viewfinder is still to dark to my taste when set to 'Auto'. Setting it to '+1' works fine for me.

ISO auto chosing lower ISO values - I did not test this, so I can't comment on that one.

Dial speed\lag, camera functions, etc. - no changes I could find. I did not do any measurements on dial speed, but I use my camera on a daily basis and don't 'feel' any difference. If there is a difference it's marginal at best.

The one thing i did notice was the write-to-SD Card speed. I did not do any measuring on that, because I did not expect any change. (the camera is already pretty fast in this area). But after installing V1.07 I got the impression that the camera buffer was cleared to SD faster then with V1.06. It may be just my imagination, it may be placebo, but because I did not excpect any change, I wasn't really paying attention to this aspect, and still I noticed it.

3th party grip and battery kept working in V1.07. So besides the added lenses the only other difference between V1.06 and V1.07 seems to be the flash-exposure in my opinion.

Edited by Chasepoes - 12 February 2013 at 20:19

Thanks! I've been a long time lurker on this forum, but felt it necessary to contribute something for all the good advice and tips I've read here.

rickztahone wrote: Welcome! Thx for the informative response. You saved me having to do the flash exposure test. I will update soon.

I can't wait to see your observations because you were the most pessimistic about flash overexposure or consistency being fixed in this update so it makes you the most objective

marcin.warmuz wrote: rickztahone wrote: Welcome! Thx for the informative response. You saved me having to do the flash exposure test. I will update soon. I can't wait to see your observations because you were the most pessimistic about flash overexposure or consistency being fixed in this update so it makes you the most objective

Lol, i would be insulted but you are dead right. I didn't think this was the ultimate FW fix for the flash exposure because it has been claimed before. I don't remember ever having this many people agree that it is much improved however which has led me to believe that it indeed may have been fixed. I just didn't want to go through the hassle of a new FW just for new lenses that I do not have

A little update on the write-to-SD Card speed:

Yesterday I had the opportunity to do some tests regarding the write-to-SD Card speed, which I felt had changed with V1.07. A friend of mine came to visit with his A77 which still was at V1.06. We mounted both camera's on a Tripod, put them close together and made them shoot burst-pictures, using a timed external trigger (intervalometer it is called I believe). We both timed how long it took for the buffer to clear and de red-light on the back of the camera to go dark. Whe used the same SD-card, to rule out any difference in that area. We averaged the results and there is no difference in the write-to-sd card speed.

Affter that I investigated further, because I was 100% sure that my camera was faster in writing to the SD card after the update to V1.07. It actually was faster, but that was not due to the firmware update. In the firmware install instructions it is stated that your SD-Card needs to be removed before upgrading, which I did. I have 2 16Gb Sandisk Extreme Pro SD-cards, but 1 is a first generation card, the other a second genereation (which is much faster). The generation 1 card was in the camera during my tests at V1.06 and I accidently put in the generation 2 card after applying the V1.07 update (both look alike). So no wonder the write-to-sd card speed seemed faster.

To sum up: Write-to-SD Card speed: No change!

Edited by Chasepoes - 13 February 2013 at 08:38

condellm wrote: My flash problems were really bad. In the first place the flash would not be recognised. Would not even get the icon. Then when it is recognised the orange dot would not appear next to it and I would get overexposures randomly. I discovered I had to tilt the camera forward for the flash to be recognised and put a piece of paper in the locking mechanism. It worked, but still got many random overexposures. I live in Antigua it would cost too much to send the camera back. Version 1.07 so far has fixed all overexposure problems. The flash is always recognised no need for paper. My dials are faster 1.05 was faster 1.07 is faster still. Shutdown and startup are are also faster.

Shutdown and startup are not affected. Maybe the startup and shutdown sequence has been altered, so it might seem faster to you, but power-on to first picture is exactly the same between V1.06 and V1.07. The same applies to shutdown: The camera is properly shut down when there is no (or a negligible) powerdraw from the battery. When shutting down the camera it takes the same time to go from switching the on\off switch to no powerdraw from the battery.

So maybe it seems quicker at startup\shutdown (which I haven't really noticed), in actuallity it is just as fast (or slow depending on your frame of reference) as it was with V1.06.

Same thing with the dial-speed\response: Absolutly no change between V1.06 or V1.07. yesterday I had the opportunity to compare a V1.06 and V1.07 next to each other and there was absolutly no destinctive difference in dial-speed (or response). I did not do any actual measurements, but if there is a difference it is very, very small and not visible to the human eye.

So I think on these issues your mind (or memory) is playing tricks on you.

I also found your story about the need for a peace of paper a bit strange as it is a physical alteration you make, yet with a firmware update nothing physical is changed. When you have to tilt your flash forward a bit to eleviate a problem, it looks like the front contacts of the flash-unit do not make a good contact to the hotshoe. By tilting the flash-unit you press the front contacts together a bit harder, which could result in a good contact between flash-unit and hotshoe. If the contacts are not making good contact, the camera might not be able to properly communicate with the flash-unit, which could explain the exposure issues.

I don't see how a firmware could solve that problem. Yes, there are improvements to the flash-exposure (more and more people are confirming it), but that won't resolve the contact problem. Maybe one of your contact-pins on the flash-unit\camera got stuck (they should be able to slide in and out a bit) and wasn't making good contact and it came loose the moment you put on your flash-unit after upgrading to V1.07. So you maybe thinking V1.07 solved the problem, while in reality something else solved the real problem.

But that's just my stupid opinion.   

Edited by Chasepoes - 13 February 2013 at 22:29