PMW-300 and PMW-200 Firmware Update. Reduces Chromatic Aberration.

Quite a few PMW-300 users have been having issues with Chromatic Aberration (CA) typically pink and blue halos around areas of high contrast. CA is caused by the fact that different wavelengths of light are bent and focussed at different points by the lenses. So blue light will be out of focus when red is in focus and vice versa. There are two ways to combat this. The first is the use of combinations of special (and often very expensive) glass that compensate for this, the other is electronic correction performed in the camera. One issue with the optical approach is that the sharper you make the lens the worse the problem becomes, as if you bring red into very precise focus, the slight defocus of the blue becomes more noticeable. So as we raise the resolution of the cameras we shoot with and this need ever sharper and higher resolution lenses the problem becomes harder to deal with purely optically. As a result modern video cameras rely more and more on electronic CA reduction, sometimes called ALAC (automatic lens aberration correction).

Sony’s EX cameras include ALAC and it does a really good job of masking the CA. The PMW-200 and PMW-300, even though they both use the same lens as the EX’s show a lot more CA. Sony have now addressed this and released firmware updates for both the PMW-200 and PMW-300. It appears that with older firmware versions the ALAC only compensated for horizontal aberrations. The new firmware improves the horizontal correction and adds vertical correction. The difference this update makes is in most cases quite dramatic, almost totally eliminating the CA.

You can download the updates from here: http://support.sonybiz.ca/esupport/Navigation.do?filetype=Firmware

 

PMW-300 V1.12   http://support.sonybiz.ca/esupport/DownloadView.do?id=10193&eulaId=20001

 

PMW-200 V1.30 http://support.sonybiz.ca/esupport/DownloadView.do?id=10190&eulaId=20001

18 thoughts on “PMW-300 and PMW-200 Firmware Update. Reduces Chromatic Aberration.”

  1. Thank you for bringing the updates to our attention. Do you have any further picture profiles for the pmw 300 you could share with us, would be most appriciated.
    Cheers, Craig

    1. Not sure, but normally you place the update file on an SxS card and use the update firmware option in the firmware or about page of the system menu.

  2. Hi Alister, the latest on the PMW200 is V1.32, which addresses this issue, not V1.30 as mentioned. best to go to the main link you shared above to get it.
    Mike

  3. Hi Alister,
    is the firmware update dependent on the country you are in? The link is to the Canadian Sony site.
    Mark

  4. Hi Alister
    I am using your profile Asia 1 and with new Firmware 1.32 I feel white balance shifted
    to warm,I have dsc chart white card previous Firm I had no issue have u noticed,can firmware shift Metrix Colours
    Rakesh

  5. Sorry I must clarify I am talking about PMW 200 when I was using older firmwares I had no issues but with 1.32 I am getting warm results,and it seems Black Gamma also shifted,even without ASIA-1 Profile, I might be doing some tests with DSC Chart on this Sunday 9th March one old firmware and one camera with new firm.I will Let u know.THX Rakesh

  6. Sorry I must clarify I am talking about PMW 200 when I was using older firmwares I had no issues but with 1.32 I am getting warm results,and it seems Black Gamma also shifted,even without ASIA-1 Profile, I might be doing some tests with DSC Chart on this 14th March I will let u know.THX Rakesh

  7. Hi
    Alister
    am using 5 of the same pmw 200 and gradually having focus problem all of them
    pls. how can i overcome this issue?
    best regard

  8. Hi Alister. Is there a reason why “auto FB adjust” is greyed out in the menu of my PMW- 200 (even the maintenance menu) after upgrading to firmware 1.32?
    Txs.

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