[Kirby64]

> For those who haven't followed the camera world for a while, at this point a lens for a mirrorless camera will have a USB-C port to receive firmware updates.

Besides the slightly interesting stuff Tamron is doing, why on earth would I want firmware updates for a lens? Also, this seems like it would be much more readily accomplished by the camera itself… if you’re doing weird stop motion racking and whatnot, why would you rely on the camera and lens being separate? Seems like kind of a pain to me.

[makeitdouble]

The lens is communicating with the camera body, and you might want to adjust for newer bodies supporting more things for instance.

I'm not aware of what exactly is changing, but I've already seen it happen with newer Sony bodies getting released, and an update going to Viltrox lenses to fully support thems.

On the camera and lens being separate...in an ideal world you could ask the camera to do absolutely everything. In practice that's a tough order for a single company.

The bright side is also that you can use a mildly older body while benefiting from a very flexible lens, or have different profiles for different lenses and not have the body care about which lens needs what.

I can't imagine Nikon be bothered to properly operate a software ecosystem TBH.

[clnhlzmn]

Because to control the autofocus motor and other features it makes sense to have a microcontroller in the lens. If you have a microcontroller in the lens you have software in the lens and if you have software in the lens you're going to need to update it.

You could argue that the camera should do firmware updates but the manufacturers for (semi) open mounts like the ones Tamron is making lenses for don't want to have to design a protocol to do updates for third party lenses through the body when the lens manufacturer can just slap a USB port on the lens and call it a day.

The port is also useful for customizing the lens functions. For third party lenses the camera can't be expected to manage those functions.

[kamranjon]

There have been plenty of motorized lenses in the past that relied on the micro-contoller inside the camera body for control. What does having the controller live on the lens permit that the pattern we've used for years doesn't afford?

[Gigachad]

You don’t _have_ to update lenses. The updates pretty much just fix edge case autofocus issues usually with specific cameras and settings. Before update mechanisms you just had to deal with it or buy a new lens.

[Kirby64]

> If you have a microcontroller in the lens you have software in the lens and if you have software in the lens you're going to need to update it.

No, no you shouldn’t. There’s no reason why a microcontroller should ever need its firmware updated. The only reason why you would need to update the firmware is to add features, which I guess is mildly interesting for the tamron, but like I said… you could handle all extra fancy focusing things in the camera body itself. Just give me a dumb lens that does exactly what the body tells it to do.

[makeitdouble]

> Just give me a dumb lens that does exactly what the body tells it to do.

It's hard to convey, but for instance you can reverse the fo us ring rotation, which probably only resonates with people who had to deal with it daily.

Or you can adjust the ring travel.

Or make the focus ring work as an aperture ring instead. Or straight disable annoying buttons.

Up until now you'd have to go hunt the perfect lens where the maker was 100% on board with your preferences. Or adjust your whole shooting style to every gear you use.

Sure a camera body could handle every single settings of third party lenses. But given what we've seen these 2 last decades, I don't think there was any chance of that happening. Tamron is partly Sony owned and they still did it on their own.

[formerly_proven]

Most third party lenses reverse-engineer the AF protocol. They're going to need updates.

[jeswin]

Lenses are only tested on bodies which are available at the time of manufacture. They might focus hunt on newer bodies, because of tweaks to AF algorithms (for example, the speed at which instructions are transmitted). Sometimes in ways that can potentially cause damage long term.

[FireBeyond]

> Besides the slightly interesting stuff Tamron is doing, why on earth would I want firmware updates for a lens?

Improved algorithms for focus hunting, diminishing chromatic aberration (most of it is in the glass but some positioning can tweak it).

I get it, there's not a lot that will happen there, but some of that stuff will be useful on an investment that can easily be several thousand (I don't get into the wildlife telephotos, but two of my lenses were $3,300 or so - RF 85/1.2 and RF 28-70/2).

[BarkMore]

> why on earth would I want firmware updates for a lens?

One reason is to update the lens to work with new camera or new camera firmware.