Hasseblads with Mac laptops, anyone?

[citizin]

I'm shooting tethered to a 13" 8gb i5 (dual core) 2013 MBP.

It's a dedicated tether machine. I've run tests with most versions of phocus and MACOS on this and I find that OSX 10.10.x with Phocus 3.1.4 is the fastest tethering for this set-up. It's shows previews instantly and can handle continuous shooting.

I think it has to do with apple upgrading away from OpenGL to Metal at that time and the software wasn't optimized for the hardware. Check the stream on console (under applications/system utilities/console ) and you'll notice a constant stream of errors attributed to phocus.

 

[Stella Michaels]

Holy SMOKE, Mr C! You cracked it!
It WAS the software version!
Thank you so much

I just downloaded 3.1.4 - and blow me down - it works! One shot every 3 seconds - and no spinning ball.
Until you get to 9 shots - then trouble!

But I realized this shooting rate turns out to be a bit too much for my aging setup to swallow - if I keep shooting at that rate (easy in a portrait session!) it creates problems. The green 'busy' light on the camera goes orange, and winks - and just keeps winking..
Then you get an error message 'Capture failed' and Phocus hangs, just after losing contact with the camera.
The orange light keeps on winking. Even after you turn the camera off / back on / off again / disconnect the cord!

I found that you have to reset by removing the battery for a 10-count, hook up the tether lead again, and restart Phocus..
..and after a tense wait of about 10-15 sec, it re-establishes contact with the camera. (Phew! Thought I'd blown its little guts out!)

So - The answer is to slow down the shot rate, going by the light on the back. It has to turn green, which takes 5 seconds. If you don't re-expose for 5 sec after every shot - it's fine! I ran 70 exposures at a steady rate of 5 sec intervals and it kept up, no hangs, no jams.
(Turns out you can do the odd 3 sec interval - but don't push it!)

I suppose I can't really ask for more, given the age of my machinery. (I still think of my 2015 iMac as brand new!!)
So, I lose a few whistles & bells - No V1/V2/V3 etc - but I can live with that. I still have Photoshop..
Files process instantly, whether tethered or saved to disc, so that's fine too! Yippee-Ki-Oh!

Most of all, provided I learn to slow down, I get to save £1500!

Thank you all - we got there in the end.

 

[citizin]

I've found that a direct FW800 connection is faster than with the apple oem TB2 FW800 adapter. The slow down you're experiencing now is probably due to the spinning drive vs SSD. Looks like an upgrade of the system disk is all you need. I use a cheap ~$50 samsung 850 250gb.

 

[Stella Michaels]

Amazing! So - you just plug this drive in, then what? Do you just tell Phocus to export to that drive?

My iMac won't accept the FW800, I think..

 

[citizin]

Amazing! So - you just plug this drive in, then what?

My iMac won't accept the FW800, I think..

It was in a macbook pro, i popped off the bottom cover, swapped the drive out and re-installed OSX 10.10 from a usb stick. It doesn't have usb3 ports so I didn't have the option to have a decent speed external.

Now that I'm thinking about it, the slowdown could still be based on your OS version. If I went uo to 10.12 even with 3.1.4 it was unusable. You're probably getting the added benefit of the dGPU over the iGPU in mine.

 

[Stella Michaels]

OK!
Well - thank you for your help, I'm so chuffed to have got this far, but as I can plug in a USB external SSD, reckon it's worth a try?
Or is that just wrong all over? I'm not a bad photographer, but this all this open-heart computer stuff is a bit beyond me!

 

[citizin]

It's worth a shot, you do have usb3. With a decent external you could get more of a boost.

 

[jng]

FWIW, I keep all my files (including the ones I am actively editing) on an SSD external connected to my laptop via USB-C, and speed is not an issue. YMMV. Look for one with a high read-write speed (I use the Sandisk Extreme and Sandisk Extreme Pro). But I don't know whether the machine's internal hard drive will be rate limiting (mine is also SSD).

 

[Stella Michaels]

Brilliant. If its a no-goer, I can still use the drive for other stuff anyway
Thank you, guys! Really sweet of you!

 

[spb]

I used to run Phocus on a MacBook Pro 13" with 16G RAM and a 1T drive. Now I run Phocus Mobile on a gen one iPad Pro 11" with 1T storage. Seems to run fine in both cases.

G

I will second that on a iPad Phocus works perfectly.

 

[citizin]

I will second that on a iPad Phocus works perfectly.

Ipad Phocus for FW based backs still needs the back connected to an intermediary device. That's why I have a dedicated MBP for it. Ipad works as a great remote or 2nd screen. Phocus on iphone connected to MBP is a better camera and shutter release when using the ipad.

I forgot to mention. If you install Windows 10 under bootcamp onto the iMac with the latest Phocus version operates just as the fast 10.10/3.1.4 but looses OSX/MacOS's ability to hotspot making using the ipad/iphone combo outside of WiFi.

 

[Stella Michaels]

Visited a friend today - she has a 2017 13" Macbook air, running 11.6 Big Sur.
Just for laughs, we downloaded the latest version of Phocus (3.6.4)? and plugged in the H4D to see what would happen.
Nothing, I thought. It's way too puny a 'pooter to handle all that data flooding in!

But it went like the clappers! Full functionality! All the whistles, all the bells, V2/V3, the new film grain feature, everything!
I fired 40 frames one after the other, no hangs, no grief. Instant response.

The camera didn't want to go more than 1 frame every 5 sec, but the later OS seems to run the software just fine.
It means I could get a cheap Macbook Air to bump about in the camera bag - and run Phocus out in the forest, or on the beach.. It ran rings around my big old 2015 27" desktop iMac.

The same year I bought that nice brand spanking new £1500 iMac, I also bought a 12 year old Mercedes.
As the iMac crumbles with "age", the Merc still looks a million dollars and runs just fine. A little slower, perhaps, now that it's 18 years old - but it chucks no dummies. Ever.
I think Apple are having a laugh.

 

[drevil]

Didnt read all the messages here, BUT, i will order a MBP with M1 max chip within the next 3 months, i expect it to be an investment that wont be replaced within 5 years, the power is immense, and should be fine for the next 1-2 camera generations, so now to invest in such an expensive tool is a no brainer in my eyes.

 

[spb]

Visited a friend today - she has a 2017 13" Macbook air, running 11.6 Big Sur.
Just for laughs, we downloaded the latest version of Phocus (3.6.4)? and plugged in the H4D to see what would happen.
Nothing, I thought. It's way too puny a 'pooter to handle all that data flooding in!

But it went like the clappers! Full functionality! All the whistles, all the bells, V2/V3, the new film grain feature, everything!
I fired 40 frames one after the other, no hangs, no grief. Instant response.

The camera didn't want to go more than 1 frame every 5 sec, but the later OS seems to run the software just fine.
It means I could get a cheap Macbook Air to bump about in the camera bag - and run Phocus out in the forest, or on the beach.. It ran rings around my big old 2015 27" desktop iMac.

The same year I bought that nice brand spanking new £1500 iMac, I also bought a 12 year old Mercedes.
As the iMac crumbles with "age", the Merc still looks a million dollars and runs just fine. A little slower, perhaps, now that it's 18 years old - but it chucks no dummies. Ever.
I think Apple are having a laugh.

As usual I see after removing the SD card reader etc they are bringing them back - having an expensive laugh yes.