topic A6000 firmware requests in Alpha & NEX interchangeable lens cameras

A6000 firmware requests

nex567 — Tue, 27 May 2014 15:08:48 GMT

I have NEX-5N, NEX6, NEX7, and I love them all, each with it's shortcommings.

I bought A6000, and after 15000 "test shots" I have the following observations / requests for Firmware Update changes:

- somebody decided at Sony that the sensor in A6000 is noiseless below ISO400, so the noise reduction below ISO400 is too low, resulting in noisier shots at ISO250-400 than at ISO500-1000 - this is true for LOW and Normal High ISO noise reduction levels.

I have seen the same thing with RZ100 / RX100II, but only with Low setting.

It is very anoying, and I pray that somebody will give us a "flatter" noise curve.

- and somebody decided at Sony that the CDAF focus is obtained with the iris wide open, then the iris closes to the selected aperture, this giving a "jump" in the image after the focus confirmation beep and a decreased rate of focussed images in CDAF mode - AF-S and DMF settings, and partially in AF-A setting, due to a kind of focus shift related to iris closing.

So, please, a flatter noise / ISO curve, and CDAF with the closed iris, like with all the other NEX cameras.

With these two changes this camera would really be a good camera.

I am not hoping much from this post, but what can I do.. I try to tell you something, Sony.

Re : A6000 firmware requests

fxfaidy — Sun, 17 Aug 2014 22:32:45 GMT

hello. I have others requests for the A6000 :

-> ViewFinder : Can we set the sensibility of the detector for the viewfinder ? I know we can desactivate the Auto mode to select manualy viewfinder or LCD screen, but i think the sensibility of detector for the viewfinder is too much. I take my camera on my body, screen facing up, like a Rolleiflex, and i must desactivate the auto mode to do it.

However, it's possible to program a custom fonction to select LCD/EVF with a button (like others sony cameras).

-> Liveview : Can we have the possibility to see in the screen (LCD or EVF) a "well-lighted-picture", to do the framing. Exemple : i make with my A6000 studio pictures with professional strobes, black background, chiaroscuro style. So, i'm in manual mode, 1/200s, f8 to f16, ISO100. i take a picture, light is good, but when I would do the framing with my screen, I see nothing (too low light, modeling lamp aren't powerfull than flash lamp). So i can see nothing to make good studio picture. I want to have the setting to force the visualisation on screen with always the good light to do the framing ? We only can view it when we make the AF, but it's too quick to make a good framing

Thanks

Re : A6000 firmware requests

clash-city-rocker — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 09:17:08 GMT

The firmware features of the A5100 in the A6000 please.

Re : A6000 firmware requests

fxfaidy — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 09:33:42 GMT

XAVC-S Codec yes of course !

... but i think nobody can hear us in this place ...

Re : A6000 firmware requests

vsajewel — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 19:49:44 GMT

Someone at another forum suggested emailing Sony, so I did, with this email:

I got the Alpha 6000 camera yesterday, and was upset to find it doesn't have SONY's newest codec for XAVC S.

Since my primary purpose is to use this for travel and video I will return it & 2 extra lenses if this won't be updated.

I've tested the video for the Alpha 6000 and compared it to video shot on my RX100. It's only marginally better than the RX100, mainly in low light situations. The improvement isn't nearly significant enough to justify the cost, when a person owns the RX100 already, My intent was to upgrade within the Sony product line...but in it's present state the Alpha 6000 isn't an upgrade...it's really just a lateral transfer with a few different features.

I have a week to decide. Any info you can give me regarding future codecs for the Alpha6000 would be helpful. If your intent is to not upgrade the firmware I'll probably return it and look more closely at Panasonic LX100, which I understand has a 4K codec that's amazing! I'm aware of the 5100 having this codec, but I do not want that camera because it is missing other functions I need.

Re: A6000 firmware requests

dbenyakar — Fri, 17 Oct 2014 15:57:46 GMT

I agree with everything you pointed out here.

Sony states in the online help that PDAF stops working when using apetures f13 and above, well I think PDAF stops working after f6.3 and above.

That is from the online help:

"When the aperture value is set to F13 or above, you cannot use the focal plane phase detection AF. Only contrast AF is available."

A nice feature request would be to include custom buttons C1 and C2 in the MR options. So that if I set MR option 1 to be used for manual focusing then to automatically assign C1 for example to be set to Focus Magnifier. Then when switching to MR option 2, the C1 would automatically set to drive mode etc. That would give much more flexibility.

Re: A6000 firmware requests

arkid77 — Fri, 31 Oct 2014 09:08:24 GMT

Just another voice to add support to request for the XAVC S codec to be added to the a6000!

Re: A6000 firmware requests

LGstudio — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 14:27:31 GMT

There are also some thing that i think would be great to have in the A6000:

- Resolution Less then 6MP (eg. for Time-Lapse photograpgy even those 6MPixels are too huge)
- Smaller Resolution for RAW
- RAW processing application. Quickly editing for the basic stuff like when opening it in adobe photoshop raw editor.In some extreme conditions it would be handy to check if the image suites to my needs for post-processing.
- as it was weitten before me, more customizable C1 and C2 buttons .. by pressing the button, change more settings to specific values.
- also possibility to remove the NTSC warning when turning on the camera.

Re: A6000 firmware requests

Bennybriceno — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 02:47:14 GMT

PLEASE SONY!

This is super simple...

Whilst in movie mode, PLEASE allow the shutter release to start and stop video.

There is no reason to make this button worthless while in video mode. Also remote shutter releases could then be used as a start and stop video button.

This is simple, and rediculous to tell me I can't use my shutter release to start and stop video and "only the MOVIE button can be used for this"... WHY???

Thanks,

Re: A6000 firmware requests

_ZeroQ_ — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 10:48:07 GMT

I bought last week my Sony A6000 to replace my Sony NEX 5N. I'm disapointed to see that other products that share the same Bionz X processor can do Full pixel readout and XAVC-S codec. I'm not an expert but as far as I know the compresion is done in the new Bionz X processor so for the XAVC-S codec may be possible with a new firmware update for the A6000. Maybe for having full pixel readoud out of the CMOS Exmor® APS HD is sensor dependant instead of processor dependant and maybe is not enought with a fimrware upgrade.

After all please Sony take into account your customer feedback to improve the firmware of the Sony A6000 camera with these features XAVC-S and full pixel readout.

I have enjoyed very much my old Sony NEX 5N and thas whas the main decision in order to buy the new Sony A6000 instead of other cameras like the Samnsug NX-1 (which have a better video codec, 4K video and full pixel readout). I still have 7 days to change my mind and send back the A6000 camera. What should I do?

Re: A6000 firmware requests

clash-city-rocker — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 10:55:22 GMT

Take it back. The ONLY way Sony will start listening to their customers
sadly.

Gone are the days when Sony cared what their customers wanted.

Re: A6000 firmware requests

timojk — Sun, 26 Apr 2015 21:35:57 GMT

I'm a diver and using Sony A6000 with underwater housing. However I cannot disable internal flash in A6000 at manual mode from the menu when using underwater housing. Obviously I cannot push the flash back in while diving. OK, I can shut down the external flash but the internal keeps flashing and causing light effects to a photo + using a battery for nothing.

Disabling the flash from menu at manual mode must be enabled in the next FW version.

Re: A6000 firmware requests

Lucidlook — Wed, 28 Oct 2015 12:17:29 GMT

I would love to have feature of dual-action button for DMF + Magnifier.

Let's say I assign it to C1 and disable focus on sutter release. In this case:

1. I press and hold C1 -- camera performs pre-focus on initial press and then switches to magnifier for the duration of hold.

2. I perform manual adjustment of the focus while holding C1.

3. I release C1 - Magnifier switches off.

4. I frame the picture and press shutter release.

How does it sound?

Re : A6000 firmware requests

skuller1983 — Tue, 16 Feb 2016 01:59:57 GMT

i need just one button to switching evf to lcd and back.

switching from menu setting is buy much time.

very not comfortable because this one.

Re : A6000 firmware requests

Thalamus. — Tue, 16 Feb 2016 09:48:26 GMT

Hi all,

just thought we should let you know that all of your comments & suggestions do get passed onto the Sony design team but unfortunately we do not receive any feedback..

Re : A6000 firmware requests

vladster — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 16:25:11 GMT

Hi all,

I see that RX10 II uses the same processor Bionz X, but it allows to capture 4k videos and low quality videos up to 960fps. So why a6000 allows only 60fps 1080p at maximum? I don't see real reason for this, except marketing. And if Sony doesn't want to listen to it's customers, then customers will just return their purchases and turn to another brand.

Re : A6000 firmware requests

arkid77 — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 16:36:00 GMT

Whilst sometimes its true cameras are artificially limited and don't do things they could I think this isn't a very fare example. The camera probably needs more of a ram buffer to cache slow motion at the same spec as the RX10. And 4k in this body is clearly difficult to achieve due to the heat issues so the a6300 has likely been redesigned quite a lot to try and handle that over the a6000. RX10 wouldn't have such issues as its a larger body.

You can't always retrospectively complain about things not in a camera just because there is a newer better one out. It's reality, thats how the industry works, sometimes due to marketing policy but also due to tech advancement.