After a little over a week of using the the Alpha 77 in firmware version 1.02 (as delivered in UK in late September), our Alpha 77 body locked up during a concert gig shoot when using the SAM 28-75mm lens which had been fitted for the first time that day. It is not possible to say whether the lock-up was caused by the lens, but after resetting the camera using the recommended button press and switch off/on procedure, no settings were lost and it returned to normal operation.
The reset procedure has now been officially published by Sony, at the end of the instructions for installing Firmware Version 1.03. At the time of writing this upgrade only appears to be found on Sony Asia websites. It is an international upgrade and not specific to the region. Here is the reset or recovery procedure to use if your A77/65 locks up and its screen menus disappear. Typical symptoms include loss of the lens aperture display (A77 top screen, blank dashes appear as if a lens is not fitted), the ability to view some menus but not change parameters, input from most buttons not working, and a visible faint light appearing in the EVF after the camera is turned off (unless the battery is removed entirely).
We recommend, before doing this procedure, that you turn the camera off and remove the battery for a few seconds.
- Turn ON the camera.
- Press MENU, Play, MOVIE buttons simultaneously.
- While Pressing these buttons, turn OFF the camera.
- Release your fingers, and wait over 30 seconds.
- Press MENU, Play, MOVIE buttons simultaneously again.
- While Pressing these buttons, now turn ON the camera.
- Release your fingers.
Please try again to perform updating procedure after camera is rebooted.
The download process is not a load-to-card firmware, it is an update performed by either a Mac or PC with the camera connected by USB cable. It is necessary to have the camera either AC adaptor powered or with a fully charged battery, and the computer should ideally be running a clean state without other processes (i.e., not rendering, downloading, exporting, playing Flash or other media, performing backups). Sony recommends closing all programs but for many users this will not be a practical option. As long as all I/O and processor intensive tasks are shut down you should be able to keep essential programs, such as Sony’s web page on your browser, running. If in doubt follow Sony instructions and close all programs, do a restart, then run the firmware updater. We had so many programs running on the Mac it proved necessary to do a clean restart before running the updater.
Please note that the downloaded updater program is over 68MB and the updating process for the camera takes over 5 minutes.
The Alpha 77 firmware updater page for Mac OS is:
Europe/UK link – just change the camera name box for A65, this link gives access to all upgrades associated with each model:
//support.sony-europe.com/dime/crl/slt/slt.aspx?site=odw_en_GB&m=SLT-A77
Asia link (works with all regions):
//www.sony-asia.com/support/download/474605
For Windows PC:
//www.sony-asia.com/support/download/474591
The A65 update is here:
Mac OS:
//www.sony-asia.com/support/download/474599
Windows PC:
//www.sony-asia.com/support/download/474564
My Leica M8 sometimes locks up and can be re-set merely by removing, then replacing the battery. Is the a77 lock-up a more obdurate affair? Very tedious, in any case and hopefully fixed with the new firmware.
My Leica M8 sometimes locks upend can be re-set merely by removing, then replacing the battery. Is the a77 lock-up a more obdurate affair? Very tedious, in any case and hopefully fixed with the new firmware.