Most Olympus E-1 cameras were shipped with firmware 1.0 or 1.1 installed. The last firmware version released was 1.5. If your camera is not running 1.4 or 1.5, there are substantial performance penalties in focusing, shutter latency and CF card read/write. In fact, the default version 1.0 won't even allow you to shoot another picture until the buffer is cleared.

To check your version:

1. Turn camera off.

2. Open memory card door.

3. Turn camera on.

4. Press the green Play button and OK button at the same time.

5. Read the firmware version on the screen.

6. Turn camera off and close the door.

Updating the camera is a problem now. The current releases of Olympus Viewer and Studio no longer are able to update the E-1. Older versions still do. If you still have Olympus Viewer 2 running on your computer, you should be able to update. If not, you may be out of luck.

Or not...

Contact us at Zone-10.com and we can arrange with you to update the camera to Version 1.5 for $10 and the cost of shipping two/from here. Any included lenses will be checked and updated too. This is a limited time offer, and is available for as long as Olympus maintains the on-line update files in their current location.

Don't delay. The performance gain with the update is substantial and we don't know how long the update files will be provided.

Ken Norton