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Questions about tethering...

Shineofleo

New member
I plan to use my Leaf Aptus II 6 on Mamiya AFDIII with computer to tether my shootings. I just tried firewire 800 to both PC and MAC on Capture One 9 (the latest). It works, but I need some help:

1, The firewire supplies the DB power. Once you connect the DB to PC/MAC, DB will be on and the fan starts to spin. However how should I shut it down properly? Simply disconnect the cable? I tried to 'eject' first, but the DB is still powered. Puling the cable out direct sounds quite ... dangerous... what is the correct procedure?

2, I leave it for quite a long time, and the laptop will get into sleep mode. After I wake it up, the software tries to reconnect to the DB, and some error pops out saying camera error. Is it normal? I really hate an unstable connection especially for a full working day. Anyone has similar experience? Or, is it a defected firewire cable?

3, This old Aptus II doesn't have live view function, but in C1 there is an option called live view. After I clicked it... something weird happened such as freezing up. So should I just avoid using that live view function with old DB?

4, Dead pixels? I made test shots with quite dark scene. There are a several bright points in a short line on the image, although under normal condition there is no such 'dead pixels'. I had a close check at the sensor, it seems the large area of sensor was 'stitched up' by small sensors, and the position of the dead pixels are just one the edge between small sensors. I am not obsessed with this but just want to know the cause of them.

5, During tethering, is the CF card will have a copy of the image? It seems not. So if anything wrong with the connection after the shooting, the photo is just gone? I hate this...


Any comment is highly appreciated! Thanks!


Leon
 

Paul2660

Well-known member
With many of the Dalsa chips, (not sure which chip is in your back), you can see what appear to be lines, or that the large sensor seems to be made up of smaller chips. This is centerfolding. The lines are just read outs, to help speed up the raw data read off the chip. Sometimes, you can see issues where one of the segments read just a bit differently than the one next to it, and thus that segment may show up a bit darker, or you may see see what appears to be a line on your image. Most of this can be removed with a calibration file for the back, you may need to get a new one. T

If you are seeing stuck pixels on longer exposures, you may have exceeded the normal exposure limit of the back, or it might be that the back did not take a dark frame after the shot, which helps to remove the stuck pixels.

On the tethering, you are correct, with P1 backs, when tethered, you can't write to the card, only the PC you are tethering to. Something I hope that one of these days Phase might alter.

Paul C
 

Shineofleo

New member
Thanks. My aptus II 6 seems a Kodak version which is marked on the body.

Actually now I understand MF really needs some persistence to stick with... there are all kinds of issues waiting for me...

First of all, I found my new Macbook Pro can not connect to the DB. There is no firewire port in this new laptop, so I got a thunderbolt-to-firewire800 converter. However, even C1 can find the DB, sometimes some error will pop up, saying camera error. Then I realize that, sometimes everything works, sometimes, after 1 shot, the power was off! Immediately I realized that the firewire power output may not be enough to support the DB, which is the only power source of it - the battery can not be installed when you want to connect the cable. Then, after some research, it is the thunderbolt which made the mess: not enough power from TB, hence firewire can not feed the power of DB. This is exactly why I hate apple - some new invention, but completely ignored some details for legacy support!

Luckily, I have a Dell workstation laptop which has a 1394a port. So I connected DB to this laptop, tested with C1, and it worked! HOWEVER, still sometimes(!), some error occurred, and I tried to reconnect, but the DB starts to refuse to write new image (to the laptop hard drive), saying the name exists and please rename. Then no more photos can be taken.

In the end, I drew the conclusion as below, about the behavior with Leaf Aptus II 6 and PC:

* You MUST connect DB to the laptop BEFORE run the C1 software. Fail to do so, you will cause problems, until you reboot the system.
* If you run the C1 first, then connect eh DB to laptop, C1 will fail to connect to DB (almost for sure, after many tests). You can try to unplug DB and connect again. OK C1 can see the DB, BUT there is still problem, see below.
* Under above procedure, you will see 'please insert storage' on the DB screen, which is wrong because I have inserted CF card. In this case, I found that this 1394 connection ONLY provides power to the DB, which means, you can press the power button and switch the DB off! even with the cable connected, which obviously behaves differently than 'normal' tethering situation. So in this incorrect context, you just can not make it work.
* Correct hint on the screen, after you connect DB FIRST: "tethering mode: waiting for connection". The LED on the DB is orange, and flashing, something like waiting for the laptop. If you run C1 now, the software will find DB without problem, and DB LED will turn green, then the hint on the screen will be "connected, in tethering mode". Now, you can take photos and it will be captured to laptop hard drive.

I am not sure if this can help anyone, but at least it can be a good log for myself.

Digital Back for MF IS a quite niche area, especially compare with consumer products. Perhaps my hardware is old and everything digital develops so fast, but these small problem will not be thoroughly solved because the users are professionals in a small number, relatively. But this is about product design, and I really hope it can be better in the future.

If there is any comment from experience user, it would be great. Thanks!

Leon
 

Pelorus

Member
Had a Macbook Pro with Firewire and my Leaf Aptus-II 7 tethered perfectly. I've just converted to a MBP 15 with only thunderbolt. As you've found, the back won't tether even with an adaptor - there's not enough power.

My dealer tells me the answer is a powered FW "booster". I'm picking one up this week. I'll let you know how it works :)
 

Shineofleo

New member
Had a Macbook Pro with Firewire and my Leaf Aptus-II 7 tethered perfectly. I've just converted to a MBP 15 with only thunderbolt. As you've found, the back won't tether even with an adaptor - there's not enough power.

My dealer tells me the answer is a powered FW "booster". I'm picking one up this week. I'll let you know how it works :)
Thanks! Good luck!

By the way could I ask the macbook pro you used perfectly with the digital back? What is the model? Usually they label it as like "late 2011" or a code like MDxxx where xxx is numbers. I am exploring some used macbook pro as a back up plan. Thanks!


Leon
 

Pelorus

Member
Mid-2012 2.9GHz i7 13"

But it's not really fast enough to run C1 satisfactorily.

Thanks! Good luck!

By the way could I ask the macbook pro you used perfectly with the digital back? What is the model? Usually they label it as like "late 2011" or a code like MDxxx where xxx is numbers. I am exploring some used macbook pro as a back up plan. Thanks!


Leon
 

Shineofleo

New member
Mid-2012 2.9GHz i7 13"

But it's not really fast enough to run C1 satisfactorily.
Is that bad? This should be the last generation of MBP with firewire support. Your model should be 3520M at 2.9GHz. Perhaps the i7 quad-core version would be better? I think the memory is important. If it is 4G it can be slow, so I would get 16GB. With SSD, it should be quite good with C1.

By the way I am getting a quite special thunderbolt dock with extra power input, at a ridiculous cheap price, while the original price is expensive. All stuff with thunderbolt is expensive... I will update here when I get it.
 

Shineofleo

New member
Is that bad? This should be the last generation of MBP with firewire support. Your model should be 3520M at 2.9GHz. Perhaps the i7 quad-core version would be better? I think the memory is important. If it is 4G it can be slow, so I would get 16GB. With SSD, it should be quite good with C1.

By the way I am getting a quite special thunderbolt dock with extra power input, at a ridiculous cheap price, while the original price is expensive. All stuff with thunderbolt is expensive... I will update here when I get it.
I got this http://www.moshistore.com.cn/ilynx-800

Unfortunately, it is not working with my new MBP. The thunderbolt port + converter to the hub, and the hub has another USB port. I though both ports can provide enough power, but they don't. The DB simply can not boot up (no response of fans even), the orange LED just kept blinking.

Powered hub is extremely difficult to buy nowadays. I guess either I stick with my PC laptop, or get a used mac with firewire port. But which model should I get? Are they powerful enough to run C1? e.g. with quad-core i7, 16GB+SSD?
 

Pelorus

Member
I got this http://www.moshistore.com.cn/ilynx-800

Unfortunately, it is not working with my new MBP. The thunderbolt port + converter to the hub, and the hub has another USB port. I though both ports can provide enough power, but they don't. The DB simply can not boot up (no response of fans even), the orange LED just kept blinking.

Powered hub is extremely difficult to buy nowadays. I guess either I stick with my PC laptop, or get a used mac with firewire port. But which model should I get? Are they powerful enough to run C1? e.g. with quad-core i7, 16GB+SSD?
Please see the very bottom of this page for what appears to be the only remaining approved hub.
 
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