Did you
know that your digital camera may possibly have new updates to its
firmware? The same as with computers,
cell phones, GPS’s, and most other electronic devices, your digital camera
relies on an operating system of sorts to work.
This OS, or firmware as it is more commonly called, will probably be updated
from time to time during the model life of the camera. Bugs may be resolved, and enhancements may be
added.
I just
checked for my Casio camera, and to my delight found updates to enhance the
camera's ability to read new high-capacity SDHC cards and massively enhancing
the quality of video. When I first
bought the camera, about three years ago, SDHC cards were rare and my camera
only excepted SD cards. Back then, the
sweet spot (in terms of value and cost per gigabyte of storage) for a SD card was
512 MB or perhaps 1 GB. The thought of using
an SDHC card never entered my mind.
hard to find the older and limited capacity SD cards, while the sweet spot for
SDHC cards is more like 8 GB. I needed
to get some more memory cards, and with gloomily confronting the possibility of
buying a new camera; the firmware update saved the from needing to do this. It has greatly extended the useful life of my
camera, and being able to shoot better quality video is a nice bonus.
go and check on the manufacturer’s website for your camera and see if it too
has any enhancements to its firmware. I've had firmware updates to other cameras which have given me new features, and which have extended the battery life. It is definitely worthwhile to check to see if your camera too might have some updates. Updating
the firmware is usually a very simple and easy procedure.
The caveat here would be that there is a possibility of breaking existing fuctionality, or even “Bricking” the device when updating the firmware (as has happened to me with electronic devices in the past)!