Olympus Lens Firmware Updating without Olympus Camera

[VidThreeNorth]

I have an "M. Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm f4.0-5.6 R" lens that I bought this past summer. It has version 1.0 firmware installed. I have downloaded a firmware upgrade for it, but when I read the release notes, I do not expect that it will not make a difference for me. However, I would like to do the upgrade (eventually) just in case. The problem is that I do not own an Olympus camera. I am using the lens on my Yi-M1 and my Panasonic GF3. So the question I have is, does anyone know if there is a way for me to apply the upgrade using a Panasonic or Yi camera?

 

[waday]

There aren’t too many Olympus users on this forum. I don’t have any experience with updating Olympus firmware.

Try posting this question here: Mu-43.com - Micro Four Thirds User Group

 

[BrentC]

I believe Panasonic and Olympus can update each others lenses. I doubt the yi would.

 

[VidThreeNorth]

Many thanks for the replied. I thought about BentC's reply and went through the Olympus global website and eventually got into the Joint update efforts.

Apparently both Olympus and Panasonic have done a lot to make it possible to update non-native lenses on their bodies. In preparation for the update I updated my GF3 which is an interesting comment about Panasonic's poor support in Canada. In the Canadian website they only provide a link to buy (yes, pay extra) for an update voucher. There is no list of what updates are available. I never "bought" an update ticket from them, so I did not even know there were any updates for my GF3. It turns out that I could get version 1.2 firmware, which I installed free via Panasonic's Joint update service from their global site.

I then updated also my Panasonic 12mm - 32mm zoom lens from firmware 1.0 to 1.1, which I also did not know about.

Then I turned to the Olympus lens, and failed, and failed and failed. It puzzled me for hours and I went over it and tried variations (the Mac zip file instead of the Windows exe file) and failed every time.

Many hours later, going over the steps very slowly, it occurred to me that the firmware I was downloading was for a "Zuiko Digital" lens. Mine is an "M.Zuiko Digital" lens. The thing is that these manufacturers have made updated versions of many lenses over the years and sometimes with identical specifications. The "M.Zuiko Digital" versions are later than "Zuiko Digital".

Anyway, I finally concluded that there is NO update for my lens. It is simply "current".

Overall, I'm actually fairly happy. . . .

 

[john.margetts]

Co-incidentally, I updated the firmware in both my ancient Olympus Pen E-PL3 camera and Panasonic lens yesterday. Had to go to the Olympus site as the camera is an Olympus but they updated my Panasonic lens as well - both easily and quickly. I was rather impressed.