SDHC-enabling firmware updates for Pentax, Casio cameras

If you're still rocking a digital camera older than the recently unveiled Nikon D80 or lineup of Canons, for instance, the lack of SDHC support may have you a bit down on your luck. Apparently Casio and Pentax aren't wasting any time in making sure their customers are kept happy, as both companies have released firmware updates for a few popular shooters that sport SD slots. Pentax Japan is hooking up the *ist DL, *ist DL2, *ist DS, *ist DS2, and K100D (K110D to soon follow) with SDHC support, while Casio is upping the ante on its EX-S500, EX-Z600, and EX-Z850. So if you happen to own one of these select models, and you can't resist the urge to drop some coin on those pricey (albeit spacious and speedy) SDHC cards, be sure to do your duty and treat that digicam to its respective upgrade first. While these may be the first few cameras in which SD 2.0 support is granted retroactively, we don't imagine the list will stop here -- so, dear camera manufacturers, what's the holdup anyway?

Read - Pentax Firmware Updates
Read - Casio EX-S500 Firmware Update
Read - Casio EX-Z600 Firmware Update
Read - Casio EX-Z850 Firmware Update

[middo @ Sep 9th 2006 11:08AM]

Thanks for the pointer, turns out Casio are updating many of their cameras. Not just the 3 listed, just upgraded my S600 now to go buy a 4gb card!

[Atanas Boev @ Sep 9th 2006 12:18PM]

It would be nice if you link the "SDHC" term to an onsite search. At first I didn't know it has something to do with high capacity SD cards...

[Max @ Sep 9th 2006 2:08PM]

Mayebe this will convince Nikon to do the same with the D50. I suppose it's only a matter of time... hopefully.

[Tek @ Sep 9th 2006 3:22PM]

Yay! I have the Casio EX-Z600 (though I might get rid of it next year...), but just in case I don't, rocking a high capacity SDHC will be cool. Thanks for the heads up (because I rarely visit Casio's site for firmware updates =X).

[Reg @ Sep 9th 2006 3:36PM]

Yes, thanks again for the info; I too have an EX-S500 and it's great. It's nice to know it won't be obsolete anytime soon.

By the way, the new speed class rating for SDHC cards seems much slower than older SD cards. The fastest SDHC so far, class 6 at 6MB/s, cannot compare to the already prolific 15MB/s SD cards. So far, the only advantage with SDHC is the 4GB and higher capacities. Hopefully SDHC will be getting faster and more reasonably priced so I can start packing in 2+ hours of MPEG4 video on my Casio Exilim.

[pdpmj @ Jul 1st 2008 12:47AM]

SDHC class 6 = a sustained speed of 6mb/sec. The regular 1gb or 2gb so-called high speed SD cards that claim 15mb/sec are claiming burst speed.