Phocus 2.6

[David Grover / Phase One]

Dick,

At the time that was the best graphics card available. So you cannot blame Rapid for that.

Also since speaking with Lawrence we have come to the conclusion that it is not an issue with the graphics card but the correct use of the tool.

Rapid are a very professional company and I don't think we can blame the then lack of live view on the H3D50 (which is of course now supported). I would say the blame rests more on our shoulders.

David

 

[dick]

On the Mac book pro I think the just say 512K... I have:

NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT:

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 512 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0647
Revision ID: 0x00a1
ROM Revision: 3436
gMux Version: 1.7.10

Can this be improved or updated?

Dick,

At the time that was the best graphics card available.

Also since speaking with Lawrence we have come to the conclusion that it is not an issue with the graphics card but the correct use of the tool.

David

Thanks, David.

Phocus 2.6 is slow on my Mac book Pro, with 4 cores, 8 GB ram, 9600... especially displaying thumbnails...

Would an SSD or better card make a significant difference?

 

[cunim]

You have to click on the dust spot before you can adjust radius and amount. Did you take that step?

As Dustbak says, the 9600 is quite an old card and not performing very well for intensive video applications. The new MBP's have far superior graphics capabilities.

David

Running 2.6 on three good machines (all i7 W7/64, two workstations, one laptop). On one of the workstations Phocus is extremely slow. When I say slow, I mean 30 seconds between selecting a thumbnail and having it display, another 30 seconds to click on a checkbox and have it recognized. This lasts for ten minutes or so and then seems to clear up.

I was hoping that 2.6 would solve this but no. HUSA have tried but have no clue.

What I am suggesting is that power may not be a critical factor if Phocus is running at really abnormal speeds. In fact, my slow workstation is the newest and most powerful of the lot, 24GB RAM, latest/greatest processor, etc. I suppose the answer would be to start swapping components in from the other workstation to see if the problem goes away. Unfortunately, that machine is liquid cooled so swapping is nontrivial. Aaargh. MFD software is such a trial.

 

[tetsrfun]

"What I am suggesting is that power may not be a critical factor if Phocus is running at really abnormal speeds. "
**********
In my experience, the GC is the major factor in "speed" of Phocus. I am running an "old" 1.1 Mac Pro and when Phocus was first available, the software was unusable due to slow speed. A GC replacement made a huge difference. Recently upgraded the GC again with an ATI HD 5770. Again improved performance.

Steve

 

[Dustbak]

yes, if it is abnormally slow chances are that there is something else at play. Especially with Windows the amount of different configuration possibilities is staggering. It is always possible certain combinations deliver problems.

So the machine that has your fastest specifications need its 'morning cappuccino' first before it decides to get to work?!? Problems like these seem to be the hardest to solve, what in heavens' name causes a piece of software to be slow as a 'running turd' for 10 minutes and than behave as normal?..

I know these kind of things happen, I had them happen to me more than once and strangely often I never found the culprit but the issue suddenly disappeared.

 

[jecxz]

In fact, my slow workstation is the newest and most powerful of the lot, 24GB RAM, latest/greatest processor, etc. I suppose the answer would be to start swapping components in from the other workstation to see if the problem goes away. Unfortunately, that machine is liquid cooled so swapping is nontrivial. Aaargh. MFD software is such a trial.

You may have a 5400 RPM hard drive or a 7200 RPM with low cache. That should be easy to check without taking everything apart - just a helpful thought. Good luck.

Kind regards,
Derek Jecxz
http://www.jecxz.com
http://www.facebook.com/derek.jecxz.photographer

 

[atanabe]

Must be directly related to file size, I am using Phocus 2.6 with the CFV 16 and have no issues on my machines.

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro5,5
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.53 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz


The warnings that Hasselblad has stated is more to protect themselves from the slings and arrows of users with older platforms complaining of speed issues. I really can't blame them at all in putting this warning in their opening screen. I applaud them for an ongoing effort to improve their software and providing it free to users.

Al

 

[fotografz]

"What I am suggesting is that power may not be a critical factor if Phocus is running at really abnormal speeds. "
**********
In my experience, the GC is the major factor in "speed" of Phocus. I am running an "old" 1.1 Mac Pro and when Phocus was first available, the software was unusable due to slow speed. A GC replacement made a huge difference. Recently upgraded the GC again with an ATI HD 5770. Again improved performance.

Steve

Did the same thing ... the GC was petering out and wouldn't even fire up both of my 30" monitors anymore. Installed a 5770, and it's rocket sled fast again :thumbup:

-Marc

 

[benton1]

... This lasts for ten minutes or so and then seems to clear up. ...

Maybe something about the virus scan? If you open Phocus I gues it will touch all the RAW files or at least some cached information which in the end is also nothing else than files (XML or something).

If there is a setting like 'scan on demand' each file will be scanned first. Depending on the scan software this might be limited to a single core etc.

Second thing that comes to my ming is the display driver. I really do hate this ATI Catalyst thing that gets updated every month without some update function within the tool. You alwas have to download the software on your own etc.

Regards

Marcus

 

[cunim]

So the machine that has your fastest specifications need its 'morning cappuccino' first before it decides to get to work?!? Problems like these seem to be the hardest to solve, what in heavens' name causes a piece of software to be slow as a 'running turd' for 10 minutes and than behave as normal?..


Dustbak, the best repair suggestion I have had in a long time. I will simply pour a cup of coffee into the silly thing and no more worries.

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I am sure I could get this under control if I tried. It will get back to speed if I wait a while, or I can solve the problem if I do some work. Wait vs work. That ten minute malfunction is just short enough to be fiendish. I sit there like a lobotomized lab rat until it runs again.

Actually, Derek may be close because it varies from disk to disk. Not cache, probably, but I believe it may have something to do with my network. The slow workstation is the local server and there are shares in place that may be misbehaving. Phocus has issues with directory control, at least on the PC.

Never mind my little problems. I just mention them because Phocus is Phragile and it can pay to check your software environment before throwing money at new hardware.

To be fair to Hasselblad, fragility is typical of MF software. I had a really interesting time getting C1 to run, for example. I am also well known for breaking every piece of code that I touch.

Peter

 

[jecxz]

Actually, Derek may be close because it varies from disk to disk. Not cache, probably, but I believe it may have something to do with my network. The slow workstation is the local server and there are shares in place that may be misbehaving. Phocus has issues with directory control, at least on the PC.

Memory management can be a misnomer in the sense that sometimes RAM gets cached to disk (on the OS level - even if you have 24GB), and if the drive is slow, the operations will be slow. I suggest a 10,000 RPM drive over an SSD at this point, my testing to date leaves me trusting the former more than the latter. On one machine I’m using 15,000 RPM SCSI drives, but 10,000 RPM is just fine. I hope you find the issue. Be well.

Kind regards,
Derek Jecxz
http://www.jecxz.com
http://www.facebook.com/derek.jecxz.photographer

 

[cunim]

Memory management can be a misnomer in the sense that sometimes RAM gets cached to disk (on the OS level - even if you have 24GB), and if the drive is slow, the operations will be slow. I suggest a 10,000 RPM drive over an SSD at this point, my testing to date leaves me trusting the former more than the latter. On one machine I’m using 15,000 RPM SCSI drives, but 10,000 RPM is just fine. I hope you find the issue. Be well.

Kind regards,
Derek Jecxz
http://www.jecxz.com
http://www.facebook.com/derek.jecxz.photographer

I will defnitely try that Derek. Thanks for the suggestion.

Peter

 

[jlm]

need some help...

just got my PC working tethered, H39 back, Phocus 2.6, first time for the pc, but 2.6 is hincky.

thumbnails show up, from tethered shooting, but the viewer is a blank white screen. i can get grid lines to show, and the viewer screen will adjust aspect ration to suit a previously cropped image, but no image appears!

same behavior looking at previously tweaked files (jpg and tif)

sony Ultrlalite, win 7, 1 gig ram, 1.3ghz intel, intel gma 950 video adapter (built-in) 256M video ram, using powered firewire hub, powers back just fine (is mounted on cambo, not H body)

system works with my macbook pro.

 

[P. Chong]

need some help...

sony Ultrlalite, win 7, 1 gig ram, 1.3ghz intel, intel gma 950 video adapter (built-in) 256M video ram, using powered firewire hub, powers back just fine (is mounted on cambo, not H body)

system works with my macbook pro.

jlm, I think its your graphics card. I had this problem before I switched to the Dell XPS 16 running Win7.

Phocus 2.6 for me is faster, and much more stable. And also connection to the H3D when shooting tethered is also more stable.

 

[jlm]

damn, my ultralite is so cute, weighs only 2 lbs, carbon fiber chassis
really wanted this baby for some studio tethering

 

[Iskander]

Hi P. Chong,

are you satisfied with your XPS 16 using Phocus?

I'm considering to buy the new XPS 17.
What do you think?

Michael

 

[P. Chong]

hi Michael, yes, I am reasonably happy with the XPS16. if you have specific questions, please ask.

 

[jlm]

does the xps provide power to the back via it's firewire port?

 

[P. Chong]

hi jlm..no. The firewire is 4-wire firewire400.

 

[jlm]

which means tethered shooting via an AC powered Firewire hub, which means plugged into the wall.