MAC OS-X 10.5.7 good news for tethered shooters

If you use an Apple MAC and have OS-X 10.5 then most likely you've been running 10.5.6 lately, but now 10.5.7 is now available to download and if you didn't get it already do so...

In MAC OS 10.5.6 Apple seemingly broke the tethered shooting functions making it very tough for users to shoot with cameras connected to the laptop. Typical symptoms include freezing of the whole computer, lock up of DPP or EOS Utility or similar. Usually it happens after around 15 minutes of continuous tethering, sometimes after 20 or more images have been transferred. MAC OS-X 10.5.7 seems to fix this, though there's no mention of fixes to USB on the update release notes.

To try it out we hooked up an EOS-1D Mark III and left it in live view mode for over 30 minutes it was still all alive and working and we could then pick the camera up and shoot a couple of hundred frames straight in to the MAC; just like you could do with MAC OS-X 10.5.5.

One thing that 10.5.7 brings is support for RAW images from EOS 5D Mark II, EOS 50D and PowerShot G10 according to the release note information.

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EOS 40D Firmware update

Well, what do you know. The camera that everyone thinks is discontinued has a firmware update! 

That's right folks, the EOS 40D has just had a new firmware released to adjust a few things. According to the Canon website, these are:

1. Fixes a malfunction that in rare occurrence causes a low battery indication to be displayed when using the EF 85mm F1.2L II USM lens. Depending on the battery check timing of the camera, the battery level displayed on the camera's LCD data panel may shows Battery will be exhausted soon or Battery must be recharged, even though the battery capacity is sufficient.
2. Fixes a malfunction that in rare occurrence causes an Err 06 Self Cleaning Sensor malfunction to appear on the camera's LCD monitor and LCD data panel, even when the Self Cleaning Sensor Unit is operating normally. This message may appear depending on the timing of when the camera is switch to the ON position.
3. Fixes a malfunction that prevents correct colors from being printed when direct printing. RAW images captured using the camera's custom Picture Styles (Emerald, etc.), which have been downloaded from Canon's Web site and registered under User Def. 2 or User Def. 3.
4. Modifies the level of subject brightness that causes the AF-assist beam to fire when using an external Speedlite.
5. Enables an external flash connected to the camera's synchro terminal to fire even when the camera's built-in flash is popped up.

Isn't it just the way? The most interesting one here is the last in the list. Why so interesting? Well, from our reading of this, you can use the built-in flash for AF assist and yet still trigger studio lights or others with a PC sync cord. 

To download this latest v1.1.1 firmware, click here. 

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EOS 5D Mark II spots and stripes

Double post Friday, but this is important. There's been some examples on the web of a phenomenon of black dots, and also to a lesser extent banding in images shot in sRAW1 with the new EOS 5D Mark II. Today Canon has delivered a statement from most of the companies service portals on this. Looks like there's a new version of firmware coming to deliver a fix for spots and stripes.

You can find the details here: Canon Europe Consumer Product Support site,

The notice also notes that the vertical banding issue seems to affect images shot and stored as sRAW1, and to a lesser extent sRAW2. Using RAW or JPEG images eliminates the banding, and also switching off highlight tone priority by setting C.Fn II-3 to 0:Disable can help if you need to shoot in sRAW1 or sRAW2.

If you're desparate for the firmware then keep checking on the Canon website where firmware updates for all EOS cameras can be found here.

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