http://blog.tindrumfire.com/2009/03/12/intelligent-lenses-and-not-so-intelligent-design/ A flame in the dark. Mon, 28 Jun 2010 04:05:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 http://blog.tindrumfire.com/2009/03/12/intelligent-lenses-and-not-so-intelligent-design/comment-page-1/#comment-221 Andrew Fildes Wed, 24 Mar 2010 22:58:48 +0000 http://blog.tindrumfire.com/?p=45#comment-221 Sorry but Oly has been upgrading lens firmware for a while now. It goes way back before the 9-18mm. While your 'release the beta now and fix it later' is valid to some extent, it has it's good points. For instance, Oly is involved in the Four Thirds and micro-Four Thirds systems and some of the lens and body upgrades have been to improve compatibility with Panasonic, Leica and Sigma - in fact, Olympus have released upgrades for lenses by those makers when used on Oly bodies and to improve the usability of their own lenses on Panasonic bodies, a worthy initiative. My main complaint with Olympus is that I have to use their software and connect the camera to the computer directly in order to upgrade (Canon allows me to download firmware upgrades to a card and just install). As I use Adobe software and prefer to quarantine devices when possible, this is annoying. I think you overstate the implications. Encouraging laziness in manufacturers and developers? - of course, they never, ever release underdeveloped product and (to be fair) they cannot possibly foresee every possible problem. It's nice to be able to fix a problem like the slow focus of the Oly E-P1 with a firmware upgrade. Yes it should have been better out of the box but there were significant competitive pressures. Other firmware upgrades have been for things that could not have been pre-tested - I'm happy that my old lenses can be upgraded for new bodies with a few keystrokes. Sorry but Oly has been upgrading lens firmware for a while now. It goes way back before the 9-18mm. While your ‘release the beta now and fix it later’ is valid to some extent, it has it’s good points. For instance, Oly is involved in the Four Thirds and micro-Four Thirds systems and some of the lens and body upgrades have been to improve compatibility with Panasonic, Leica and Sigma – in fact, Olympus have released upgrades for lenses by those makers when used on Oly bodies and to improve the usability of their own lenses on Panasonic bodies, a worthy initiative.
My main complaint with Olympus is that I have to use their software and connect the camera to the computer directly in order to upgrade (Canon allows me to download firmware upgrades to a card and just install). As I use Adobe software and prefer to quarantine devices when possible, this is annoying.
I think you overstate the implications. Encouraging laziness in manufacturers and developers? – of course, they never, ever release underdeveloped product and (to be fair) they cannot possibly foresee every possible problem. It’s nice to be able to fix a problem like the slow focus of the Oly E-P1 with a firmware upgrade. Yes it should have been better out of the box but there were significant competitive pressures. Other firmware upgrades have been for things that could not have been pre-tested – I’m happy that my old lenses can be upgraded for new bodies with a few keystrokes.

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