Firmware, battery, cleaning and travel

Checking your versions

Go to MENU > SET-UP > USER SETTING > FIRMWARE UPDATE and note both the body and lens versions, then compare them with Fujifilm’s download pages. The lens matters more than you would expect here: Fujifilm shipped two emergency updates in November 2024 aimed specifically at this lens on the X-M5 and X-T50.

The SD-card update method

1. Fully charge the battery. Fujifilm’s own wording: if the camera turns off during the update, it will not work well.
2. Format a card in the camera at SET-UP > USER SETTING > FORMAT. Copy your photographs off first.
3. Copy the update file to the root of the card. The lens firmware download unpacks to three .DAT files, and all three must go on the card, or the update will not be offered.
4. Update the camera body first, then the lens.
5. Reformat the card in the camera afterwards, so the update files are gone and the card is clean.

The smartphone-app method exists and is convenient for body-only updates, but the card method is the one Fujifilm documents in full, it does not depend on a Wi-Fi handshake that can drop halfway, and it is the only way to update the lens.

Cleaning, in order of how often you should do it

Task	How	How often
Front element	Blower first, then a dry microfibre cloth in small circles	Whenever you see a smudge. Most come off dry.
Screen	Microfibre, dry	Often. It is a touchscreen; it will be covered in fingerprints.
Body and mount	Dry brush or blower, never fluid near the mount	Occasionally
Sensor dust	SENSOR CLEANING in the set-up menu; a blower only if you must	Rarely. Change lenses facing down and you will hardly ever need it.
Wet sensor cleaning	A professional, or a proper kit and a steady hand	Almost never

Travelling with this kit

• Batteries in the cabin, terminals covered. The NP-W126S is about 8.7 Wh, far below the 100 Wh airline threshold, so no approval is needed — but airline rules on power banks have tightened recently, so check yours.
• No weather sealing. A plastic bag and a rubber band is a legitimate rain solution for this lens.
• Cold: keep spares against your body and rotate them.
• Humidity and condensation: going from air conditioning into tropical heat fogs a lens. Leave the camera in a sealed bag until it warms up to ambient temperature.
• Beach and dust: do not change lenses in wind. Sand is the one thing that permanently ruins a zoom mechanism.
• Set TIME DIFFERENCE rather than the clock when you change zone, so your files stay correctly ordered.

The reset and recovery checklist

When the camera behaves strangely, work down this list before panicking:

1. Check exposure compensation is back at 0 — it is sticky and survives being switched off.
2. Check the drive mode: a bracketing mode left on makes every press give three frames.
3. Check the film simulation dial: if it is not on C, the menu cannot change the look.
4. Check the shutter type, and whether you are in an electronic-shutter-only burst rate.
5. Format the card in the camera after offloading.
6. STILL MENU RESET restores shooting parameters and leaves your buttons alone.
7. SET-UP RESET is the bigger hammer: it wipes button customisation, Q menu edits, screen, sound, power and network settings, while keeping the clock, time zone and copyright text.