A New Firmware Is Available for the Nikon D5100

Nikon has released an updated firmware for its consumer DSLR camera, the Nikon D5100. The new firmware, v. 1.01, officially solves the following bugs:

• Some memory cards weren't recognized correctly.
• The selective color retouch tool sometimes left the border of an image unchanged when the image quality was set to NEF+JPG and the image size was set to M or S.
• The exposure differential when taking HDR images using matrix metering and automatic exposure differential is not fixed to 2 EV any longer.

Installing the firmware is straightforward:

• Copy the firmware image to a memory card root folder and insert the card into the camera.
• Choose the Firmware version item in the camera Configuration menu.
• Use the Update menu item and follow the on-screen instructions. The upgrade will take less than a couple of minutes.
• Turn off the camera and remove the memory card.
• Turn on the camera, check if the new firmware has been installed, using the Firmware version item in the camera Configuration menu.
• Turn off the camera and wait at least 5 seconds before using it.

Undocumented Changes

I discovered that the weird Auto ISO behaviour with a hot-shoe mounted flash that I described in another post has suffered a change. With the new firmware, the Auto ISO behaviour with both the pop-up flash and a hot-shoe mounted flash is the same and is consistent with the Auto ISO documented behaviour: the ISO is automatically raised up to the maximum value specified in the camera settings.