Tethering with a M8

[andybarton]

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They do not offer for example:

• 
   
  
• White Card ( as per Rayworkflow.com)
  
• Colour Checker (as per Munsell.com)
   
  

 

Why not just buy these things from the original manufacturer? If Leica sourced this kind of cheap item, they'd have to put their own mark up on them and then no one would buy them anyway.

[Guest BigSplash]

Why not just buy these things from the original manufacturer? If Leica sourced this kind of cheap item, they'd have to put their own mark up on them and then no one would buy them anyway.

 

Andy I just did this week I paid 37$ for the greycard and 74$ for the colour card ...with shipping a total of 113$.

 

I discovered the products and where to buy via this forum but many people would not be aware of where to buy it or indeed the need for such items. I suspect that a badged item from the same source would cost Leica very little and represent low risk yielding some effortless extra revenue.

 

It would position Leica increasingly as a company that provides the full kit.

[glent]

I recently managed to tether my M8 with Aperture 3. I only played around with it for a couple of minutes but it worked pretty smoothly and there appeared to be the option to make some adjustments when importing the photos.

 

Has anyone succeeded in wirelessly tethering the M8 to Aperture?

[wda]

I think I am nearly there. On Windows XP the tethered M8 is visible in "my computer" - if you open this "folder" you get a list of "tif" files - these actually are the DNG files on the card, incorrectly named "tif".

 

You can actuate the shutter via the camera tasks box on the left "take a new picture" - there is no remote shutter speed etc. so you need to set focus, aperture and all the other stuff manually, which is reasonable enough. So you have tethered actuation of the shutter without any add-ons being necessary. Windows itself is smart enough for that.

 

The next problem is how to view the files. If you do nothing you get very small previews which I think is the thumbnail data - no use whatsoever for serious viewing. If you select and copy the files and rename to DNG then you can view the DNG in their full glory via C1.4 or whatever takes your fancy (Irfanview can also be used as a rapid DNG viewer).

 

So the only obstacle is how to get an automatic transfer and rename up and running. I think that you can do this automatically but you really need to know your (Windows) stuff (e.g. if you mess around in the registry you can have two folders in different locations with the same content, but I have no idea how to implement that). Another option would be to make a "bat" file (remember those? They still can be used!) that contains a intelligently constructed xcopy command. Something like "xcopy camera folder/*.tif computer folder/*.DNG" but presumably slightly more complicated.

 

Workflow is then click the "take a new picture" button, when you want to review "click the transfer.bat icon" and then the target folder can be inspected with irfanview.

 

How does this sound..... too Heath Robinson:D ???

Stephen, although I haven't tried your method, provided you can capture the new files to a folder on computer, Lightroom can be set to import new files when that folder forms part of the Lightroom Library. If you have LR, it would be worth experimenting.

[bill]

Leica made the decision decades ago not to sell all those poor selling widgets that they used to sell. Presumably so that they could concentrate on items that people actually wanted to buy - and by people I mean people in substantial numbers.

 

Give it up, Steve. Whilst the overwhelming majority of us with more sense than money can see the logic in what you are saying, there are clearly others less worldly than ourselves who would buy a pile of day-old dogshit if it came adorned with a red dot and a nappa leather slip case to keep it in.

 

Regards,

 

Bill

[ejd]

On p123 of the English language version of the instruction book that comes with the M8 there is an explanation of remote control of the camera using Leica Digital Capture 1 software. The MAC version of the software seems to be still available to download from the Leica Camera web site, but the PC version does not seem to be there.

 

I have this programme on my laptop. It lets you choose ISO / compression / white balance / EV +/- / resolution / user profile / where to store the images on the machine, and you can fire the shutter but there is no provision for setting intervals at which to do it, or anything fancy like that. Don't know how well this works -- I've never used it.

 

PS

In a file on 'FAQ Leica M8 and 8.2' (Sept 2008) on the Leica Camera site is a note saying that "The remote control software Leica Digital Capture is not compatible with Vista and Mac OS 10.5. An updated version is currently not planned." So maybe this is why the programme is not still available for download.