When I opened the .ZIP file I found an .ELF file, but expected the firmware to be in a .BIN format. Do I need special loader for SLCD5 products?

You don’t need a special loader. Just copy the .ELF file to your SD card (root) and reset or power cycle the board. The card needs to be 2 GB or less in size, and it has to be FAT16 formatted. Hook a terminal emulator to Main/COM0 at 115200, and you will see the update progress.