Update your Sony Camera with a Memory Card (SD or CFexpress)

Trying to update your Sony Camera with an SD Card or CFexpress card? Here’s how to do it. Firmware updates not only ensure that the latest bug fixes are applied, but they also often offer free new features and options for your camera.

Transcript:

Hi, everybody. This is Sam Harrison from Sony. Today, we're going to be looking at your Sony camera and how you can update it with an SD card or a CFEXPRESS card. So if you're using any of these cameras currently, then updating it via a card is going to be the only way that you can update your camera. So it's always good to know how to do it.

This list is accurate at the time of filming, but you always want to check the Sony support website to find the best way to update your camera. You can find a link to the camera section of the Sony support website in the description of this video. So a couple things to check just before we get started. First, if you just so happen to have been through a long recording session with your camera, the internal temperature might be a little too high for the update process.

If that's the case, just let your camera cool for a while before you start this procedure. Also, you might just want to double check that your computer actually has a slot for the card that you're trying to use to update just so you can download the file onto the card. If not, you might just need to get a dongle so that you can insert the card into your computer.

First, you want to make sure that you have a reliable, good quality, freshly formatted SD card. Before formatting make sure you've taken any remaining pictures, videos and files off of your SD card. You can learn the best way to do that by going to this video. Also linked in the description. You can format your SD card by navigating to shooting media format in your Sony camera, menu. Once you've got that, you'll need to head to the Sony support website where you can look up your camera by model number. The model number might be a little different than the name that you normally have for your camera.

So for example, the A74 will be the ILCE-7M4. You can always find this name by looking at the label on the bottom of your camera. Once you find your camera's mobile page, you want to navigate to the downloads section. In the downloads section, you should be able to find an update listed with SD card or CFEXPRESS card next to it.

This is the one you want to click on. Some Sony cameras might need you to perform a previous software update before you move to the newest version. For example, today I'm using the A74 and I can see here on the website that I need to update from 1.01 to 1.05 before I update to 2.0. All that means is I'll just need to do this procedure one more time after I've completed the first update. If this is the case, don't download both files at the same time because they need to have the same name when they're on your SD card.

If you download two at the same time, your computer will automatically rename one of them to fit them in your downloads folder. So make sure to complete the first update and then delete the old one before you download the new one or when you get it onto your card, it won't work. You can always easily check the software version of your camera by navigating to set up setup option version, and then your version number should be listed there.

So you always know what version number you're currently running. And then once you've downloaded the update, you should easily be able to find the file located in your downloads folder, insert your card into your computer and you should see it available in your list of drives. Then simply copy the file over from your downloads folder into your card. And then of course, make sure you safely eject your card after copying it.

Of course, because we all do that yeah? It's important that you only have one of these update files on the SD card that you're using to update your camera if you're unsure. You can always check by looking on your SD card on your computer. They should have the file name BODYDATA.DAT. Okay, now that you have your ready on your SD card, you can put your SD card into your camera.

It should be in slot one, then navigate to menu, set up setup option version software update. Then simply scroll through and read the information for this update. Then you should be able to select execute to begin the update. This is very important. Do not take the battery out while the update is in progress. Don't do it. No matter how much money someone offers you do not take the battery out during the update process.

So while that is in progress, the display on the back of your camera will show as completely black and the LED will flash pretty consistently. This will take quite a few minutes. So an excellent opportunity to go and make yourself a cup of tea or something. In fact, I'm going to do that now. Be right back. All right. Hmm.

Okay, where are we. So once the update has completed, your camera will automatically restart and then display a message to let you know that the update has been successful. You can just press okay, to dismiss this message and that's it. You've successfully updated your Sony camera with an SD card if you're having any trouble with this process or any other trouble updating your Sony camera, you can always visit the Sony support website for more information and assistance.

Thank you for watching.