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[00:00:00.12] The November 2019, Firmware Updates for the Panasonic LUMIX S1, S1R, GH5, GH5S and G9 have been released. I’m PhotoJoseph, I’m a LUMIX Ambassador, and I am going to show you how to update your cameras. 

[00:00:16.05] If you haven't already seen what's included in the updates, I am not going to go over that now because I made a long, very detailed, almost 20-minute long video about this last week that you should definitely check out. I'll link to it up here or down below. So, if you haven't seen that yet, do watch that just so you know everything that's going into the updates. 

[00:00:31.03] Today we're going to update two cameras; I am going to update an S1 and a G9. And on the G9, I am going to actually add the V-Log L update to it as well. So, if you have an S1 or an S1R, you are going to want to follow that procedure. If you have the G9, GH5 or GH5S follow the G9 procedure. It's the same for all those cameras. And of course the V-Log update; if that's new for you for GH5, then you will learn how to update it there as well. Again, the same procedure. It's included in the GH5S and of course, it is now available for the G9. 

[00:00:59.03] We'll start with the S1. The first thing you want to check is that you have at least a 50% full battery. On the S series, you need 50% battery to update. On the G series you want to have it pretty much close to full to do the update. 

[00:01:14.02] Next step, take your SD card, pop that in… and reformat it. On the S series, you can use either an SD card or an XQD card for the update. Do be sure that you format the card in the camera immediately prior to updating. It just ensures that your card is totally clean and there's nothing else on that that might interfere. Go ahead and take the card out and pop that into your computer. 

[00:01:43.03] I've linked the webpage that you want to visit in the description below. And when you get to this page, click on the “Full Frame” tab. And then under here you'll see Camera body S, S1 and there's Version 1.3 released today, November 19th, 2019. 

[00:01:56.28] Click on the button that says “Click to the download page”. And from here you'll see that there is the “Download” button. We'll go ahead and get that started. And while we are here, you'll see that there is a page that will take you to a full procedure for the update. This is what I'm going to go over here but you're of course free to read that if you would like. And then underneath that, it shows you all of the updates that are included here. 

[00:02:18.24] Once it's downloaded it is possibly going to unzip. It just depends on your computer system, whether it unarchives itself or not. Ultimately, the file that you need to have is a .bin file. The .bin is the final piece. Don't try to extract it past that and don't try to use the .zip. The .bin is what you want. 

[00:02:36.05] Copy this to the root level of your SD card and eject the card. Turn off your camera. It's important at this stage that your camera is off before you insert the card and start the update process. Go ahead and insert that SD or XQD card. Turn the camera back on. 

[00:02:56.06] If you don't have a lens attached, you might see this dialog come up that tells you to confirm the focal length of the lens that you have attached. That's if you have a manual lens attached. You can just bypass this. Just go ahead and hit “No” to change it. Press the menu button, navigate to the bottom of the wrench menu where it says “Others”, and then over to “Firmware Version”.

[00:03:15.17] If at this point the “Firmware Update” is not available, all you have to do is power the camera off and back on again. I ran into this a few times when running the updates and I think it might have to do with poking around the menu beforehand. For example, even just navigating from the Format menu. But now that I am here, if I go ahead and power the camera off and back on, go into the Menu, now it will be available. Go ahead and select “Firmware Update”. It will confirm the version that it's going to do; up to Version 1.3. Navigate to “Yes” and start it. 

[00:03:51.29] At this point, don't touch the camera. Don't touch any buttons. Just let it be. Let it do its thing. It may take a little while to complete. It took my camera this many minutes to finish. But once it's done, the camera will automatically reboot. And if you want to check the version, go ahead back into “Firmware Version” and under “Software info” you'll see Body Version of 1.3. And that's all there is to it. 

[00:04:12.27] Alright, let's go ahead now and update the G9. (and update the G9). Pardon the interruption but I promise you it's worth it. I've just learned that the Black Friday/Holiday sale deals have already begun and the G9 is now on sale for under $1,000. Look at this. Let's go over to B&H $998 for the G9. Amazon.com, $998. Adorama, $998. Same price everywhere. You'll find this in your local reseller as well. $998 for this camera right now. Add the V-Log Update for another hundred bucks and you've got an incredible camera. 

[00:04:47.29] This isn't the only deal though, also if you look over on Amazon for G85, you'll find a kit with a free 45-150mm. So that’s the G85 with 12 to 60, (now that's not the Leica 12-60mm but it's still a good lens), and it includes a free 45-150mm lens. You'll see the same deal over on Adorama. I am not seeing this deal yet on B&H although I am sure it'll show up there as well. 

[00:05:12.07] And then, one of my favorite little cameras, one of my all-time favorites, is the GX85. And you are also getting a two lens kit for this. A 12-32mm and a 45-150mm for just $448. That is on B&H. That is also over here on Amazon and also over here on Adorama. 

[00:05:30.21] That little GX85 is a teeny, tiny, little compact camera that I absolutely adore. It's still one of my favorite travel cameras. If you are not looking for a microphone input or you know, the end-all be of vlogging camera, if you want something compact that's awesome for travel photography, for 550 bucks, that's pretty hard to beat. 

[00:05:45.24] Now again, this is the holiday special sale. It has started now it is the 20th of November, 2019. I have no idea how long the sales can go on for. I've been told it is just a holiday special. No end date set, at least that I know of, maybe it's through Christmas, maybe not, don't really know. But that's what's available today. So, check that out. All right, let's get back to the show. 

[00:06:06.12] All right, let's go ahead now and update the G9. The G9 update procedure is actually a bit easier because all you have to do once you copy the update file on is hit the “Play” button. But let's take a look. As I mentioned before, make sure that you have a full or nearly full battery to do this update and then go ahead and insert your SD card. 

[00:06:31.16] Give that card a  fresh format and then pop that into your computer. To get to this update, click on the “Micro Four Thirds” tab and scroll down and look for the one that you are updating. If it's the G9, you'll find it right here and if you are updating your GH5 or GH5S, you will find those up near the top. 

[00:06:52.15] Click on the “Click to the download page” button and start the download. Scroll down to see all the updates that are being included here. And if you want to, you can click here to read the procedure page. 

[00:07:04.14] Once again, once it's downloaded, it will possibly automatically unzip. It is the .bin file that you ultimately want not anything below that. Don't try to extract the .bin and of course don't try to use the .zip. Make sure it is a .bin file. 

[00:07:18.17] Copy that once again to the root level of your SD card. Eject that. And as before, turn off the camera first. Insert the SD card. Turn the camera on. Again, you may see this dialog if you don't have a lens attached. And press “Play”. 

[00:07:37.17] The camera will scan the card looking for the update file and once it finds it, it will offer to start the update. As before, make sure you don't touch anything on the camera while it's being updated. Don't press any buttons. Don't turn it off. Don't pick it up and play with it. Just leave it alone. 

[00:07:53.09] Once it's completed the camera will automatically reboot. And if you want to verify that the firmware update was completed, press the Menu button and scroll up until you get to “Version Display”. And there we can see we're now in Version 2.0. And that is all there is to it. 

[00:08:07.24] Now, let's take a look at how to install the V-Log update. But first, let's talk about how to get the V-Log update. The V-Log L update is a paid upgrade that you have to buy from a retail store. And curiously, even though it is just a number that you are getting, you do actually have to take physical delivery of the number. I know that sounds crazy, but let me repeat that. If you want to buy the V-Log L update, you are going to have to go to Amazon, B&H or any other store that sells it, and of course, I'll link below to where you can get it and place the order and they will ship you a piece of paper that has a long digit code on there that you need for the update. 

[00:08:42.19] Now, some stores will actually open the packaging for you, take a picture of it and send that to you so that you can have it right away and then they'll still send you the physical card. You just have to ask your reseller. And I found certainly the smaller, more hometown stores versus the big ones will take care of that for you. Obviously, Amazon is not going to do that but your local camera store might. Actually, I don't know if B&H will do that or not but it's worth asking. 

[00:09:04.24] Anyway, let's take a look at how to get it in the first place. If for example you wanted to get it from B&H, just go to the B&H website and search for SFU1. That's “Software Firmware Upgrade One” or something. Actually, I am not really sure what that stands for but close enough. Search for that and there it is; Panasonic V-Log L Function Activation Code. 

[00:09:25.17] Now, you'll notice depending on when you look at this, that it currently says for the GH4, GH5 and FZ2500. It is not at the time of this recording listing the G9. Now again, this was just updated today so, all the resellers are going to need to update their webpages. But it is the SFU1 that you want. That is the correct update even though it doesn't say it on here. 

[00:09:46.06] To update the camera, go to this webpage, which once again I will link to down below, titled “How to activate purchased function of LUMIX”. If you scroll down you will see there is two different SFU's on here. There's the SFU1 and an SFU41. I'm not actually sure what camera that was for, and underneath that you will see instructions for the SFU2. That was the update for the S1 that came out earlier this year. But we are focusing on this one here, the SFU1. So if you click on that, it will take you to another webpage giving you instructions on how to update it. 

[00:10:14.10] Now, I will admit that the pictures on this webpage are very old. They are actually pictures of a GH4 I believe, with a much older operating system but the procedure is the same. So, here's what we do. First, you go to the camera, and under the Setup Menu, which is the wrench, go to “Activate” which is currently at the top of page 4 of 5. Click that and then click “Export Serial Code”. 

[00:10:41.08] This is going to export this serial number in a special format to the SD card. That file will then need to be uploaded to the Panasonic website. Once that's done, go ahead and turn off the camera. Pop out the card and put that in to your computer. 

[00:10:58.28] Once the card is in the computer you can select the correct file. It's this one here called “SERIAL.LST” on the SD card and upload it to the website. To do that, click on “Choose File”, navigate to the SD card and then you can see the path listed down here “PRIVATE>PANA_GRP>PAVC” etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. So, we'll go into PRIVATE, PANA_GRP, PAVC, LUMIX, ACTV and then finally SERIAL.LST. 

[00:11:28.07] Choose that and click upload. Now you have to enter in the key code that you got from the store. I am just going to paste mine in, I've already got it on the clipboard and then click on “Register”. At that point it is ready to go. You can now “Save to memory card” your key code. Go ahead and allow that to download. 

[00:11:47.05] The next step is to copy this ACTIVE.LST file into the camera. To do that, you do have to navigate to the same place where the serial number was on the card and drop in the activate file there. So, go ahead and open the card, open PRIVATE, PANA_GRP, PAVC, LUMIX, ACTV and then copy the file here. Eject the card. Pop that back into your camera. Turn the camera on. Navigate to the “Activate” menu and choose “Import Activation Code”. That's it. 

[00:12:26.14] Turn the camera off and back on again. And now, if you're in the Movie mode, press the Q Menu button and under “Styles”, you'll see that you now have V-Log L. And that's all there is to it. Now your G9, GH5, GH5S, S1 or S1R are fully updated to the latest firmware. And of course, if you installed the V-Log L update on your G9, then you are ready to start shooting Log. 

[00:12:50.01] Now, I would imagine that a lot of G9 users may not be familiar with how to shoot Log. So, I am actually going to do a video on that sometime in the next couple of weeks. 

[00:12:57.15] I am going to show you how to expose for Log because it is a little bit different. Show you basically what you can do with the footage, the differences and advantages of shooting in Log. And we'll also take a brief look at how to grade or color correct Log. 

[00:13:09.01] There is a lot of extra steps that you have to do when you are shooting Log and it's not always worth it, but when you need it, it is absolutely worth doing. So, make sure you subscribe to the channel so you can catch that video when it comes out in just a few weeks. I am PhotoJoseph. Again, a LUMIX Ambassador. Thanks for watching today, I will see you next time.