Sony has issued a free firmware upgrade that refines shooting responses and creative options with the ?900 and ?850 DSLR cameras.

 

December 9, 2010: Sony has issued a free firmware upgrade that refines shooting responses and creative options with the øŽ ±900 and øŽ ±850 DSLR cameras.
The new firmware increases autofocusing response times with to improved AF motor control and smarter distance detection of out-of-focus objects. Creative options are extended by a broadened range of exposure value (EV) compensation settings, now increased from ø‚ ±3EV to ø‚ ±5EV. Selected compensation value is displayed in the navigation display on the main LCD screen of both cameras. This boosted EV compensation range gives extra headroom when composing extremely high- or low-key images.
The exposure bracketing range has also been increased from a maximum of 4.0EV (three shots at -2EV, 0EV, +2EV) to a maximum of 6.0EV (-3EV, 0EV, +3EV). This wider range gives added flexibility when capturing multiple frames at different exposure values – for example when acquiring images for the creation of powerful post-shooting HDR effects. As a further refinement, a new menu option allows shutter release to be enabled, even when the camera body doesn’t detect an attached lens. It’s useful for specialist applications such as astrophotography when the camera is attached to a telescope.

The upgrade is available free of charge for registered øŽ ±900 and øŽ ±850 DSLR customers from http://www.sony.com.au/section/support.