Capture One 4.6 Pro Released

January 5, 2009 | Tech Features

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.aspx

Here 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

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.

Capture One 4.5.2 Released

November 3, 2008 | Tech Features, Tips & Tech Support

Earlier this week a bug was discovered in Capture One 4.5.1 which affects Canon Raw files. The engineers in Denmark worked day and night and just a few days later 4.5.2 was released to correct this issue.

We strongly recommend all users (especially those who work with Canon cameras) to upgrade to 4.5.2 immediatly.

4.5.2 Can be downloaded at PhaseOne.com

Capture One 4.5.1 Released

October 31, 2008 | Tech Features, Tips & Tech Support

Summary

One of the most important features of Capture One 4 has gone mostly unnoticed because it is hidden from the end user. The entire architecture of the program has been broken down into modules to make it much easier for Phase One to issue updates. Just two weeks after the release of Capture One 4.5 this is already paying dividends. Along with adding preliminary support for the 5D Mark II (raw file only, no tethering) Phase One has also corrected several bugs. Below you’ll find links to download the software, along with a list of solved issues. As a Value Added Reseller we work very closely with our customers and based on this experience we’ve highlighted what we feel are the most important solved issues.

Download

• Capture One 4.5.1 for Mac 10.5.5 or higher
  
• Phase One 4.5.1 for XP SP3 or Vista SP1

New Camera Support

Canon

• Canon EOS 50D (Raw files only, no tethering, no sRAW)
• Canon EOS 5D Mark II (preliminary, Raw files only, no tethering, no sRaw)

Solved issues

General:

• Improved stability
• Better sharpness when in “Zoom to Fit” mode
• Consistency of output when processing multiple recipes
• Increased robustness for Chromatic Aberration Analysis
• Improved sharpness when applying Lens Distortion and resizing images
• License information shown in about box
• Support for Pentax K20D Camera using firmware 2.0

Mac:

• Warning when launching on Mac OSX 10.4.x and/or PowerPC
• Solved problem causing wrong cursors to be shown.
• Sorting by ISO now possible
• Crop composition grid enabled for all versions
• Solved problem preventing the Preferences from showing ICC profile file location
• Solved issues relating to copy/apply of Styles and LCC and Color Cast
• Better Lens tool defaults

Windows:

• Fixed the keyboard shortcuts for selecting tool tabs
• “The given key was not present in the dictionary” issue resolved
• Automatically starting the importer on auto load cd/dvd/memory card

Firmware Update for P+ Backs [3.2.6]

September 15, 2008 | Tech Features, Tips & Tech Support

Introduction

New firmware has been released for all the P+ Series digital backs. The firmware updaters will update the firmware in P+ digital backs to:

• Main code: 3.2.6
• PAVR: 1.0.7
• FPGA: 1.6.3

Download links

Firmware download: 3.2.6

How Do I Update My Firmware?

The link above will allow you do download the update program. To minimize a small possibility of problems* you should do the following:

• Insert a fresh battery into the digital back
• On the digital back set: [Menu > Configuration > Power Source > Battery]
• On the digital back set: [Menu > Configuration > Storage > Autodetect]

Then you can launch the updater and proceed with the extremely simple on screen instructions. The whole process should take only a few minutes.

*The only real possible snafu during a firmware update is that the back would become physically disconnected or run out of battery power during the update. By switching to battery power and making sure the battery is full this possibility is eliminated. Neither of these steps is necessary, but they are good ideas.

What’s new?

New camera special application camera modes: “Camera Mode” feature is introduced to facilitate use with Schneider electronic shutter USB control and certain specific industrial applications.  A New “Camera Mode” menu item is introduced inside “Configuration” menu.

• Camera Mode
• Normal (default)
• Mode 1 (Schneider electronic shutter option)
• Mode 2 (Aerial application)
• Mode 3 (Industrial - available only on Hasselblad V version)

In general if the digital back are not used with any special setup as described  above, and with additional special timing cables the Camera Mode should be left in “Normal” position.

Bug Fixes

• General image artifact improved on some digital backs (column artifacts, centerline, and rings artifacts)
• Overall improved image quality at long exposures (visible at exposures more than 30 min.)
• P 21+ Extreme Long exposure enabled (now works for more than 25 min.)
• FireWire power circuit protection enabled (if user mistakenly inserts the FireWire connector wrong way around at computer end)
• P 25+ / Intel Mac tethered retransmitting lost data error corrected

Known Limitations

When using a digital back on a 645 body at f stops that are outside the range of f2.8
to f22, f-stop metadata information may not be correctly listed in the RAW file.

The Ideal Tethered Setup

September 9, 2008 | Tech Features

Foreword

Phase One tethering is extremely robust, and is by far the number one rented digital back in the world for tethered shooting; out of context this document may make it seem like any minor thing can cause problems. Instead we encourage you to understand the document in the context of its intended audience: 1) digital techs who are fired on the spot if something goes wrong, and 2) photographers trying to troubleshoot an unusual problem on their own.

What Do We Mean By ‘Ideal’?

Saying that the below recommendations comprise an ideal tethered setup is not to say that other setups can’t be stable. Many of our customers have great success with a variety of other setups, and following these recommendations often needlessly safeguard against rare problems that may never arise. They are extremely conservative guidelines. So use these options if your goal is to achieve the absolute highest reliability or as a way to troubleshoot any problems you experience.

IIQ-Large

This file format will ensure the highest quality. IIQ-Small has slight compression, which is unnoticeable most of the time, but can cause inferior image quality when an image is very overexposed or underexposed. There was also a glitch in Capture One 3.7.7 and 3.7.8 which set the default capture file format to “compatible with 3.0″ which caused many problems which were easily solved by changing to IIQ-Large or IIQ-Small.

Back Powered From Battery

[Menu > Configuration > Power Source > Battery]

This is ESSENTIAL. Many laptops, and even some desktops, have firewire ports which do not produce consistent and sufficient firewire power. Low or variable firewire power can cause many types of hard-to-diagnosis problems. Using the computer’s firewire power will work with most of the time. However, for maximum reliability and for troubleshooting, use battery power.

Tether to a Mac Pro (rear port) or MacBookPro

The Macbook, Mac Mini, and iMac are all consumer grade computers which are not well suited for a professional tethered workflow. These computers can and will work, but for the best and most consistent results use one of these professional apple computers. On a Mac Pro use the rear port. While both Intel and PPC architectures are supported, moving forward, all optimization and the bulk of testing for Capture One will be on the current Intel based computers.

15′ Double Shielded Firewire 400 Cable

Specific 30′ and 33′ cables often work reliably (we sell one of each which we’ve tested with good success). Likewise there are many 3rd party firewire cables which work well. However, for maximum reliability, and for troubleshooting nothing beats the 15′ cables provided by Phase One.

Fresh Computer with as Few Other Programs Running as Possible

Macs aren’t known for spyware/crapware (at least compared to windows), but any computer can become burdened down with background programs and processes that can wreak havoc with the computer’s stability. Capture One can work perfectly fine while a hundred other programs are launched, but for a production environment it is best to keep your tethering machine as clean as possible. Our Backup Solutions for Before and After the shoot White Paper includes a way to backup your OS and applications. It’s a great idea to install just the OS, Capture One, and essential photo applications and utilities and then make a backup of that setup from which you can boot (plug in via firewire and hold option when booting) for times of trouble and confusion.

Capture Folder Should be on a Internal Hard Drive with Plenty of Free Space

Shooting to an external hard drive is not recommended. Some photographers shoot to an external hard drive to maintain a backup of the shoot. If this is desired see our Backup Solutions for Before and After the shoot White Paper.

The stability and speed of the entire computer (and therefore Capture One) is compromised when the hard drive is almost full. It’s a good idea to always have 10+ gigabytes of space free on your tethering machine, and avoid shooting it all the way to capacity. The computer will become unstable and slow far before Capture One finally tells you there is no space remaining.

Cleanly Installed Capture One

Phase One always tests new versions of Capture One to make sure that if you upgrade from the latest version that installing the new version over top of (and replacing) the last version won’t lead to problems. However, it is always a good idea to uninstall the previous version before installing the new one (how to unistall Capture One on a Mac). This is especially critical if you are upgrading from an installation which is several versions old.

No Other Firewire Devices Plugged in (e.g. a Firewire Hard Drive)

For maximum reliability or if you are experiencing problems be sure that no other firewire devices are plugged in to the bus. This includes different firewire ports because depending on the computer’s internal configuration these ports may well be routed through the same internal bus.

Absolutely Fresh Batteries

Some camera bodies such as the Mamiya 645AFD will continue to function when batteries are low but not empty. However, they may occasionally misfire as the battery approaches empty and this can cause a variety of strange symptoms on the digital back. The same applies to the digital back. The back will continue to work when the back is flashing an empty battery icon, but may experience glitches or hiccups and if the back dies while writing a file this can cause the last image to be lost.