Nikon Updates Firmware on The Coolpix P7000

Tweet

For those of you who have a Nikon Coolpix P7000 camera, or wanted to get one but were afraid to due to some reviews you’d read, you’ll have plenty of reason to cheer up as the newest firmware, version 1.1, has been announced.

The new firmware version offers improved processing times to NRW images (Nikon’s proprietary version of RAW), as well as tightening up the lens controls to cut down the number of focusing errors. Rarer errors, like a strange quirk that kept the zoom from working at all in some cameras, and another that caused blown highlights on the LCD screen under certain circumstances (like when the shutter is half-pressed and the Active D-Lighting systems are active) have also been addressed.

This is actually a big help for Nikon’s Coolpix P7000; early reviews suggested that the camera was likable enough but had some substantial problems, most of which fall under the purview of the firmware upgrade. The biggest problem was that RAW processing time issue, and with this upgrade, that’s mostly fixed, so you can reasonably assume that shelling out the $499.99 Nikon wanted for this is now a fairly good buy if you’re looking.

Getting the firmware update into the camera, though, is a little bit of a headache: Nikon put out an eight-step instruction sheet that will involve transferring files back and forth between your computer and an SD card and into the camera itself, so if you’re using a PC that doesn’t have a card reader you’re not likely to be able to pull off this update. Though that may be a moot point for a lot of users, it’s something worth noting for those that don’t have the card reader.

It’s nice to see a company taking customer issues seriously, and addressing people’s complaints in the form of actual solutions, so due kudos go out to Nikon for taking the problem seriously and working to fix it.