Thursday, July 25, 2013

Nikon Firmware Updates: Two Main Places to Check


First go here to check for your camera's firmware updates.  It will look like the screen capture above minus the red arrows.  However those two arrows direct you to those two updates you need to check on: 1) DSLR & 2) Distortion Control Data.

Here are the shortcut links for you:

Firmware download links: Mac | Windows
Installation instructions: Mac | Windows
What is barrel and pincushion distortion?
from Nikon's website
- Barrel distortion normally affects images shot with wide angle lenses and results in an image that appears to have details that bow outwards, away from the centre of the image.
- Pincushion distortion normally affects images shot with telephoto lenses and results in the image appearing as thought it is being pulled towards the centre.

An example of Barrel Distortion


An example of Pincushion Distortion 
Nikon D4

You need to know what firmware you have on your camera. Check your manual, but for the most Nikon DSLR just go to the wrench icon and then look for firmware.


Here I am showing you the screen that shows up once you have downloaded the firmware update and put this on the memory card and then into the camera.  When you go to firmware it will ask if you want to update.


Here you can see that I updated my Lens Correction from 1.004 to 1.009.


If you attach your flash as I did on my camera and check firmware you will have four different software updates possible.

What do all these refer to on the Nikon D4

A: I/O processor
B: Expeed processor
L: Lens Distortion Control Data
S: Flash

If you shoot RAW the RAW file doesn't have the corrections, but the JPEG thumbnail does have the corrections. For the most part if you use Nikon Capture, Adobe PhotoShop or Adobe Lightroom you can apply these corrections to the RAW file there.

Flash

The Flash I had on the camera for the 5.002 firmware was my Nikon SB-900.  

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