jlw
Rangefinder camera pedant
In case you bought one of those Epson P-2000 storage/viewer gizmos as a companion to your R-D 1, I thought you might wanna know that Epson has issued a P-2000 firmware update.
You can download the updater (Mac or Windows version) from the Support/Downloads area of the Epson US website. Once you've downloaded it, you must copy the updater files onto a completely blank memory card for installation, using a card reader connected to your computer. You can't perform the update by connecting the P-2000 directly to your computer via its USB cable!
The main feature of the update of possible interest to R-D 1 shooters is that you can make the P-2000 display an exposure histogram (for JPEG files only.) To do this, view the photo you want to see as normal, push the Display button to bring up the EXIF data, then press Display again.
TIP: When I first downloaded the firmware updater earlier today, I wasn't able to get it to install when I followed the directions. Inserting a memory card containing the updater, then holding down the power and OK buttons, is supposed to trigger the P-2000 to display a special firmware-update screen and perform the update. But no matter how many times I did this, I never got the firmware-update screen -- the P-2000 just started up as normal.
I called Epson's tech support number, and the guy there told me that the reason this was happening was that the updater had a bug in it and was being pulled! Several hours later, though, I saw that the same updater was still on the website. I downloaded it again, and this time I was successful. Here's the trick:
The instructions say you need to copy the updater files onto a completely blank memory card. On my first (unsuccessful) try, I had tried to blank the card by putting it in my card reader and using my Mac's Disk Utility program to reformat it. But the P-2000 wouldn't recognize this card to apply the update, as noted above. (I'm guessing that MacOS X adds some invisible files to the card, so the P-2000 didn't see it as being really blank.)
What worked for me was to use the P-2000 itself to erase the card. To do that, I set the 'Copy Mode' setting to 'Delete Data After Copying,' then stuck a card with a few files on it in the P-2000 and copied them. Once the copies had run, I was left with a blank memory card that the P-2000 would recognize as blank. I put this card into my card reader, copied the updater files onto it, and did the restart routine. This time it worked!
You can download the updater (Mac or Windows version) from the Support/Downloads area of the Epson US website. Once you've downloaded it, you must copy the updater files onto a completely blank memory card for installation, using a card reader connected to your computer. You can't perform the update by connecting the P-2000 directly to your computer via its USB cable!
Also: See below for a tip on a problem I ran into, and its solution.
The main feature of the update of possible interest to R-D 1 shooters is that you can make the P-2000 display an exposure histogram (for JPEG files only.) To do this, view the photo you want to see as normal, push the Display button to bring up the EXIF data, then press Display again.
Yeah, I know it's a bummer that the histogram feature (along with zoom, slide show, etc.) doesn't work with raw files, only JPEGs. After all, a big part of the rationale for this type of device is to let you shoot raw files without having to own a ludicrously large collection of memory cards. But realistically, it's probably not reasonable to expect the equivalent of Adobe Photoshop's raw plug-in, plus the computing horsepower to run it, in such a small package.
TIP: When I first downloaded the firmware updater earlier today, I wasn't able to get it to install when I followed the directions. Inserting a memory card containing the updater, then holding down the power and OK buttons, is supposed to trigger the P-2000 to display a special firmware-update screen and perform the update. But no matter how many times I did this, I never got the firmware-update screen -- the P-2000 just started up as normal.
I called Epson's tech support number, and the guy there told me that the reason this was happening was that the updater had a bug in it and was being pulled! Several hours later, though, I saw that the same updater was still on the website. I downloaded it again, and this time I was successful. Here's the trick:
The instructions say you need to copy the updater files onto a completely blank memory card. On my first (unsuccessful) try, I had tried to blank the card by putting it in my card reader and using my Mac's Disk Utility program to reformat it. But the P-2000 wouldn't recognize this card to apply the update, as noted above. (I'm guessing that MacOS X adds some invisible files to the card, so the P-2000 didn't see it as being really blank.)
What worked for me was to use the P-2000 itself to erase the card. To do that, I set the 'Copy Mode' setting to 'Delete Data After Copying,' then stuck a card with a few files on it in the P-2000 and copied them. Once the copies had run, I was left with a blank memory card that the P-2000 would recognize as blank. I put this card into my card reader, copied the updater files onto it, and did the restart routine. This time it worked!