Nikon Issues Firmware Fix For D4/D800 Lock-up Problem
New firmware for Nikon's premier DSLRs should prevent the rare freezing problems that users have reported.
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Earlier this month, Nikon confirmed that some D4, D800, and D800E users were experiencing lock-ups during use that could only be fixed by removing the battery. At the time, Nikon claimed a firmware fix was in the works, but that until then, users could turn off certain settings to avoid the problem. Now Nikon has issued that firmware update, and the problem should hopefully be resolved. A minor update has also been issued for the D700.
Nikon D4 shooters can get their update from here, with the following changes.
- When a still image was captured while viewing existing images in playback mode, the monitor turned off, the memory card access lamp glowed steadily, and, in some rare cases, the camera ceased to respond to operations. This issue has been resolved.
- When network functions were used with certain settings applied, RAW images were also transferred when Network > Send file as was set to JPEG only. This issue has been resolved.
- When an option that utilized the main command dial was selected for Custom Setting f15: Playback zoom, and an image was zoomed in or out with playback with certain settings applied, shooting shutter speed, aperture, and exposure compensation settings were sometimes changed. This issue has been resolved.
For the D800 and D800E, the new fixes are:
- When a still image was captured while viewing existing images in playback mode, the monitor turned off, the memory card access lamp glowed steadily, and, in some rare cases, the camera ceased to respond to operations. This issue has been resolved.
- When the Wireless Transmitter WT-4 was used with certain settings applied, RAW images were also transferred when Wireless transmitter > Transfer settings > Send file as was set to JPEG only. This issue has been resolved.
- A dark shadow sometimes appeared at the bottom edge of images captured with Active D-Lighting set to any option other than Off with Image area set to 5:4 (30×24). This issue has been resolved.
And finally, a minor tweak has also been issued for the D700:
- An issue that, in some very rare cases, caused images to be extremely under-exposed has been resolved.