You do not have to send it in. I suspect that may be a boilerplate response from them (in all fairness they do have the complete directions posted on their support page and they may figure if a user can't self-help what they need there then it is easier for Canon to do it themselves). I just bought a 280 yesterday and haven't taken it out of the box, but the serial number is low enough that the guy at the store told me it was likely still running the original firmware. (Despite this being a high-end camera store where they boast knowledgeable service they had not heard of this issue before and were saying pretty much that's what I get from reading reviews on the Internet and it was the fault of the users trying to do things beyond the specifications of the camera, until I told them Canon had already issued 2 firmware updates in less than 6 months -- so much for my deciding to pay extra at a "service" store when it turns out I knew more about the camera than they did). Anyway, I know there is definitely (as mentioned earlier by another poster) a file you can download from Canon's web support area. Do a search for your camera model and you can follow links to the online support and downloads area for that model. You have to enter your computer system information and it will provide a file for download (I downloaded it even before I bought the camera). You then mount (or open) the .dmg file on your desktop and it contains a .PDF file with instructions about how to do the update, and also the update file itself. I'm working from memory but you basically copy the file onto a clean (preferably newly formatted) memory card. A new computer probably has such a drive already built in. You then transfer the card to your camera and follow some pretty simple instructions to get it to carry through with the update.
Powershots: A80, SD1300is, SX280 (returned)
