I've been following the various EX firmware upgrade threads with some interest. I have not upgraded the firmware in my EX3 since purchased over a year ago, and wondered if this upgrade was finally worth the effort. There does seem to be some compelling reasons with SDHC reliability, etc.

Anyway, I was leaning towards installing this upgrade, and noticed that on the Sony site the upgrade for the EX3 is version 1.10. I checked the version my camera currently has, and it says version 1.20? I've never been accused of being a whiz at math.... but going from version 1.20 to 1.10 does not seem to be going the right direction.

What am I missing here?

I had a problem re-formatting a Sandisk extreme 36GB card at one point and the upgrade solved that problem. So for me it was useful.
My EX3, as I remember, was version 1.02. I bought my camera when they first came out.

so now I can add 'unable to read' to my math shortcomings.
thank you Dean... it is indeed v1.02, not v1.20.

I have must dyslexia.

Now I have to decide whether to go through with the update or not....

In version 1.03 of the EX3 firmware they addressed a fairly serious bug where the camera's focus would/could lock up if you were using the Auto/Manual mode where the focus ring on the camera is pushed forward. On long shoots, the focus ring would stop working.

There is a fair amount about this issue here in the archives. You are running the firmware prior to this bug being solved.

After much harumphing about there being no need for me to do it to my EX3, I did it today. It was an excruciatingly long fifteen minutes, and I soiled my britches when the red light wouldn't go out after I shut it down and disconnected everything; but I caught my breath again when I pulled the battery and replaced it, and up she booted.

So I got the same results as all the others... except I stuck a 16GB Hoodman card in there and overcranked to 60fps, and it didn't flinch. It recorded a perfect twenty-something minutes without a hiccup.

Phew.