Photokina is the world’s biggest trade fair for the photographic and imaging industries. It is held in September every two years at the Cologne Trade Fair in Germany.
During the event, Sony announced that a firmware update is coming soon which will add fresh functionality to the Sony NEX-5/NEX-3. Autofocus operation is now supported when using A-mount SAM and SSM lenses with the optional LA-EA1 Mount Adaptor (upgrade for NEX-VG10 is available from mid-November). There’s also a new custom function that allows assignment to buttons of frequently-used functions. This allows you to set a wide range of functions (such as white balance, ISO, exposure mode, etc) to the center and lower-left buttons on the back of the camera. And the biggest addition has to be the ability to record movies with aperature control.
This is pretty big news for NEX owners, who have already been rewarded with several firmware upgrades already that enabled powerful features such as 3D Sweep Panorama, and solved other issues.
Another positive aspect of this firmware upgrade is fixing the issue where you had to always restart at the top of the menu system when you hit the Menu button. Now you can just go back to the menu you were in previously without having to start all over.
Imaging-Resource also notes that there is “a user-selectable option to make the NEX menus wrap so scrolling off the bottom will take you back to the top entry again.”
This is merely a few thoughts on the impending firmware upgrade, and we found the full story about the NEX-3/NEX-5 firmware upgrade at Imaging-Resource a very well-written preview of what is coming. Check it out.
