Nikon D7000 manual Getting Ready

464 David Busch’s Nikon D7000 Guide to Digital SLR Photography

But there’s a more important reason for having at least two firmware modules. If your camera had just one, and you had the misfortune to munge that firmware during an ill- fated upgrade, it’s very likely your camera would be magically transformed into a digi- tal doorstop. Part of the firmware is needed simply to install (or re-install firmware) in the first place. With all Nikon cameras, Firmware A and Firmware B each has the capa- bility of locating and installing replacement firmware. So, if A is ruined, you can use the routines in B to re-install a new copy of A. And vice versa. We can all agree that this is a wise move on Nikon’s part.

So, what’s Firmware L, currently found only in a few Nikon cameras, like the D7000, used for? Some have speculated that the L firmware was a Language database, so that support for the camera could be expanded to include other languages without the need to mess with the A and B entries. I suspected that the L represented a lens database, per- haps to allow the EXPEED processor to compensate for vignetting or aberrations.

The L firmware is so mysterious that the first few Nikon representatives I asked didn’t know exactly what it was for, either, but I managed to track down a techie who filled me in, while providing some additional insight into the workings of all three firmware modules. He confirmed that the Nikon D90 was the first Nikon camera to include this third firmware module, and that it was, indeed, a lens database that could be updated from time to time with information about new lenses as they were introduced. The func- tion, he said, was to allow more sophisticated distortion control and other features, such as distance integration information provided by Nikon D and G lenses.

WARNING

Use a fully charged EN-EL15 charged battery or a Nikon EH-5/EH-5a AC adapter to ensure that you’ll have enough power to operate the camera for the entire upgrade. Moreover, you should not turn off the camera while your old firmware is being overwrit- ten. Don’t open the memory card door or do anything else that might disrupt operation of the D7000 while the firmware is being installed.

Getting Ready

Before you get started, I have to emphasize that at the time this book was written, only one firmware release has been made available, Version 1.01, which fixed some problems with movie shooting. So, the procedure I am going to describe is the recommended process used for that update. But when it comes time to do an actual firmware upgrade for your D7000, you should double-check the instructions below against the recom- mended procedure that Nikon implements at that time. It should be very close to the steps I outline, but there may be some small differences.