Nikon D80 – Update the Firmware

I have a Nikon D80 that I purchased approximately a year ago for a dive trip with the family to Bonaire. It has served me well, I am very happy with the purchase.  If you have any questions about scuba diving with a Nikon D80, I’d be happy to answer them.  Just comment on the post, or send me an email (there should be a link in About Me).

Today, in talking with a good friend of mine, I forgot that I haven’t updated the firmware to my camera!

Not sure about you, but I’m the kind of person that is sitting on my computer the day of a firmware update, looking to get it.  With my iPhone, I’m a little obsessive.  I love softare updates.  It kills me to think that I’m living with problems that have already been fixed.

And why not?  Upgrading firmware is easy right?

Maybe not.

At first glance, updating the Nikon D80 seemed pretty easy.  The steps are:

1. Locate the new firmware download (I found it here - http://support.nikontech.com/cgi-bin/nikonusa.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=16091&p_sid=aNCN5Ppj&p_lva=13783)
2. Download the new firmware (the page has instructions, first you must register on the site and provide your camera’s serial number)
3. Find instructions for updating
4. Execute!

It doesn’t get much easier.

The biggest issue for me was not having a fully charged battery.  I know the camera doesn’t want the battery to fail during the upgrade process (it may be left as an expensive doorstop), but I had a battery that was 90% full and it didn’t want to do it.

Once you have a FULLY charged battery, you can open the zip file you downloaded (it’s an .exe file, but when you execute it, it unzips to a folder).

There are 2 files in the folder:

• AD800111.bin
• BD800111.bin

Then you connect your camera to your computer, and transfer the 2 firmware files to the ROOT of the memory card (it’s the drive that gets mapped when you connect your camera).  It is very important that you put the files in the root of the memory card, and NOT inside the normal folder where photos are placed (if you have it configured that way).

Now that you have transferred the firmware files, turn the camera off.  Disconnect the camera from the computer.

Turn the camera back on.  If you are disconnected from the computer, Press “Menu”.  Then find “Firmware version” on the options list (it was the 2nd to last on my camera).  Press the “Right” D-pad button.

On my camera I then have an option “Version up”, select that and press “Right” on the D-pad.

My camera prompts me to first install the “B” update (both “A” and “B” are required).  I selected “Yes” and hit “OK”.

You should get a screen that says:

Updating

WARNING!  DO NOT TURN CAMERA OFF DURING UPDATE.  UPDATE WILL TAKE SEVERAL MINUTES.

Well, dont’ turn your camera off.

My camera did, indeed, take a few minutes before I saw “Update completed”.

After that my camera automatically reset itself.

Now if we go back into “Menu” and select “Firmware version” we can see that “B” has been updated, but “A” has not.  Important, we are not done.

The instructions on the official site just say to do the firmware update agian.  This didn’t work for me.

I had copied both firmware files initially to the memory card.  Well, it can only handle one file at a time.  That means we have to delete the firmware already installed from the memory card, in order to get the camera to update the other firmware.  We can do that by reconnecting to the computer, and just deleting the already installed firmware.

Now when we do the process again, it works!  It detects the 1 remaining firmware, and updates without a problem.

Tags: Bonaire, D80, dive, firmware, firmware files, Nikon, nikon d80, Scuba