On 2 September Sony released firmware version 6.01 for the FX6. This is not the update that rewrote the camera — that was 6.00 back in March, with the new BIG6 interface and external Blackmagic RAW. This one is housekeeping. But it contains something that matters a lot if, like us, you run a rental fleet.

What actually changes

The official list is short:

  • improved colour reproduction in highly saturated areas;
  • fixed a bug where playing back several clips recorded at 59.94P and 23.98P in a row would eventually introduce noise into the playback audio;
  • clearer error messages during recording;
  • general stability.

The second item is the classic fault you discover on set at eleven at night, when you review the takes and hear a hiss that isn’t actually on the card. Good that it’s gone. The first one, though, deserves a closer look.

Colour shifts: be careful if you’re mid-project

“Improved colour reproduction in high saturation” means that pushed reds and blues — coloured practicals, neon signs, a saturated gel on a backdrop — will not come out exactly as before. In our view it’s an improvement, and on new productions you should update without a second thought. But if you’re shooting a run of episodes that started in August, or the FX6 is a B-cam sitting next to another body already balanced in camera, updating mid-shoot costs you an extra evening of grading to realign everything.

The rule we apply in the warehouse is simple: firmware gets touched before a project, never during. If you rent two bodies from us for the same shoot, they arrive on the same version — and if the project already started on 6.00, we leave them on 6.00.

The update trap: your settings disappear

This is the part to write down. If your FX6 is still on 5.02 or earlier, moving to 6.01 will reset the camera to factory defaults. All of it: picture profiles, button assignments, base ISO, loaded looks, audio configuration. Sony states this clearly, and it’s the same behaviour as the jump to 6.00.

The countermeasure is trivial, but it has to happen first: save an All File to the card, update, then load the file back. Thirty seconds that save you half an hour of rebuilding everything from memory — which is exactly the half hour you don’t have when the crew is already in the van. If the body is already on 6.00, the step up to 6.01 is painless.

What this means if you rent in Abruzzo

Cameras leaving our warehouse go out updated and with buttons configured in a predictable way, so whoever picks them up doesn’t burn time redoing the setup on location. It’s one of the reasons renting makes sense on a single production — a commercial, a short, a two-week documentary: we handle the updates, the tests and the media checks, you get a body that’s ready to roll.

The Sony FX6 is still the most requested camera in our fleet precisely because of that balance: full-frame sensor, electronic ND, documentary-grade endurance. If you need a second lightweight body for handheld work, the FX3 pairs well and shares the same colour family; for projects that demand more resolution and latitude there’s the BURANO, which just received its own 4.0 update. The rest of the catalogue is on our rental equipment page.

One last practical note: if you record external RAW, update the recorder before you head out too. Mismatched camera and recorder firmware is the number one cause of the calls we get at seven in the morning.

Official source: Sony FX6 support page. Verified by: Newsshooter.