Nikon Breathes New Life into a Decade Old DSLR with a Firmware Update

Nikon has given new life in to the ten-year-old D7100 DSLR with a surprising new firmware update.

The camera software in question, known as firmware 1.05, addresses a nagging issue with the camera which caused the camera’s live view feature to shut down after ten minutes when controlling the unit with Nikon’s Camera Control Pro 2 software, even though the software is set to “no limit” under the custom monitor off delay setting of the custom setting menu.

The Nikon D7100 uses a 24 MP Expeed 3 APS-C CMOS image sensor and is capable of capturing 1080p HD video with clean, uncompressed HDMI output.

Image Credit – Nikon

It seems quaint considering the camera is a decade old, but the bug that has arisen is sure to be a source of annoyance for those using Nikon’s Camera Control Pro 2 software and ending up locked out of living view and having to reset the camera for it to function again.

But there are also camera hackers out there, who have managed to get the D7100 to capture Raw video and even 4K video at half frame rate. The D7100 is capable of capturing stills in 4Kx6K resolution, so the sensor is certainly capable of it, and with HDMI out, who knows?

Of course, hacking your camera will certainly void any useful camera warranty it has left, so it shouldn’t be undertaken lightly. However, the D7100 is a decade old, so experimenting with the Nikon Equivalent of Magic Lantern or some other camera hack may actually be exciting to try. But that’s a whole different issue.

For the conservative shooter out there who just wants this annoying bug fixed, firmware 1.05 is designed to address this Live View time-out issue and give shooters some relief. It’s a welcome update for those users to be sure, but it’s interesting that Nikon would address the issue on a camera that was discontinued in 2020.

Even more so considering recent reports that the company has effectively ended its DSLR development in favor of its Z Mirrorless platform.

But it may be that necessary changes in Nikon’s computer software applications created the bug, and Nikon engineers realized it was such an easy fix, that a few lines of code would remedy the issue. Therefore, why not put it out?

Either way, a firmware update is always welcome, especially when it fixes an annoying bug that users have had to live with for years. Well done, Nikon.

The update is available at Nikon’s D7100 Support Page.

[source: Nikon]

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