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Tethering with the Surface Pro 2: Enabling with the Phase IQ Series + Credo MFDBs

Paul2660

Well-known member
Possibly since it's based on a Intel PC board, non tablet. As I understand it GPS would require a Cell tower (as how it works on a phone or tablet) adding the GPS feature would be a major change to the board. With a phone or tablet you have to have cell service to have the GPS work at least in the U.S. Not sure now it works overseas.

As you pointed out to have the GPS work, would require a device like a Garmin and that would take the USB3 port, unless you had a hub.

I have not seen any laptops with GPS, but I may have missed that.

Paul
 

narikin

New member
Yes it's important to note that the surface is not a normal tablet, but a well featured laptop in tablet form, and like nearly all laptops, there is no GPS feature. I thought there were some CF cards with built in GPS chips, and certainly, as Ken mentions there are USB dongles that do the job, but that's assuming your USB port is free, which if you're tethered, the 1 USB port is occupied.
 

weinlamm

Member
Ok. It seems, that for my whiches I have to take two devices. A cellphone is a little bit too small for me - so perhaps I should have a look on one of this 7' tabs. It seems, that these are not so expensive these days - perhaps it's a way to keep this allways in my photobag.
And the Surface is something I should have a look on next time in one of the big electro markets here. :rolleyes:

Thanks! :thumbup:
 

schuster

Active member
...when you update your IQ-160 back firmware to the newer version that has USB-3, your old CF cards don't work unless you reformat them.
Is that version 5.11.36? I installed it on the IQ-160 and haven't had that problem.
 

Paul2660

Well-known member
Just wanted to pass a few other bits of information I have found.

The life of the S Pro 2 is very dependent on the amount of screen brightness being used, I was using a bit too much during the brighter daylight hours where I could not use a sunshade like Ken's due to wind. I just created a icon of the display tab on the main screen so I can easily get to it and make the adjustments.

If you let the Phase One battery in camera get below 15%, then you possibly will run into a situation where the image being shown on the LCD of the back will not be written to the tethered PC. You need to remember to listen for the beep, as if you get the beep, the image is on the PC. As the battery in the back gets low you will see a warning, but it is much more subtle since the battery lasts much longer while tethered, if you allow for a low charge from the PC.

Remember to turn off your wireless in the field, as it will continue to search while you are in the woods and that does take a bit of the battery.

I loaded webroot anti virus, and it will eventually try to give you a notice about the software needed for tethering loading each time you "sleep" the PC. This becomes a bit of a bother, so now I just turn Webroot off. Still can't find a way to totally kill it as the service runs in the background and takes 15% of your ram. Working on that.

I purchased a SSD 240GB from MyDigitalSSD, This is the smaller form factor of drives, not the 2.5" hard cased ones that I was familiar with. This drive is tiny and USB3 and will copy 12GB of tethered captures in about 12 sec, much faster than any card, but having the card is still a nice additional feature.

My S pro 2 keyboard does some strange things, mainly the mouse or keys will stop working. I can still use the keyboard on the screen, but I can't recover the keyboard until I sleep the PC. The mouse pad on the keyboard is a bit frustrating also but slowly I am learning it's little issues.

NOTE to Self, don't carry the S Pro 2 in your backpack in sleep mode in a plastic bag. It will get way too hot. If you are wanted to protect it from a water crossing, then go ahead and turn it totally off.

I neat workflow I have started is to setup with the S Pro 2, to get my scene focus all figured out. Once I have that done, I can sleep or turn off the S Pro 2 and shoot to the card. This just lets the S Pro last longer for a full day. I caught an error while shifting the other day with my 40mm, that I would have missed if viewing on the back's LCD. The images taken with the tethered solution will have the prefix Capture in front of them, so if you move the mixed images to one folder they might be out of series since the Capture prefix may make those images show first. The actual image number will still be in series, so if there is a way to order by image number all the files will line up correctly. (using name will not work as the Capture prefix will line up the images with Capture 1st, due to the C)

I purchased a couple of extra tablet pointers as they tend to get lost. I only figured out after 2 trips that the pointer fits into the same spot as the charger, (should have caught that sooner), but if I pick up the S Pro2 from the Ackron mount, I tend to grab it from the sides, then thus the pointer tends to drop on the ground.

For some reason, my Ackron seems to hold the S Pro 2 better when the word Ackron is upside down.

As a footnote, I was shooting the other day testing out a lens, and decided to go non-tethered. I was amazed at how fast I had gotten used to the screen on the S Pro2, how much faster it was to zoom and move around the file when viewed at 100%. I would have never believed that before. Sure the LCD is great, but the ability to see the raw at 100% view in C1 is really priceless. It's sad that the P65+ never came out with USB3 as it would be a great case for tethered work, as you could totally bypass the LCD on the back, which was pretty worthless IMO. Sadly the S Pro2 only has the USB3 port, not sure if there is any USB3 to Fireware connector.

Paul
 

shlomi

Member
I've tried with S-Pro I and II - both work fine.
However I am having a problem with the USB cable.

I know the company guaranteed only 10 feet USB cable.
However, with S Pro I and DF+ previous firmware, I've had no problem working with 15 feet USB3 cables.

I changed to S Pro 2 and upgraded DF+ firmware to latest, and now I can only work with 10 feet USB3 cable.

Anyone has an idea or experience with longer USB3 cables?
 

jlm

Workshop Member
grrr! surface pro 2 won't start up. been sitting for a month or so, put it on the charger, nothing until about an hour, then it booted up. left it on the charger overnight, this morning nothing again

any tips?
 

Paul2660

Well-known member
Google the 2 button reset, I can't find my link for it. However the pro can freeze like this and this is a full reset. It won't harm the device or erase anything, but it's like the reset feature on an iPhone.

If that doesn't work, then it might need a warranty call.

Paul
 

jlm

Workshop Member
tried all the key hits, no good. went to microsoft service, getting ready to check warranty and the damn thing popped on. now it is installing system updates.

KD's link implied it can try to install updates with a drained battery and get hung up.

tnx, all seems well so far
 

GrahamWelland

Subscriber & Workshop Member
Friends don't let friends use MS products :ROTFL:

Touch wood I haven't had lock ups like yours but I do sometimes turn it on and get greeted to an interruption of service as the surface pro dials home and decides to update itself.
 

kdphotography

Well-known member
I think the McGyver version would be more attractive at less than three pounds for their battery vs the new Vagabond Lithium Extreme. The original VML is better than the Extreme version as well, weighing in just over three pounds.

ken
 

narikin

New member
Lenovo have now announced a 'Pro' tablet that is a semi competitor to SP, running full Windows 8.1, but... just with an Atom processor (albeit latest generation quad core).

It is just $499, and quite a bit lighter, with 3 USB ports, good screen, 128Gb memory, 4Gb RAM, etc, but - much, much less powerful, so only really suitable for really patient photographers!
 

kdphotography

Well-known member
Good news for Leaf Credo owners. Looks like Leaf Credo finally caught up with the Phase IQ series by offering USB3 Live View with a firmware update. Only since the advent of the Surface Pro 2 have I felt using Live View on a Phase MFDB to be a worthwhile option/tool. Far from perfect, but at least it is now among the various tools available that I can consider using.

https://captureintegration.com/leaf-credo-firmware-2-03/

ken
 

cs750

Member
Surface Pro Information to be released tomorrow;???
•i3-4GB RAM-64GB - $799
•i5-4GB RAM-128GB - $999
•i5-8GB RAM-256GB - $1299
•i7-8GB RAM-256GB - $1549
•i7-8GB RAM-512GB - $1949

Surface Pro 3 is expected to be a larger device (possibly in the 12 inch range).
 
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