Upcoming Leica S2 Tethering Improvements

September 21, 2010 | Tech

Among our meetings today at Photokina we met privately with Leica. In attendance was Stephan Schulz the Product Manager of Leica’s S-System. While Dave was excited to talk about lens delivery schedules, promotion/marketing of workshops, etc etc I was very excited to meet with Stephan and see a demonstration of soon to be released firmware for the Leica S2.

Every camera has strengths and weaknesses and the Leica S2 is no exception. We’ve been blown away by our lens tests, enjoyed the minimalist design, and found the build quality to be really excellent. However, the first time we plugged in the Leica S2 to shoot tethered we were surprised to find that tethered shooting was slow to the point of being unusable. Leica has made small steps in the last year to increase the speed and responsively of tethered shooting; notably Leica worked with Adobe to implement native-tethering to Adobe LightRoom, eliminating the lag caused by the “hot folder” method on which it was previously reliant. However, the improvements so far have been modest.

Tethered shooting is not something every photographer needs, and some tethered shooting is done at a slow pace (e.g. still life product shooting). However, anyone who has used a Phase One or Leaf system tethered to Capture One during a fashion or portrait shoot knows that these solutions provide the ability to shoot dozens of frames without thought to buffers, and with fast frame-to-frame times, and then review any of them only a few seconds after the final shutter release. The modest improvements Leica has made so far have not approached this level of tethered shooting.

I’m glad to say that the new firmware shown to us today is a large step forward. Leica has managed to include lossless DNG compression, which I think is an impressive improvement to be able to incorporate through firmware update of an existing camera system. This means each raw file will be approximately half as large with no loss in quality (think ZIP compression). All current Phase One and Leaf digital backs use lossless compressed raw files and the lack of this option/feature makes it nearly twice as hard for the S2 to keep up during rapid tethered shooting. By adding this option the Leica S2 will

• seem to have a larger buffer since more frames can fit into the same sized buffer
• transmit the raw file to the computer faster
• fit more images on any given CF card

The speed improvements demonstrated to us today based on a beta of this firmware was impressive. It still lagged significantly behind speed demon options like the Leaf Aptus-II 8 and Phase One P40+ especially when shooting five or six images in a row. However, it no longer felt so laggy as to be unusable for fast shooting – a subjective evaluation to be sure but one based on extensive experience working with photographers who shoot tethered as part of their standard work methods.

In addition, the long term plan is to also provide an update version of Image Shutter (Leica’s proprietary tethering application) which would have a mode which allowed the tethering to go directly into LightRoom (without the need for the “hot folder” method) but pull the preview which the camera generates for the LCD on-camera strait from the camera at the same time, providing very fast preview of the most recent frame.

It’s always best to wait until an actual public release to make our final judgements about final quality, speed, and reliability (the beta we saw today was somewhat buggy, but that is standard (even expected) of beta versions. Also, I still feel the tools for tethering available in LightRoom (which only recently added native tethering to the program as a sort of add-on functionality) are far behind the tools provided in Capture One (which has been tethering for 12 years as a core functionality of the program).

That said, I was quite impressed at the improvements and hope to see them in a public release soon.

Also of Note:

• The 120mm macro lens is shipping. This is great news for two reasons. First, a 120mm macro is one of the key components of each of the successful veterans of medium format and given what we’ve seen in our testing of the 180mm, 70mm, and 35mm we expect (but will wait for testing to confirm) great things from this lens. Second, with the first four lenses out the door we hope Leica will be able to get to work on filling out the line with longer, shorter, and zoom lenses.

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Phase One Partner of the Year, 2010

September 21, 2010 | News

September 21, 2010, Cologne, Germany:  Once every two years Phase One hosts an international dealer conference and invites its top partners from around the world to share marketing, sales techniques, and to view the road map of the company for the next 24 months.  The partner conference coincides with Photokina in Cologne, Germany, the largest photographic trade show globally.  At this meeting, Phase One singles out a Partner that it feels has shared the same focus on new innovation, shares the highest ethical standards, and has embraced the current technology and championed it.   It is with great pride that Phase One has selected Capture Integration as its “2010 Partner of the Year.”

“Pick out all the characteristics that make a successful company and Capture Integration epitomizes what any manufacturer could only hope for in a partner that represents their product,” states Claus Pederson, Phase One US President.  This is the second time in 4 years that Capture Integration has received this prestigious award.  Capture Integration currently has an office in Atlanta, GA and Miami, Fl and represents the Phase One product line across the United States.

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Leaf Aptus-II 12 & Aptus-II 12R

September 20, 2010 | News

Introducing the Leaf Aptus-II 12

Leaf Imaging announces today the Leaf Aptus-II 12 and Aptus-II 12R

• 80 Megapixel
• 53.7mm x 40.3mm sensor size (full frame 645)
• 10,320 pixels x 7,752 pixels
• 1.5 seconds per frame continuous capture
• ISO 80-800
• 480 MB 16-bit TIFF
• 16 bit Color

Native Print Size Comparison (300dpi)

For more information and comparison to the other Aptus-II digital backs see our Aptus-II page.

100% Crop Example

Click above for 100% view. Photo by Julian Cornish-Trestrail.

Download 100% file

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New Lenses for Phase One System

September 19, 2010 | News

Adding to an already strong line of lenses available for the Phase One DF platform, today Phase One and Schneider announced four new lenses for the Phase One DF Platform.

Phase One 35mm f/ 3.5 D

• Compact
• Fast AF
• Minimum focusing distance of 1.5 feet (45 cm)
• $1990 USD

Phase One 120mm f/4 D Macro AF

• Up to 1:1 Magnification
• Limiter Switch for faster Auto Focus (70cm +)
• $3590 USD

Schneider 150mm  f/3.5 LS

• Fast Autofocus
• New Metal Lens Hood for better protection of the lens, and better matting of reflections for higher image contrast
• $4490 USD

Schneider 120mm f/5.6 Tilt Shift

• +/- 12mm shift
• 8 degrees of tilt/swing
• 360 degrees of rotation (tilt/swing at any angle)
• Tripod mount (useful when stitching to maintain lens viewpoint)
• Price (in USD) TBA

Further details forthcoming.

For a list of current Phase one and Schneider Lenses for the Phase One platform see Phase One eStore Lens List

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Capture One 5.2.1

September 15, 2010 | Capture One, Tech

Capture One 5.2.1 has been released with a set of specific bug fixes from the major 5.2 release.

Capture Integration will be testing this new version of Capture One. Until then we recommend customers follow the same general advice as always. If you are a professional photographer depending on your computer as a tool to accomplish his work that you should not update their software or operating-system until:

• the update has been out long enough to give a sense of whether it contains any nasty bugs that would slow down your workflow, waste your time, or worse.
• you have time to make a complete bootable backup of your system in case you need it
• you have time to do a complete test of anything critical you do on your computer (tethering, processing, retouching, printing etc)

Also, we recommend you follow our Capture One Uninstall Instructions to remove any previous version of Capture One from your computer before updating to a new version (rather than simply overwriting the previous version).

From the release notes:

• Fixed issues with Live View on Mac
• Fixed session update issue on Windows
• Fixed issue with LCC based dust removal not working properly for some files
• Fixed renaming issue that could cause adjustments to be lost on Windows

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120mm Tilt Shift for DF

September 14, 2010 | News

Schneider has announced a 120mm Tilt Shift Lens for the Phase One / Mamiya DF. We’ll do our best to get technical specifications posted here soon!

Schneider-120mm-TS (downloadable PDF)

See Update with Technical Specifications

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Never Done Working

September 14, 2010 | CI Team

By Doug Peterson, Head of Technical Services
Dave Gallagher, Owner and President of Capture Integration is on a short vacation through Europe on the way to Photokina. However, not one to rest while on vacation he checked in early this morning via iChat video from outside a castle in France to see what needed to be done to serve our customers.

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Rumor: Phase One 35mm Lens

September 14, 2010 | Tech, Tech Features

The release notes for Capture One 5.2 refer to an interesting improvement.

This improvement in Capture One is most notable in that there is no current product named “Phase One 35mm lens”. There is an older “Mamiya 35mm” which is not as strong in performance as the “Phase One 45mm”.

Perhaps this is a sign of things to come. Or perhaps it is a typo. We will know in a week.

Thanks to Jack Flesher of GetDPI who first noted this.

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Capture One 5.2

September 14, 2010 | Capture One, Tech

Ahead of next week’s Photokina, Capture One 5.2 has been released with some major enhancements.

Capture Integration will be testing this new version of Capture One. Until then we recommend customers follow the same general advice as always. If you are a professional photographer depending on your computer as a tool to accomplish his work that you should not update their software or operating-system until:

• the update has been out long enough to give a sense of whether it contains any nasty bugs that would slow down your workflow, waste your time, or worse.
• you have time to make a complete bootable backup of your system in case you need it
• you have time to do a complete test of anything critical you do on your computer (tethering, processing, retouching, printing etc)

Also, we recommend you follow our Capture One Uninstall Instructions to remove any previous version of Capture One from your computer before updating to a new version (rather than simply overwriting the previous version).

From the release notes:

• LCC based dust removal.
• LCC support for Leaf portable files (also used for tethered operation)
• LCC support for large number of DSLR RAW formats.
• Live View support for Leaf backs and Mamiya DM systems.
• Significantly improved tethered performance for Leaf Aptus II series backs.
• Updated firmware for selected Leaf backs and Mamiya DM systems.
• More camera controls supported for some cameras.
• Preferences to disable tethered support based on camera make.
• Color tag in processed file.
• New lens profile for Phase One 35mm lens
• New lens profile for Schneider Kreuznach LS 110mm lens.
• Improved P65+ image quality.
• Improved colors and consistency on a number of Nikon cameras (*)
• Improved tone response in ISO mode L1.0, L0.7 and L0.3 for a number of Nikon cameras (*)
• A number of bug fixes.

Note: For an unknown reason P65+ Live Preview does not work in Capture One 5.2. This should be addressed soon in a service update. If you rely on Live Preview and use a P65+ we suggest against updating to 5.2.

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Capture One Pro Discount

September 8, 2010 | Capture One, Promotion

For the month of September Capture Integration is happy to offer the largest discount we’ve ever given on Capture One 5 Pro: 40% off the normal price of $399.

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Disable Trackpad Rotate in CS5

September 7, 2010 | Tech, Tech Features

When using any recent MacBook Pro or MacBook with Photoshop CS5 you may notice a huge annoyance of accidental canvas rotation.

The culprit is that Photoshop now accepts multitouch gestures.  Overall, these can be a great addition to your workflow.  But in certain situations it can cause a real annoyance since our normal undo (⌘Z) does not fix the problem (since this only a change in view and not a change in the actual document).  Adobe has placed a “fix” on their website which disables all trackpad gestures.  However, this also will disable the pinch-to-zoom multitouch gesture and others that are sometimes useful.

If you want to keep pinch-to-zoom but disable the canvas rotation you need to do so in [System Preferences > Trackpad]. Simply uncheck “rotate”.

Note: this requires 10.6.2 or higher (anything lower than that and your still screwed! : )

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New 12-Core Mac Pros

September 3, 2010 | News, Promotion

Deliveries Begin

Capture Integration has begun delivering 12-core Mac Pros to our customers. As a Certified Apple Reseller we work with many of our customers to order them a Mac Pro perfectly customized to their needs.

Speed Today vs. Longevity

As noted by Digllyod not every application is ready today to make full use of 12-cores. The current version of Photoshop CS5 does not scale well beyond 6 cores, and in fact may run slower today on a 12-core machine than a similar 8-core (when it’s the only application running). Looking long term though it’s nearly impossible to imagine Adobe not putting a strong emphasis on optimizing Photoshop to make better use of multi-core machines. Other programs like Capture One, Panotools, and Final Cut Pro can already take advantage of 12-cores. Many Mac Pro purchasers will be using their desktop for 4-5 years, so our emphasis is on the longevity of the system and how long it will be useable in a professional workflow – with that in mind we are clearly behind the 12-core machines as the best long term investment.

Capture One on 12-Core Machines

Thanks to Chris Barret, our first customer to receive a 12-core Mac Pro we were able to verify what we had been told by Phase One. Capture One’s current version, 5.1.2, can already take advantage of the new 12-core processors. See below a screen grab showing the heavy use of all the machine’s cores during the processing of ten P65+ files. The “dips” in the graph are when the processing of a file is completed and the result is being written to disk.

Buy a Mac Pro from Capture Integration

As a certified reseller Capture Integration can provide you the same great pricing available at apple.com. As experts in high-end photography we can help you customize a machine to make the most out of your money. Contact Us today to order a Mac through us and we can help you with hard questions like these:

• Should I select SSD or non-SSD storage
• Should I use RAID? (internal, external, or not at all)
• Are there wear or maintenance issues with SSD?
• How will the RAM capacity affect scratch disk hits, etc?
• Which programs will benefit from more ram?
• Which programs will benefit from faster CPUs?
• Which programs will benefit from more cores?
• Should I buy Apple Care?
• Which upgrades should I buy through Apple vs. 3rd parties?

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