Tethered Capture

[dwphoto]

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I've been enjoying my new SL, but I've just come to realize that you can capture to the computer directly through either Lightroom or Capture One.  Can someone confirm that this correct?  And would anyone else like this feature?

 

[wlaidlaw]

Lightroom yes but I think Capture One, sadly, no. No Leica cameras are on the supported list for remote capture for C1. However C1 also does not currently fully support the SL yet, as they have not got round to writing a profile for it. You can use the Leica Image Shuttle App with Lightroom but I actually found that the standard Mac Image Capture worked better. You can also use a smaller device, either iOS or Android. I have been using the iOS app and apart from having to re-set up the connection each time, it seems to work fine. It is excellent for using as a very large viewfinder for tilt-shift photography. I am using the direct camera to iPad connection. I have not been able to make the connection via wifi network say hello. I had the same problem with the smaller C112 camera. Direct connection OK; Network No. 

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[wlaidlaw]

Update. This morning connection via the network wants to play. Yesterday it would not connect to the network, even though the camera was showing a very strong signal. It just sat with a spinning daisy wheel trying to connect. This morning, not having altered anything - zip straight through. I can now control camera from my iPad and see the contents of SD card 1. This is going to be heaven for selfie takers - no need to use the mirror any more 

 

Wilson

[LocalHero1953]

Looks like you are using the iOS or android app, Wilson, which just allows remote control (or does it do more?). As far as I can tell, Leica Image Shuttle for SL, which allows full tethering and downloading to a laptop or PC running LR, is not available yet. Is that the case? And if so, and you have space on your list of questions for Leica, perhaps you can ask them when it will be ready?

 

Edit: reading your post again implies you have more access to the SL via your network than just for ipad use. I must try this.

Edited December 5, 2015 by LocalHero1953

[wlaidlaw]

Looks like you are using the iOS or android app, Wilson, which just allows remote control (or does it do more?). As far as I can tell, Leica Image Shuttle for SL, which allows full tethering and downloading to a laptop or PC running LR, is not available yet. Is that the case? And if so, and you have space on your list of questions for Leica, perhaps you can ask them when it will be ready?

 

Edit: reading your post again implies you have more access to the SL via your network than just for ipad use. I must try this.

Paul, 

 

I will add it to the ever expanding list but I do also have a lunch date on the 9th in the city, with my former business partners and an old Swedish client, where they have promised to get me "trolleyed" on fine wines, so not to be missed .

 

I had not tried the SL with the Shuttle App, I had just assumed it was the same for the SL as the M. I never liked it anyway and the few times I did tethered shooting, used Mac Image Capture, so that might work with the SL, as it is not camera specific. One advantage of Image Capture is you can do time lapse, as it has an intervalometer function, unlike the Shuttle App. 

 

I get the same functionality with the SL connected via the network as I do connected direct. It is just that all you have to do for network, is switch it on at the camera and iPad, not have to set up with the QR code each time as I did with direct connection, since it was not saving the connection parameters on my iPad. 

 

Wilson

[ramarren]

Hmm. I haven't used much more than simple direct connection with the "Leica SL" app on the iPad as yet. 

 

I tried to connect the SL to my home network. Seemed to connect, but I didn't see it in Image Capture or as a volume device. I tried several different configurations. 

How have you set up the configuration? and how do you access it?

 

thx

[LocalHero1953]

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I've been playing with wireless connections. I haven't tried the phone app yet, but tried the other option, the web browser. I set up the SL as Host, and my Surface Pro tablet found and connected to the SL's ad hoc network. I could then access SD card 1 using the Chrome browser (by direct entry of the URL shown on the SL's screen), and thus could see the jpg files, both as thumbnails and as full screen, with swiped navigation - neat enough. The jpgs could be saved to the Surface Pro. DNGs were invisible.

 

Unfortunately, Lightroom couldn't see the SL network, so couldn't import anything. I guess this needs the yet-to-be-released Leica Image Shuttle. Those with an ipad and the SL app will, I guess, be able to use the mobile version of LR.

 

Using the web browser and setting up the SL as host seems to lock up the SL so you can't take photos AND show them simultaneously on a tablet/PC, but at least there is a reasonably straightforward way to display images to others for review while you're out and about.

 

Edit: I didn't try to connect to my home network, as I am unlikely to use it that way at home - on location, using the SL to create the network is the practical way.

Edited December 5, 2015 by LocalHero1953

[dwphoto]

Sorry, I just revisited my post and realized I said you can capture, not can't.  I meant to say can't.  My dream would be able to use this camera tethered with C1, but I could live with Lightroom.    I'll give it a whirl this afternoon.

[LocalHero1953]

Further tests.

l connected the SL to my Surface Pro by cable. All the photos, jpg and dng, are visible and downloadable, from both cards, as one would expect, and can be imported into LR. Unlike reading the files over a wifi link by browser, though, the SL is not locked while you do this: you can continue to take shots, and see them straight afterwards on your PC or laptop.

 

So, wirelessly you can see and download jpgs but not seamlessly with shooting - it's one or the other. With a cable you can see and download (and edit) jpgs and dngs in parallel with shooting. I guess we need Leica Image Shuttle SL for the best of both worlds plus full tethering control on a PC.

Edited December 6, 2015 by LocalHero1953

[LocalHero1953]

I've just looked at the manual for LIS for the S(007). It is clear that tethered shooting is only possible by cable connection in OSX, and, presumably when they update the software, in Windows. So wifi tethering is only possible with android and iOS.

Ho hum, I'll just have to avoid tripping over the cable.

[ski542002]

I have great success tethering my M240 to C1Pro using LIS2; and the selecting the C1 capture folder in LIS. Fast and stable. Should I assume this same process would work/not work with the SL? I don't yet own the SL but plan to soon. If I can't tether, the SL would not be under consideration for purchase.

[steppenw0lf]

l connected the SL to my Surface Pro by cable. All the photos, jpg and dng, are visible and downloadable, from both cards, as one would expect, and can be imported into LR. Unlike reading the files over a wifi link by browser, though, the SL is not locked while you do this: you can continue to take shots, and see them straight afterwards on your PC or laptop.

 

 

Hello Localhero.

As tethering is officially with the SL not supported, yet, can you describe in clear terms what you did (sort of Mac or PC, type of wire, software used on Mac, etc.) ? I do not really understand your description and wonder, if all the others do ?

You will be my hero, if I get it running with your description.   

Thanks.      Stephan

[ramarren]

Hello Localhero.

As tethering is officially with the SL not supported, yet, can you describe in clear terms what you did (sort of Mac or PC, type of wire, software used on Mac, etc.) ? I do not really understand your description and wonder, if all the others do ?

You will be my hero, if I get it running with your description.   

Thanks.      Stephan

 

 

The standard USB cable supplied with the SL will tether it to OS X. The protocol used is PTP so you need to have a PTP aware application on the computer side. On OS X, both Lightroom and the standard OS X utility "Image Capture" are fully PTP aware and can transfer captures to disk. 

 

What's missing per a tethered setup is that you can't do it in an automated way. You connect the camera, open Image Capture, and when a photo appears, you tell Image Capture to download it. You can set it up to download to a watched folder in LR and get a semiautomatic tethering situation that way. 

Edited May 15, 2016 by ramarren

[LocalHero1953]

Hello Localhero.

As tethering is officially with the SL not supported, yet, can you describe in clear terms what you did (sort of Mac or PC, type of wire, software used on Mac, etc.) ? I do not really understand your description and wonder, if all the others do ?

You will be my hero, if I get it running with your description.   

Thanks.      Stephan

I wouldn't call what I did tethering. Effectively the SD card on the SL was being seen as another drive on my computer. There was no control of the SL from the computer.

I used a USB cable, and it was a Windows 10 system (MS Surface Pro 3 tablet).

I'll check it all out again later today and give more detail.

Edited May 15, 2016 by LocalHero1953

[LocalHero1953]

I just checked the cable connection:

 

- Connected the SL and my PC (Windows 10 desktop) by the USB cable that came with the SL.

- Switched on the SL (the PC was already running)

- The two SL cards each showed up immediately as separate storage drives

- The DNG files were immediately visible in Windows Explorer (which also showed a thumbnail: from the embedded tiny jpg?)

- Pressing the shutter resulted shortly afterwards in the new DNG showing in Windows Explorer.

- In Lightroom the SD cards were also visible and readable (using the Lightroom Import process).

- The difference in Lightroom is that you do not see new DNGs immediately after they have been captured. You have to get LR to refresh the view.

 

I started the Lightroom tethered shooting procedure (File> Tethered Capture) but, although it seemed to think it had a Leica of some sort connected, it couldn't identify it and the tethering interface did not respond when I clicked on the virtual shutter button. I assume that this is where Leica Image Shuttle for Windows is needed.

 

Edit: For the avoidance of doubt, what I call tethering is the ability to control the SL entirely from the PC/tablet. Not just the ability to download images from the camera to a PC.

We have the latter for PCs, but not the former.

For android we have full tethering using a smartphone and the SL app. That is handy for when you want remote control, but doesn't give you a full size viewing screen.

I can't answer for OSX and iOS.

Edited May 15, 2016 by LocalHero1953

[steppenw0lf]

Thanks for your description. That helps - at least both jpg and png can be transferred.

Android and iOS seem to be "equal" in that there is a SLapp, but I think this is also no tethering because ....       and the png cannot be transferred.

And with a iPad Pro you get quite a big picture (around 2800x2000, about the same size as a MacBook Pro), so quite good. Additionally you could then transfer this to a appleTV and have screensync to a 40/48 inch  4kTV screen. 

 

Altogether not too far from real tethering.

Edited May 16, 2016 by steppenw0lf

[steppenw0lf]

Hi LocalHero1953,

 

with your description  I was able to transfer the images from SL to my Mac.

Ar first the camera was not seen as a disk or storage device, it was invisible in the finder.

With system profiles (in utilities) I could check that it was connected to USB, it was recognized as Leica SL 601.

With Image Capture (an old tool for accessing all kinds of photo/image devices, that I had not needed since several years) I finally had access to the files in the camera and could transfer them to my harddisk. That means the SL does not support the typical USB connection, but only a PTP connection.

This makes the transfer very slow - maybe 50x slower than moving the SDXC cards to a card reader.

So why do it ? I had a problem with my SDXC card and/or reader. I could not read all files. But on the SL all files were visible.

This way I was able to get a safety copy of all the files from camera.

 

I think it would be a good idea to put this behaviour (not visible as disk/storage device on OSX or Mac) on the list of firmware problems. All other cameras I have used since several years (Nikon, Canon, Sony) were automatically visible as disk device. And the SL does not have this problem with Windows. Even the M is visible as disk device. I wonder if this is heritage from the S ? (Any S owner with Mac ?)

 

Stephan

 

Sorry, one additional point. The slow transfer meant a big drain of the batteries. So I had to check how much was left, but the SL shows only the "four bars". Is there a way to display the battery left in 1 percent increments ? I am used to this with any phone.

Maybe it is easy and I simply do not know how. Or if not, could we also add this to a firmware wish list ?

Edited May 19, 2016 by steppenw0lf

[LocalHero1953]

I am glad you've made some progress.

But I'm sorry I can't advise on OSX stuff: it's always been my opinion that Apple is the bridgehead for an invasion from Planet Zog. Why else would it keep its inner workings so secret if there wasn't a bug-eyed monster at its heart?

So who knows whether the problems are an OSX or SL firmware issue?

[ramarren]

I submitted "Please support USB Mass Storage" as an enhancement request, not "PTP-only is a problem" as a firmware bug.

 

I don't often plug the camera into my computer to transfer data because of the power drain on the battery, but I haven't found it to be a problem. It's just generally a lot faster to pull the card and use the card reader, either on the one on the Mac mini or the Lexar USB3 pro reader (they're only slightly different in speed and equally reliable one to the other). 

 

For me, tabletop product work is when plugging them together is most useful to use as a tethered setup. I've been too darn busy to do much of that recently... sigh.

 

I see no difficulty using OS X, Wilson. I use Apple Mac computers all the time, dating all the way back to 1984, and have never had a single problem connecting devices to them. 

Edited May 19, 2016 by ramarren

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[wlaidlaw]

 

 

I see no difficulty using OS X, Wilson. I use Apple Mac computers all the time, dating all the way back to 1984, and have never had a single problem connecting devices to them. 

 

It was Paul having the problems with OSX not me. I too am a big fan of OSX and consider Windows as the work of the devil 

Edited May 20, 2016 by wlaidlaw