EOS 20D Firmware 2.0.2 Released

me english bad... what I meant to say was "you do make the wireless sound tempting Jon", ok my second attempt at it looks better lol.

Just took the plunge and updated mine - got to about 20% and I suddenly realised that I'd forgot to take the lens off Doh!!
All went through ok and afterwards the camera seemed to work ok.
Just to be safe I then re-installed the firmware WITH THE LENS OFF - Does anyone know what leaving the lens on can do?

kevin_c wrote:
Just took the plunge and updated mine - got to about 20% and I suddenly realised that I'd forgot to take the lens off Doh!!
All went through ok and afterwards the camera seemed to work ok.
Just to be safe I then re-installed the firmware WITH THE LENS OFF - Does anyone know what leaving the lens on can do?

It seems a bit "funny" they would have you take the lens off. But so is the fact that you can't load updates via usb. I suppose it is to avoid any "possible" issues, but it's hard to say without know exactly what the update program is doing/checking as it does it's thing. I did mine with the 17-85 lens on and had no problems.

KAC

Major and minor refer to the revision number i.e 1 -> 2 would be a major update 1.0.5 -> 1.0.6 would be a minor version update, it has nothing to do with the size of the files.

KAC

Probably bad advice if you expect to use tech support. I think that approach is left over the bad ol' days when the chances of totally screwing up you system when upgrading were fairly high, it's not true any more for the most part. Software development and release methodologies are much better than they were in the past. I know, I've lived it.

KAC

Either the very first or the second update sometimes failed if the lens was left on. The bad news (there was no good news) was that it failed in such a way that you had to return your 20D to Canon. A new release was issued very quickly, but from then on they have always recommended that the lens is removed.

I'm glad they fixed that... I could have been in trouble!

I tried both Mac and PC, both work fine.

I saw in another forum where someone speculated they may have used a different compiler setting. Just in case you don't know what a compiler is - it's a programming tool that turns the developer's code into a file that will run on the camera. Compilers often have a setting that compresses the file and this may have been turned off. If they've added something, perhaps it's the ability to save RAW files in Adobe DNG format?

I am concerned about doing the updates in case something goes wrong. I got my camera just a week ago and it came with 1.0.0 firmware.

I am worried about doing upgrade. I have read that if it crashes or does not upgrade correctly it WILL lock up the camera.

I guess I just know my luck and afraid something will happen and lock up my camera.

The golden rule is to never update your firmware just before doing something that you must have the camera for and cannot borrow another. Other than that, you should do an update as there have been some important bugs fixed since 1.0.0. Just make sure you follow the instructions, especially about using a fully charged battery, taking the lens off, and touching nothing till the udate completes. If you feel really uncomfortable doing it, find someone who's done it - or is at least has knowledge of these things - to sit with you while you follow the steps. I've done a lot of firmware updates of various things, and yes it can be a bit stressful - but it is a normal maintenance operation and should be viewed that way. You're not doing anything very risky.

In the worst case, if the camera locks then you should try removing the main battery and the small battery to reset the camera. Then try loading the firmware again.

I was worried about the same thing a couple months back when I did it for the first tiem (and I'm a computer guy even more reason to worry ), but I followed the directions and it went without a hitch.

KAC

Weird it NEVER stops at 94% with my 20D, it runs down in a fairly fast time.

I am pretty good at computer issues so not sure why this makes me so much on edge. Except I read somewhere is something goes wrong the camera WILL lockup and the only fix is to send to Canon.

If so some reason the download to the CF card goes wrong will it just not work at all? And the camera will be OK.

When they say take lens off (hate to sound stupid) do you put the lens cover on or does it HAVE to be open?

You're not alone with feeling nervous! It's a bit like the moment when the hero of the film decides to cut the green wire ... But it seems silly that it should be this way because anyone involved with computers will be familiar with updating the firmware in the BIOS and DVD drives. So why would it ever fail completely? The only reason I can think of is that the updates sometimes or always replace the BIOS as well - not just the camera operating system. If that part fails then there's no way to connect to the card and read the firmware update. But you'd think if Canon can put things right there must be a way around this too. There must always be some basic hard-coded boot mechanism that allow them to "fix" the camera.

A very early update was known to fail fatally (sometimes) if the lens was left on. This is the only time I've heard of a return being necessary. Fingers crossed ...

It makes sense to put the inner lens cover on the lens to keep the dust out, and by the same token it makes sense to put the body cover on. It's certainly not essential though.

Now, go do it And as someone recommended, walk away from the camera for 5 minutes while it's doing the update. It's much more relaxing that way, especially if you have some chocolate.