Technical Support Breakdown

June 8, 2009 | Doug, Tips & Tech Support

Capture Integration receives several dozen calls to our two locations for tech support. Because the digital back is the most expensive part of the camera system it is generally the first target of blame whenever something is “not right”. So you might be surprised by the breakdown of the solutions to tech support calls that I, as Head of Technical Services, answered in 2008.

5D II Firmware Updates

May 21, 2009 | Tips & Tech Support

5D Mark II owners should ensure that their firmware is 1.0.7 [Menu > Utilities (yellow) > Firmware Ver.]. You download the firmware update as a single file and place that file on a CF card which you then insert into the 5D Mark II to actually update the firmware. Be very careful to note that you should only do firmware updates on a full battery and you should not rush through the process; botched firmware updates can make your camera non-functional.

From Canon

Firmware Update Version 1.0.7 improves and mitigates the following two types of image quality phenomena that occur under certain shooting conditions.

-  “Black dot” phenomenon (the right side of point light sources become black)
-  Vertical banding noise in sRAW1 and sRAW2

Download the firmware update.

Optimizing a Computer for Capture One

May 20, 2009 | Doug, Tips & Tech Support

There are many types of upgrades available for Mac laptops and desktop, and each effects computer performance in different ways. Capture Integration is a leading expert at customizing computers for photographic applications, especially for tethered and untethered use of Capture One. This article is meant to to help identify what upgrades will have what effect on the speed of Capture One.

Capture Integration a Professional Value Added Reseller and offers both standard and highly customized Apple laptops and desktops. Call 877-217-9870 to discuss your needs.

Read the Full Article

Highly Customized MacBookPro

May 20, 2009 | Doug, Tips & Tech Support

Capture Integration was recently asked to research the fastest possible MacBookPro for on-location Capture One work.

With some dramatic customizations we were able to come up with a system that would be blazing fast, even compared to the fastest system available from Apple.com.

We remove the DVD Drive from the MacBookPro (we give you an external DVD burner which runs off of USB power to replace it) and put in two of the fastest laptop hard drives in the world and RAID them together for 3.3 times the speed of the standard Apple hard drive. For backing up during the shoot we provide an external 7200 rpm hard drive with both USB and firewire interface. We package it together with a HyperMac battery which will run the hard drive and computer for up to 27 hours. At your request we will install, configure, and optimize Capture One.

Why Buy From Capture Integration

• Expertise: We are a Value Added Professional Photography Apple Reseller
• Price: In most cases we are able to beat the price from Apple.com
• Tax: If you live outside Florida/Georgia you will not pay sales tax
• Support: We stand behind our sales and offer top-notch support
• Customization: We take pride in eking out every ounce of performance

Capture One vs. Capture One Pro

May 18, 2009 | Tech Features, Tips & Tech Support

Capture One Pro has everything that Capture One has as well as:

• Clarity - gives the similar to a high-radius unsharp mask
• Moire Reduction - for easy removal of moire patterns (e.g. fabric)
• Lens Correction - to sharpen soft corners, remove lens distortion, correct lens cast, and add/remove vignetting
• Tethering - for direct camera to computer capturing
• Color Editor - for customizing the ICC profile of your camera (e.g. for skin tones)
• Skin Tone Tool - for matching colors in changing lighting conditions
• Overlay Tool - for previewing the raw image in an ad layout or page design
• Process Recipes - to memorize a particular output type (e.g. 16 bit TIFF in adobe 98
• Sessions - a project based way to organize your raw and processed files
• Second Monitor Support - Allows you to use the second monitor for additional viewing flexibility
• Menu Customization - allows you to change the location of any tool as well as float individual tools
• Workspace Save/Load - allows you to save the customized location of your tools

Capture Integration can sell you a Capture One Pro license or upgrade over the phone (877-217-9870); if it is after-hours have no fear: you can use the fully functional 30 day trial until we are open. Since you always want to download the latest version from the website there is no need to have a box/CD shipped to you (of course if you want it to make your shelf look pretty we are happy to oblige).

5D II Batteries/Grips IN STOCK

May 14, 2009 | News, Tech Features

The batteries and vertical battery grips for the Canon 5D Mark II have been in short supply. But Capture Integration has both in stock today. Call 877-217-9870 to place your order.

10.5.7 released. USB camera bug fixed.

May 12, 2009 | Doug, Tech Features, Tips & Tech Support

When Apple released 10.5.6 it contained a major bug which made tethering with USB cameras (e.g. Canon 1Ds III, Canon 5D II) unstable in any capture program. In Capture One this manifested itself as an application-freeze after about 110 raw frames, rendering 10.5.6 useless for those tethering USB cameras.. This bug *appears* to be fixed with 10.5.7. Our Head of Technical Services, Doug Peterson, has just fired off 500 shots on a Canon 5D mark II and is still going.

We will do complete testing, and post a side-by-side speed comparison soon which will include the incredibly fast P40+ digital back as soon as time allows.

Cambo Leveling Base

April 7, 2009 | News, Tips & Tech Support

Cambo is introducing a new accessory for the WideRS, consisting of a Leveling Base for fine-tuned control of the camera’s level to match exact vertical linearity. This Base also allows for 360 degrees panning in levelled position, with a clear zero-position, useful for reaching the lens control settings in difficult set-ups, and useful to perform panoramic-like movements based on use of the integrated scales.

Continue reading Cambo Leveling Base…

Hähnel P1 Battery Charger

April 7, 2009 | Tech Features, Tips & Tech Support

Capture Integration is proud to announce an exclusive lower price on the Hahnel Battery Charger used to charge Phase One digital back batteries. These chargers not only charge Phase Batteries, but display the charge level of a battery almost immediately in 10% increments.

Included

- Hähnel PowerStation Twin V Pro Video
- Plate to charge: Panasonic CGR-D08, D16, D28 & CGA/R-D54
- Plate to charge: Sony L&M series
- Plate to charge: JVC BNV-707, 714 & 730 Canon BP-911, 930 & 945
- Car charger
- US power adapter (100-240V -> 12V 1250mA)

Phase One’s List price is $299. CLICK HERE to order now for $99!

More iPhone Photo Apps

April 6, 2009 | Tech Features, Tips & Tech Support

We received so much positive feedback about our Photo iPhone Apps article we knew we had to continue the series.

Canon 5D II Mini-Manual

This 5D II is one of our weekend recreational cameras as a company, but it has so many features that even we get dizzy! This app is a mini guide to the functions, features, and menus of the camera. It’s like having the most important part of the user’s manual in your pocket at all times.  Documentation includes all the basic controls such as shooting, auto focus, and metering modes. Advanced controls including bracketing, white balance, custom functions, menu settings reference, and quick help section.

Download from iTunes

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Air Mouse  (Requires free Air Mouse Server)

Don’t let the name fool you. This app’s great power for a photographer is to remotely enter up to four different keyboard shortcuts. Effectively freeing you from needing to be near the computer to trigger a tethered camera, zoom in to 100%, zoom to fit, tag an image, or hide/show the browser (thumbnails). See the instructions below. Outside of this specific use Air Mouse can  also be used to control the mouse itself allowing theoretically any function to be completed remotely; however, in pratical use this can be challanging to do at any great distance (it can be hard to see the mouse).

Download from iTunes

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Setting Up Air Mouse with Capture One

Below are some suggested instructions to tie your Air Mouse on your iPhone to Capture One during a tethered shoots.

Continue reading More iPhone Photo Apps…

C1 4.7 Pro Tip: Checking Focus Mid-Burst

April 3, 2009 | Tips & Tech Support

The Problem: When shooting at the maximum speed of a Phase One digital back or Canon/Nikon dSLR the 100% focus window may never fully resolve, making it impossible to check the focus of images as they come in.

Capture One 4.7 Pro includes several ways to check focus in the middle of a stream of images.

Method 1

Set [Camera > Auto Select New Capture > Never]. New images will still be captured and placed in the thumbnail list; however, the program will not automatically select the new image which gives you the flexibility to select images and check their focus at your own pace.

Method 2

Set [Camera > Auto Select New Capture > Immediately] . When a new image is captured it will be immediatly displayed. This creates a steady “stream” of images on the screen during heavy shooting. To check the focus of a particular image press the Return (a.k.a. “Enter”) key. The currently selected image (denoted by a while border) will become a “compare variant” (denoted by a yellow border) which will remain on the screen even as the next image in the stream is selected. You can either zoom in on that image, or use “Window > Viewer” to bring up a separate view of the two images so that both the focus-check view and the zoom-to-fit vew are shown. This later method requires considerable computer power and is best done on a fast 8-core tower fully optomized for speed.

C1 4.7 Tip: Making Small JPGs Very Quickly

April 3, 2009 | Tips & Tech Support

Capture One 4.7 includes a very powerful tool to quickly create small JPGs of a large number of Raw files. However, it is a bit obscured by the form it takes: the “Make Web Contact Sheet” command. This article will outline how to use Make Web Contact Sheet for Small JPG Previews.

Step by Step

1. Select the images you wish to make small JPG previews of
2. File > Make Web Contact Sheet
3. Select the Preview Size you wish to use, up to 1000px in the horizontal (verticals are limited to 650px)
4. Select an Output Location where the Web Contact Sheet will temporarily reside while you extract the JPG previews
5. Export
6. Open the Folder of the Web Contact Sheet and Navigate to [Photos > Previews]. See below.
7. Move the JPG Previews wherever you want.

More Tips:

No matter how you select to name the thumbnails in the Web Contact Sheet the Previews folder will contain JPGs named the same as the raw file. So be sure to use Batch Rename to establish what ever naming scheme prior to exporting to maintain consistent naming throughout the editing/feedback/retrieval/retouching stages.

You can set up a batch action in Photoshop to add watermarks to this folder of JPG previews.

HTML/CSS junkies can modify Theme > ContactSheet.css in any given Web Contact Sheet folder to play with the CSS used to generate the style of the Web Contact Sheet. Permemenant changes to the CSS may be able to be made by opening the package contents of [CaptureOne.app > Contents > Resources > Web Contact Sheet > Themes > Light or Dark > Dark.css or Light.css], but this methodology has not been tested.

Protected: C1 4.7 Pro Tip: Organizing Sessions Using Smart Folders

April 3, 2009 | Tips & Tech Support

Protected: C1 4.7 Pro Tip: Custom Keyboard Shorcuts

April 2, 2009 | Tips & Tech Support

C1 4.7: Quick Adjustments

April 2, 2009 | Tech Features, Tips & Tech Support

Capture One has always had a strong ability to work quickly with huge volumes of shots. One of our favorite features of Capture One is the speed at which you can copy one setting (e.g. a white balance of 6000k) and paste it to the entire shoot whether its 100 or 10,000 images.

However, Capture One 4.X has up-until-now lacked one of the greatest features of Capture One 3: the ability to use only the keyboard to navigate through a large collection of images and apply minor changes in saturation, contrast, exposure, WB etc based on changing lighting conditions. For instance an editorial shoot on location might have five hundred shots, and every single shot the light changed just a bit. For many photographers a variation of a fraction of a stop is not a big deal. However, for the discerning photographer or digital tech it was desired to go through and adjust each image up or down a fraction of a stop so they all matched up.

Capture One 4.7 brings this feature back with vengeance.

Basic Step by Step

1. Select the first raw by clicking on it’s thumbnail
2. Place your cursor within the text entry box for an adjustment (see right)
3. Use the up and down keys to bump that adjustment up or down.
4. Use Apple-Left and Apple-Right to move to the next or previous image.

Additional Tips

- you can leave the Apple key depressed while you push up and down to reduce the number of total keystrokes involved
- you can use tab and shift-tab to quickly change between different adjustments without using the mouse (from Guy Mancuso)
- hold shift with up or down to adjust by larger amounts (from Selsoe)

Do this for a couple minutes and pretty soon your fingers will train themselves and you can adjust upwards of an image per second.

C1 4.7: So What the Heck is EIP?

April 2, 2009 | Tech Features, Tips & Tech Support

Capture One 4.7 introduces a new file format named EIP, or Enhanced Image Package. This new format allows the photographer to combine the settings, LCC file (if applicable), and raw file into one portable file, called an EIP format.

The Problem this Solves

Many photographers are being asked to deliver their clients RAW files. This presents a difficulty because the photographer wants to deliver a file with appropriate adjustments such as color temperature, contrast, saturation, and highlight/shadow recovery. In the case of technical cameras used in architecture and landscape photography the raw file may need to be corrected by an LCC (lens cast correction) in order to be color-correct. In previous versions of Capture One the photographer would have to deliver a raw file, an LCC file, and a settings file to the cliient, who in all likelyhood was not very savvy about Capture One. This was a real difficulty in workflow.

The EIP Solution

EIP is a ZIP file format which wraps a raw file, a settings file, and an LCC (if applicable) into one file. Once in EIP format this file can be moved between folder, between computers, or sent by FTP to another computer by itself. On the destination computer the recipient can simply double click the file and Capture One 4.7 will launch. The only requirement is that the recipient have Capture One 4.7 on their computer.

What if the Recipient Doesn’t have C1 4.7? Is this a closed format?

Because EIP is a ZIP file format it is completely open. A user can rename a file called “Photo_1.eip” to “Photo_1.zip” and double click that file to reveal the contained .TIF or .IIQ raw file, which could then be opened in Photoshop CS3 or higher. For the workflow to be improved the recipient will need to have Capture One 4.7, so clearly the uptake of this new technology will begin primarily with photographers who have consistent business with a particular client. It will also be immediatly useful for photographers who use technical cameras to move files between multiple machines (e.g. a capture laptop and a retouching workstation).

Below is a screen grab showing an “unzipped” EIP file.

How Do I Actually Use EIP?

There are two ways to use the EIP format. First you can shoot or import directly into EIP at the time of capture; select “Pack Phase One images” in [Preferences > General > EIP Packaging]. Alternatively any given Phase One raw file can be pacakaged by right clicking the thumbnail (or control clicking on a Mac) and selecting “Pack as EIP”. Once packaged they can be automatically unpackaged (though within the Capture One workflow there would be no need to do so) by right clicking and selecting “Unpack EIP”.

Extra Bonus

Images wrapped in the EIP format are compatible with OSX’s Quick Look feature which means even computers without Capture One can view a modestly sized preview (rather than the 200ish pixel wide preview present in previous file formats). The Vista equivalent of Quick Look is also supported.

Other Notes

As pointed out by Selsoa on LL, when packing a file as an EIP the settings file normally present in the Capture One > Settings subfolder are moved, not copied, to the packed EIP file. This means there can be no conflict of the settings within the EIP compared to the file in the settings folder.

Medium Format TTL?

March 18, 2009 | Chris, Tips & Tech Support

I recently tested the Metz 54 MZ-4i flash with a SCA 3952 adapter to see if it was possible to shoot full TTL on the Phase 645 / Mamiya body. I was a bit apprehensive if it would work, but it worked great! I shot with the flash head straight at the subject and bounced off of the white ceiling and both exposures were dead on. I was not able to test it on all of our MF bodies because that would require specific SCA adapter for each brand. Here is a quick list of the specific SCA adapter for the most common MF bodies: Phase One 645/ Mamiya = SCA 3952 / H1,H2&H3=SCA 3902 / 500ELX, 503CX, 553ELX=SCA 390 / Contax=SCA 3802

Capture One 4.6.3 Released

March 11, 2009 | Tech Features, Tips & Tech Support

Capture One 4.6.3, a minor update to 4.6.2 has been released. You can download it here.

What’s Changed?

- Improved quality of P 65+ Sensor+ images
- Improved consistency when reading Caption and
Copyright IPTC tags
- Live Preview for 8 Core Mac Pro’s improved
- Improved support for Canon 5DMKIIs Raw fw1.07 images

Update on Capture one 4.6.2

Capture One 4.6.2 has been out for about two weeks now. No major problems have been reported either by our customers or by Phase One. Phase One keeps an archive of previous Capture One versions.

Phase One L Bracket Available

March 11, 2009 | Tech Features, Tips & Tech Support

Phase One has announced an L Bracket for the Phase One 645 (a.k.a. Mamiya AFD III) body. This bracket is available exclusively from Phase One dealers (ourselves included). Please contact us at 877.217.9870 to place your order.

Features

• an Arca Swiss type tripod mounting option for both portrait and landscape orientation
• Horizontal and Vertical Mount
• Arca Swiss Type Quick Release compatible
• Screw in option for other tripod heads
• Leather Hand Strap (lightly coated with mink oil)

Download the PDF.

iPhone Apps

March 6, 2009 | Doug, Tech Features, Tips & Tech Support

ProCamera

This nifty capture program displays a tiltmeter in real time as you tak your picture to ensure your horizon is strait. You can also set it to delay capture of an image until the accelometer detects the phone is nearly motionless, leading to sharper hand-held pictures.

Download from iTunes

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aPhoto GPS Marker

This program does more than just insert GPS coordinates. It can super impose a full suite of labels ontop of photos including latitude/longitude/altitude, copyright, distance to a known point, and caption. We can think of a hundred uses for this, but here is just one: if you’re a nature photographer you can do an initial walk-through of a park with your phone in hand and take quick snapshots of areas you’d like to return to.

Download from iTunes

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Photo Calc

We love this application’s Sunrise and Sunset calculator which automatically detects your current location and tells you what time the sun will rise and set. The depth of field calculator, reference material, and other features are interesting but not as compelling, and the developer said he is eager to add more features.

Download from iTunes

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CameraBag

This program is all about filters. You can style your photos on your phone to Polaroid, Holga, Lolo, Mono, Infrared, and Fisheye look. We’re particularly found of the Holga look (called “Helga” in the program, presumably for copyright reasons).

Download from iTunes

Color Munki (Instructional Video)

March 6, 2009 | Tips & Tech Support

If you’ve purchased a Color Munki from Capture Integration (or if you’re just interested in what the Color Munki does) then you should check out this excellent training video just posted on the colormunki website.

Watch the video

New Mac Pros

March 6, 2009 | Tech Features, Tips & Tech Support

Following the lead of the MacBookPro introduced a few months ago the new Mac Pros, Mac Minis, and iMacs include FW800 ports but not a single FW400 port. In the case of a Mac Pro you can add a PCI card for direct use of your existing FW400 cables. In the case of the Mac Mini or iMac (or an alternative to the PCI card) you will need our FW400 to FW800 cable which we’ve tested with our Phase One digital backs.

Easy Gray Profiles & The Color Editor

March 2, 2009 | Tech Features, Tips & Tech Support

Capture One Pro has a lot of advanced features which are rarely exploited by the average user. That’s one of the reasons we’ve introduced our online training series. Below is one of the topics we cover in depth in our Master’s Level class.

The Often Overlooked Color Editor

The Color Editor is one of the most powerful tools in Capture One. It can be used to modify skin tones, knock down the saturation of distracting elements, ensure the proper production of a patented product color, or simulate the black and white response of different black and white films. Yes many users have never used Color Editor. One of many uses of the Color Editor discussed in our online training is the creation of a Custom Easy-Gray Profile.

So what is an Easy-Gray Profile?

Slight color casts can be a major problem in some types of photography. One example is interior photography where either the shades of paint are not exactly the same shade of white, or are lit by different types of lights. Since you can only white balance to one white at a time it can be impossible to adjust to these different shades of white. Phase One anticipated this problem and produced easy-gray profiles for it’s modern P-series line of digital backs. The easy-gray profile makes the back less sensitive to lightly saturated colors without affecting fully saturated colors. However, Phase One did not create an easy-gray profile for dSLRS. In addition there may be instances where you want an easy-gray profile that leaves certain shades of lightly saturated colors alone (e.g. lightly saturated reds which are contained in skin-tones).Below you can download one such Easy-Gray Profile created by our Head of Tech Services, Doug Peterson. Once downloaded close Capture One and place the file in [User Folder > Application Support > Capture One > Presets > Selective Color Control] and load it using the down arrow in the upper right corner of the Color Editor. This profile may or may not suit your exact needs so more importantly you can create your own easy gray profile by selecting the inside of the color wheel (which represents the less saturated colors) and reducing the saturation, or by starting with our profile, modifying it, and saving it as your own.

• Download Capture Integration’s Generic Easy Gray Profile

Digi Clean - How To Video

February 8, 2009 | Chris, Tips & Tech Support

When your CCD gets dirty on your Phase One digital back, usually you will utilize a blower bulb to expel any minor particles.  If your CCD requires a more thorough cleaning I might recommend using Digi Clean.

Note that we recommend using only the “Solution B” which is an alcohol for the vast majority of cleaning. If you use Solution A which is a soap you will have to clean with Solution B several times to remove Solution A. So Solution A should only be used when the sensor has some form of (non abrasive) guck on it rather than just some stubborn dust.

Focal Length Equivalent Calculator

February 3, 2009 | Tech Features, Tips & Tech Support

A normal lens is a normal lens is a normal lens… except when it’s not. When using film, the size of the film determines what a normal, long, and wide lens are. An 80mm lens is long when using 35mm film, normal when using 120 film, and short when using 4×5 film. Using a digital back is no different. A P45+ or P25+ is roughly 3mm smaller on each side than 645 film.But if you’re used to 35mm or large format, then you may have a hard time adjusting. This calculator is designed for people who know one lens system really well (e.g. large format lenses for 4×5 film), and want a quick way to find out what the equivalent lens is when using a Phase One digital back. Simply enter a number into the blue under the system you know, and all equivalent lens for each system will appear in the yellow. Below is a screenshot of the calculator displaying the equivalent of each system of an 80mm lens using 120 (i.e. 645) film. Download Calculator (Excel Format)

 h

Release Notes

- July 14, 2008 - Added P65+- October 14, 2008 - Added Leica S2

C1 4.6.1

February 3, 2009 | Tips & Tech Support

Capture One 4.6.1 was released last week with improvements to processing of P65+ files.We’ve had several customers with hard-to-pin-down issues with 4.6.1 which were solved by fully uninstalling and then reinstalling 4.6. In particular several users had their processing queues freeze mid-processing.Since 4.6.1 only addresses P65+ issues we recommend customers continue to use Capture One 4.6 which can be found on the Software Archive at PhaseOne.com. 

FireWire 400/800 adapter

January 23, 2009 | Chris, Tips & Tech Support

Apple recently released a new line of MacBook Pro laptops.  With the new release they have altered the FireWire port configuration to only include 800 (9 -pin)  and excluded any 400 (6-pin) ports.  This has left people with several 400 - 400 FW cables and no way to connect to their new laptop.   One way to help with this solution is to purchase new 400 (6-pin) to 800 (9-pin) cables (which we carry), but we have found another solution.  Sonnet makes a 400 (6-pin) to 800 (9-pin) adapter that will connect the DB to your laptop.  We have found that some adapters will not allow Capture One to connect to the DB.    

Capture One 4.6 Pro Released

January 5, 2009 | Tech Features, Tips & Tech Support

The next version of Capture One 4.6 was released on Jan 5. The full release notes can be found at http://phaseone.com/Content/Downloads/CO4.aspxHere are the improvements and changes we thought were most important. This list is not comprehensive on purpose, so consult the above release notes if completeness is your goal.

Performance

• The time it takes to generate a preview (important for fast tethered performance) has improved
• The responsiveness of Color Editor is MUCH improved
• Processing, especially when using an 8 core machine is MUCH faster
• Browsing to a folder, and browsing from file to file within a folder is faster

New Camera Support

• Tethered support for Nikon! D3, D700, D300, D200, D80, D60, D40x, D40
• 5D Mark II (raw file only, no tethering)
• Canon G10
• Nikon D3X

Features

• Computer Based Camera Control (currently P65+ and AFDII/AFDIII only) for shutter, aperture, and EV adjustments.

• Load/Save Workspaces allowing you to save the position and state of your windows

Update: 4.6.1 was released with improvements only for P65+ file processing. If you don’t own or use that digital back then there is no reason to update.

Favorite Links

January 3, 2009 | Tips & Tech Support

Our Partners

• Phase One
• TheColorHouseInc
• Morel Studio Support
• Big House Loft
• Immortal Imaging [retouching]
• RealWorldWorkflow

Reference and Information

• The Wikipedia of Hard-to-Find Camera Information

  http://www.Camerapedia.org

• DOF Calculator

  http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html

• DOF Calculator (Excel Document)

  http://www.visual-vacations.com/Photography/dof_calculation.htm

• US Navy Solar/Lunar calculator (Sunrise, Sunset, Moon position etc.)

  http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.php

• Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts by Trevor Morris

  http://morris-photographics.com/photoshop/shortcuts

10.5.6 = Faster Canon Tethering

December 18, 2008 | Tech Features

Apple recently updated their operating system OSX to 10.5.6. This update contained a long awaited optimization of their USB drivers. Combined with the beta with Capture One 4.6 which includes many performance boosts we tested a Canon 1Ds Mark III tethered to our 8-core Mac Pro.