Firmware Update - K10D?!

<p>Interesting to read that there's an update for the K10d! And of course includes the rest of the range:<br>

http://www.dpreview.com/news/1004/10042201pentaxfirmwareupdates.asp<br>

It's for improving stability for certain SDHC cards, and it looks like it's for the 16GB and higher cards.<br>

http://www.pentax.jp/english/support/digital/k10d_s.html</p>

<p>I use a 4GB card, so will this be necessary for me? I guess it can't hurt to upgrade anyways? Personally, I can't see why you would want to use a 16GB card on the K10d... makes sense for video dslrs... but that's waaay too many files for my liking.</p>

<p>Wow, that's amazing that Pentax still supports a 4 year old camera with firmware updates. Kudos Pentax!<br>

I think the failure rates for SDHC cards are low enough to be considered safe for non high end work.<br>

Now... there's only one more K10D update that we've all been waiting for..... the one that will allow screw drive on SDM lenses. Then the Camera will be an example of perfection at it's best.</p>

<p>Was just reading this; interesting announcement. I had a LOT OF TROUBLE with some store brand 4gig SDHC cards with my k20d. The cards worked fine with other devices. You could snap away and fill the buffer, check the preview image but the K20d would not write reliably to the cards. Very annoying; unless you were watching the screen during the buffer write process you never knew the write failed until much latter when back home you realized the photos were missing. I ended up returning the generic cards for Sandisk Ultra II and III's which have been very reliable. Guess it was not the cards after all.</p>

<p>So if this was a common problem and the K10d shared it; that was not a minor flaw and I can certainly see Pentax updating the k10d to correct the issue; that was the right thing to do. </p>

<p>I'll probably still do this tonight, since this weekend I'm heading up to the Boston area for a wedding so this will be the last place I want my card to start acting up.</p>

<p>Yea that screw drive update would be nice, but if we can get that back and front focus adjustment through the update, that would be awesome!</p>

<p>The Pentax USA site still shows only version 1.30.</p>

<p>Has there been any announcement of if/when the USA site will have the patch, and will there be any differences between the Japanese and American versions?</p>

<p>Paul Noble</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Has there been any announcement of if/when the USA site will have the patch, and will there be any differences between the Japanese and American versions?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>It's all the same file. Go ahead and download it from the Japan website.</p>

<p>I did both my K10D and K20D a few hours ago with no problems from the US site.</p>

<p>Stan,</p>

<p>I just looked again, and the US site is still showing only firmware version 1.30, not 1.31.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I'm baffled by the zip file being for mac users and exe for windows users. They could just skip the exe version as zip files are supported natively by windows XP and later even if some people mistakenly think they need winzip.</p>

<p>Since the camera is so old, I doubt they did any additional enhancements. Plus it's 1.31 and not 1.35 or 1.4 so I doubt anyone NOT having issues really needs this update.</p>

<p>Usually within the updates are some minor tweaks that don't get advertised. Sometimes it's negative, like when they removed debug mode.</p>

<p>Of course, I agree, it is impressive that even a minor update was released for a 4 year old camera. I think it also speaks to how many K10Ds were probably sold. This is still a camera with a very high user rate despite being 4 years old.</p>

<p>I do wish Pentax would have continued updating firmware. This is one of those things that probably doesn't cost much (depending on how big the update is) but brings tremendous goodwill from users.It's the software equivalent of keeping backwards compatibility with old lenses. I can't imagine porting parts of the K200D firmware to the K10D would have been all that difficult. In fact, it might have even moved stock off the shelves at a higher price. Imagine if they basically said, "we are putting K200D firmware on the K10D, enjoy!"</p>

<p> </p>

<blockquote>

<p>"I do wish Pentax would have continued updating firmware. This is one of those things that probably doesn't cost much (depending on how big the update is) but brings tremendous goodwill from users.It's the software equivalent of keeping backwards compatibility with old lenses. I can't imagine porting parts of the K200D firmware to the K10D would have been all that difficult. In fact, it might have even moved stock off the shelves at a higher price. Imagine if they basically said, "we are putting K200D firmware on the K10D, enjoy!"</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Yes, this is a really interesting debate - I guess they don't in order to help persuade customers to upgrade? I'm just pondering with the idea of fishing about in the config files to see if there's a system parameter that'd solve my particular NR problem but being only semi-technical I'm more than a little reluctant :) I do have a friend though who was able to put N D70 firmware onto a D50 by flashing it. The problem was the D70 doesn't have the additional wheel so the functionality wasn't useable. But still...</p>

<p>There is a new K20D firmware as well that addresses SDHC issues too.<br>

I'm running on 1.03 with RiData 8GB and 16GB cards without issue. The 16GB cards I bought almost 18 months ago for a steal at the time ($40/each). They've been solid. The 8GB cards were bought recently ($15/each).</p>

<p>A 4 year old camera is old. The way of electronics I suppose... I finally updated my old K10D firmware from 1.0 to the new 1.31. Used the MAC version. No problems.<br>

Now I might just go out and rent a DA*lens and see what this SDM is all about :)</p>

<p>There are people out there reporting improved AF with the new firmware on K10D and K20D cameras.</p>

<p>If I hadn't been hacked this weekend, I would've run some pre/post upgrade tests, but as it stands I haven't even downloaded the new firmware, and probably won't for a while.</p>

<p>Regarding the upgrading firmware for old cameras that Justin mentioned, one of many things I would like for the K10D is ISO 3200. The K-m, which uses the same sensor as the K10D, does ISO 3200, and does it well. Please Pentax, can you give me an extra stop of ISO, or do I have to keep pushing ISO 1600 to shoot at 3200?</p>

<p>Hello? <a href="

there anybody in there?</a></p>

<p>I saw all those other posts about it too and never did get around to updating my k10d to see. But I won't have any fancy tests and all though... so not sure if I will really notice a difference... anyways, as I type this, I have the page to the firmware open and ready to download...</p>

<p>here I go.</p>

<p>Uhmm... Mis, could you go ahead and get this done so that you could try out some tests :P</p>

<p>So I updated the firmware (I was doing it wrong at first; saving it into the DCIM folder instead of just on the card) and before doing so I was fooling around with the focusing in the room. The room is dark except for the computer screen and the light spilling into the area. I focused in a dark spot to throw it off, and then focused on the door handle. Doing the same thing now and it appears faster. And less hunting... don't know if it's my imagination or what... I'm using my FA50, which hasn't really given me problems...</p>

<p>Shame on me for not trying to time it first for 10 tries and then comparing. Engineer fail.</p>

<p>Happy to say that going from 1.0.3 to 1.0.4 on my K20d seems to be a thumbs up.</p>

<p> - debug mode is NOT disabled and my global +90um setting has been preserved<br>

- metering seems a little more accurate (not thrown off by dark areas in a picture; I'm testing indoors at night which usually gives over-exposed shots)<br>

- AF seems more decisive on the first tzt and AF lock seems quicker (at least on my 43mm; have to start testing others)</p>

<p>These are times when I wish I had 2 bodies to test with!</p>

<p>Javier has a few K20's.... Maybe he can be our Official Unofficial Firmware Tester!</p>

<p>I'm going to flash my K20D from 1.03 to 1.04 as well. It might not be until the weekend, depending on work.</p>