Home Sweet Home with Sony α-1 Firmware v2.02

Your Call?

Which is the stronger image, #1 or #2. Why?

What’s Up?

Bob Eastman and I continue to have a ton of fun doing bird photography, now at Indian Lake Estates (after our 26 great days at Sebastian Inlet). We got back to my house at 1:00pm on Saturday past and four hours later we were down by the lake a bit before sunset. As below, we were blessed with decent sky color and a Great Egret on The Perch II, the perch that I erected several years ago with the help of neighbor Ralph. We did well on Sunday and Monday morning with some fire-in-the-mist conditions. Sunday afternoon was a dud. On Monday we made some nice crane silhouettes again a vivid orange sky. I am planning on buying a chain saw and with Bob doing most of the hard work, we will be erecting several more perches along the lakefront. That after finalizing the revision of the Flight Guide co-authored by Arash Hazeghi.

Today is Tuesday 26 November 2024. Bob Eastman and I will be headed down to the lake just before 7:00am. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, we hope that you too choose to have a wondrous day.

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It’s Safe to go in the Water Now

Sony a-1 Firmware Update Update

Last spring, Sony announced firmware update v2.00 for the a-1, its flagship camera body. In short order the firmware story became an embarrassing fiasco. Over time, they announced v2.01 that caused terrible problems when the camera was used with the hugely popular 200-600 G lens. After some time, they released v2.02. About six weeks ago, with some trepidation, I purchased a used a-1 and updated it to v.2.01, and then to 2.02. I am happy to report that it is now possible to go back into the water.

The last update, v2.02, offers some great stuff for bird photographers.

v.2.02 Benefits

Battery life with 2.02 is fine. There are no issues with the 200-600 G lens. Bird Face-Eye AF is significantly improved. Formatting a card takes about two seconds as compared to 10 seconds or more with previous firmware versions. But the very best news is a brand new feature called Focus Recall. Huge thanks to Arash Hazeghi for pointing it out to me as we worked on an update to the Sony a-1 (a9 iii) flight guide. I took what he taught me about programming Preset Focus/Zoom to a single button for flight photography and turned it into what will surely turn out to be a huge game-changer for general bird photography.

I call it “double button focus recall.” I programmed two easy-to-reach (previously unassigned) buttons to PRESET Focus Distance. I can then register a close focusing distance to one button and a far focusing distance to the other. A tap of either button instantly brings me to either as needed.

Here is a practical, real life example. I am walking out on the pier. There are some very tame Turkey Vultures and a Limpkin perched on the railing. As I slowly approach the birds, I focus on the nearest one and then press and hold the near-focus button. Th camera registers the focus distance my current close focus distance. I might or might not create a few images. Before continuing my approach, however, I take a moment to focus on the end of the pier and this time I press and hold the far focus button. That becomes my far focus distance. Then I tap the close focus button for the birds on the railings and go to work.

I glance up and see an Osprey carrying a large Crappie in its talons flying over the end of the pier. I tap the AEL button to get to my pre-registered far focusing distance. The AF system will have a relatively easy time of seeing the subject. And once the bird is framed, initial focusing acquisition will be virtually instantaneous. Had the AF system been left at the close focusing distance (while working the birds on the pier railing), there is a good chance that the system would have been temporarily blind when I attempted to acquire focus on the Osprey in flight.

Understand that neither the close nor the far focusing distances need to be anywhere near precise. As long as the AF system is in the general neighborhood (as far as focusing distance is concerned), it will not struggle to acquire focus. Once the Osprey flies by, Artie simply taps the AF-On button to instantly get back to the approximate focusing distance for the birds on the railing.

Yesterday I sent the SONY Alpha a1 Set-up and Info Notes e-Mail J (23 OCT 2024) Firmware Update Update item to the entire group; it began like this:

Dear a1 Gang,

I hope that all of you are well, having fun, and making some great images. Big time thanks and congrats to the twenty folks in the group who have gotten my v2.02 settings onto their a-1 bodies. Many of them helped by letting me know of typos and other errors in the two instructional e-mails. After ten full days or working every morning with my v2.02 Firmware a-1, the 600mm f/4, and the 300mm f/2.8 (each with either TC), I can wholeheartedly recommend that most everyone with an a-1 would be best to update to Firmware v2.02.

If you are a member of the a-1 group and have not received e-Mail J, please e-mail me with your current and correct e-mail address 🙂

a-1 Group members can receive the two e-mails by sending a PayPal for $50.00 (with the words a-1 v2.021/v2.02 Firmware updates in the Subject line) to birdsasart@verizon.net or by calling the office at 863-692-0906 with a credit card to pay the $50.00. No worries if you have already updated to v2.02 — pay the $50.00 and I’ve got you covered.

If you are not a member of my a-1 group and would like to update your camera body and get all of my current setting on it, you will need to either send a PayPal for $125.00 (with the words a-1 v2.021/v2.02 Firmware updates in the Subject line) to birdsasart@verizon.net or call Jim at 863-692-0906 with a credit card to pay the $125.00.

All of the images in today’s blog post were created with my v2.02 CAMST202.DAT on my α-1 mirrorless camera body.

This image was created on 23 November 2024 down by the lake near my home at Indian Lake Estates, FL (after 26 days of great photography at at Sebastian Inlet, FL). Seated in the driver’s seat of my SUV, I used the BLUBB-supported Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens with the Sony FE 1.4x Teleconverter, and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera.. The exposure was determined via Zebra technology with Exposure Compensation (EC) on the thumb dial. Shutter Priority +0.7 stops. AUTO ISO set ISO 250: 1/5000 sec. at f/5.6 (wide open). AWB at 5:21:17pm on a clear afternoon with just a hint of haze in the low western sky. RawDigger showed the exposure to be dead solid perfect. Tracking (upper center) Zone/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed to near perfection. Click on the image to enjoy the high-res version. Image #1: Great Egret taking flight from The Perch II

The Fields are Dry and Good Fortune was With Us

After weeks of no rain, the North and South Fields and the South Peninsula are completely dry and safe to drive on. We arrived a bit early and — once I positioned my vehicle, we began doing white sky silhouettes. As the sun dropped lower and moved to the west, the sky color behind the perch got richer and richer. After shooting this situation for too many years at 1200mm, I finally realized that working at 840mm would give me a much better chance of creating some properly framed take-off and early flight shots. Had the bird stayed on the perch for another 5 minutes, we would have had the sun ball right behind the bird. Ten minutes before the time of sunset, however, the bird took flight and then turned to the northwest.

This image was also created on 23 November 2024 down by the lake near my home at Indian Lake Estates, FL (after 26 days of great photography at at Sebastian Inlet, FL). Seated in the driver’s seat of my SUV, I used the BLUBB-supported Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens with the Sony FE 1.4x Teleconverter, and The One, the Sony Alpha 1 Mirrorless Digital Camera.. The exposure was determined via Zebra technology with Exposure Compensation (EC) on the thumb dial. Shutter Priority +0.7 stops. AUTO ISO set ISO 250: 1/5000 sec. at f/5.6 (wide open). AWB at 5:21:17pm on a clear afternoon with just a hint of haze in the low western sky. RawDigger showed the exposure to be dead solid perfect. Tracking (upper center) Zone/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed to near perfection. Click on the image to enjoy the high-res version. Image #2: Great Egret having just taken flight from The Perch II

The Key to Success

When shooting off the BLUBB, the world’s best big lens beanbag, it is vitally important to move the Direct Manual Focus (DMF) switch on your lens to the OFF position. If you fail to make a habit of this, the manual focusing ring will throw off the focus whenever you re-compose or, as with Image #2, attempt to pan as a bird takes flight. I say attempt because it is extremely difficult to pan with a super-telephoto lens on a BLUBB. No fault of the beanbag of course; it is simply a difficult proposition.

Anyhoo, I created about 30 images as the bird pushed off and took flight. I avoided clipping any wings in the first 20, yet there were only three decent wing positions (including images #1 and #2). I did not pan fast enough to keep the whole bird in the frame for the last ten. All in all, I was thrilled with my new approach. And, as below, thrilled with the improved Bird Face/Eye tracking with Sony α-1 Firmware v2.02.

Image #2A: Great Egret having just taken flight from The Perch II

AF with Sony α-1 Firmware v2.02

Bird Face/Eye AF-C was significantly improved with Sony α-1 Firmware v2.02. With v1.32, the α-1 would almost never continue to track the bird’s head as it took flight. As you can see above, it did a much better job with v2.02.

There have been additional improvements (and a single important difference) in the AF system with v2.02. Those will be detailed in the next e-mail to my α-1 Info and Updates Group sometime this week.

Typos

With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.