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Tethering to Lightroom CC w/ S2-P


TomLiles

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Hello All,

 

I am a newbie. I set foot in Leica S-land this June with the purchase of an S2-P; my copy had the sensor glass corrosion problem and it has just come back to me from Wetzlar with a brand new sensor [and all the weather sealing replaced, the body regripped, and it has been cleaned inside and out; impressive]. For free, I must add. I'm happy with that.

I'm not super happy that I can only get the camera to tether by using my ancient MacBook Pro, which I keep as a backup and is running Yosemite and an old standalone copy of Lr5. My actual computer is a 2016 MacBook Pro Retina [the touchbar one] and runs Lightroom CC for my main database and simple tethering... that's what I use for work and is the center of my workflow. And the S2-P isn't working with it unfortunately.

It's almost funny actually, but just to check:

-- the S2 and Styp006 cannot tether to Lightroom CC as we know and use it here in 2017? [or should I say, any combo of: El Captain and later OSX, plus adjoining Lightroom/LightroomCC?]

-- the Leica Image Shuttle software / Lr Plugin only works for the Styp007 with current OSX and current Lightroom CC

I emailed Leica software support as it seems the Image Shuttle is not freeware, or not openly available freeware... They have written back to me and I may be able to get a copy of Image Shuttle; though that is little use to me without yet knowing if it even works with Lr for my camera. The Leica chap managed not to answer that basic question of whether or not it is possible to tether an S2 [s2-P in my case] to Lr CC. I did ask.

I use C1 as my main tether software [for other system cameras]; so while a Leica S will not tether to that natively, I could perhaps switch to hot folders and use the "Mass Storage" USB mode to tether by proxy. Not really a solution I'm interested in to be honest.

Kind of a killer as about 50% of what I do is in a studio setting [Art Directors and customers will want to monitor images as I take them at shoots]. I should have researched tethering with an older S camera before buying [though it wouldn't have stopped me]; just goes to show: never assume anything.

Not being able to tether doesn't stop me from using the long-awaited S for work, though it isn't optimal either. I am just finding it hard to believe that the camera which records DNG natively and comes with Lightroom in the box, cannot tether to Lightroom as we know and use it here in 2017. No, right? I'm baffled...

----
Due Diligence:

USB mode setting: PTP
Lemo USB cable: checked, OK [tethers to older Mac; transfers data to new Mac just fine when USB mode set to "Mass Storage"]
USB Ports on Mac: checked, OK [see previous]
S2-P firmware: 1.4.0.0 most up-to-date version
LrCC: 2015.12 Camera Raw 9.12
OSX: Sierra, 10.12.6

Edited by TomLiles
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I have an S2P and have tethered my Macbook Pro running El Capitan.  Recently I upgraded to a 27" iMac with Sierra.  My tethering has always been with Leica's Image Shuttle.  The iMac is loaded with Image Shuttle 3.6.  Everything works for me, especially the fine, small distance increments that are important to me.

 

There have been a number of software glitches connected with Mac and Image Shuttle.  They appear to be under control, currently.  And I save previous incarnations of Image Shuttle.

 

Go to Leica Owner's Area https://owners.leica-camera.com/en/login

Create an account.  Register your S2P and lenses, if you wish.

Download the appropriate version of Image Shuttle and the instructions.

 

Enjoy

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Hi traveler11

Thank you very much for this information. Just out of interest, it sounds like you are shooting Macro stuff tethered. Are you using the S120 APO Summarit or the S120 TS APO Elmar by any chance? I do a fair bit of product still work, and prefer the tilt-shifts to focus stacking... opinion on the TS Elmar seems a bit mixed, so if you are using that one what do you think of it?

Re:tethering. Your information helps me greatly. I have dropped Leica Support another email to see if we can de-register the previous owner of my camera and transfer the registration to me so I can get to the Image Shuttle download in the owners area. I hope to be using the Shuttle soon and be doing some tethered studio work for customers with the S2-P. Am really enjoying the camera otherwise; simply beautiful ergonomics.

Thanks again for talking to me traveler11 m(. .)m

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Tom,

 

I use the 120 MM 2.5 Summarit for focus stacking the orchids I grow.  I thought about the 120 TS, but it is slow, and it would force this old brain to learn learn how to use it.  Back then there was a video of someone using it with an S2.  It was very impressive seeing him move and shift the lens so fast and so surely.  Of course, being Leica, it will be substantial, and optically, the best.  

 

My focus stacking is slow, because I shoot at .01ft intervals allowed by the Image Shuttle.  The new computer has demonstrably sped up the processing with Zerene Stacker.

 

Leica has transferred the 70 MM lens to me that I bought used.

 

I have seen many S lenses from Japan and Hong Kong on eBay.

 

Happy Trails

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Hi again traveler11,

 

I enjoyed the little look into Bernd's studio there. I've seen that video a few times before, but it is always a pleasure to watch. I am a smalltime photographer but my dream is to get big enough to have a little studio, like Bernd and many advertising photographers do... The thought of being able to shoot still life and portraits all day in my place at my pace is just as good as it gets™ to me. Of course with a Leica S :)

At any rate, thanks for the link and it certainly is nice to see this photographer using the TS Elmar.

We have a couple bellows options with the S, and indeed for those lucky enough to have a Sinar camera I am sure there is a dedicated part with which the S can mount onto the rear standard and be a digital back for the view-camera [of course there is the S sensor in a dedicated digital back too, but that is a little different: I am starting with the S body and working from there, not starting from the Sinar bellows].
I use a Nikon camera a lot for work and a combination of their PC-E lenses and software techniques [like stacking / stitching ] and I can get what I want with product stills for ads, etc., the quality is more than enough for the basic requests and customers I have; but I would like to keep improving, keep my story moving, and move up the ladder a bit. I plan to shift from Nikon to Leica completely for my work, and I'd need a tilt-shift to really make that transition fully, though with Leica S and the initial outlays it is not an easily doable goal. I would attack it with a higher priority if Leica had made a wider angle tilt shift: I have a couple interior and architecture customers and the Nikon 24 and 45 PC-E are relatively heavy use lenses for me. If I hadn't chosen to start moving over to Leica, I would have certainly been a customer for the new Nikon 19 PC-E (which seems markedly better than the 24).

The Leica TS Elmar looks like a Schneider Kreuznach TS lens, certainly the outside of it. I've never used an SK tilt shift before though a friend has a Canon mount SK 90mm TS and he likes it. The blue ring lenses for Phase One XF seem excellent too, though at these prices it is almost a given that no-one will be 1) writing reviews, and never mind 2) writing bad reviews! I trust the makers too though, these optics are designed by people with Doctorates in optics and ultimately they know what they are doing and deliver us the quality they can inside their work constraints. I believe all the S lenses are stunners, and I am sure this tilt-shift fits right in line with that.

It's funny you mention Japanese and Hong Kong sakes listings... I can't comment on HK so much, but living in Toyko, Japan I can tell you anything Leica here is marked up about 30% on the price you are all used to, often as much as 50% more if the seller is a store. It is hard to easily afford S equipment here, though where there is a will there is a way. I bought my lenses [s70 and S35] from a rental house which was helping someone sell their S equipment and I got good prices as they were keen for a sell; I got my S2-P body in an overnight fire sale [12pm to 7am] a store was doing to manage its inventory before end of financial year time [around June for many companies here]. Two very lucky hits; I almost feel as though God was helping me. Otherwise it would have taken me another year of patient saving to get here.
The prices for S equipment in Europe are much lower; as a UK national, I hope to be able to visit my motherland next year and perhaps pick up an S lens or two while I am over---the S120 TS Elmar was one of the optics that flies through my head when I think of that, though I stick to the basic plan and will go for the S120 APO Makro Summarit to begin with I think. I'll be focus stacking like you! If I could make enough sales this year, an S24 is definitely on my list too.

I've written a lot.

Thank you again traveller11, and I suspect I do not need to wish you happy trials. But I will anyway :)

Happy Trails

Cheers

 

Tom

Edited by TomLiles
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Hi there traveler11

That was very thoughtful of you, thank you.

I've been in touch with a guy called Nicolas Kaufmann over at Leica Camera AG Customer Care and he has helped me out a lot. We dereigstered and reregistered the S2-P to me, and in the process of doing the same for my two S lenses [also bought used]. I could download the Lr Plugin and Image Shuttle.

So far I've only tested the plugin, but for any future readers: the newer plugin works fine => it is the "Leica Tethered Plugin" not the "Leica Tether Plugin" [the latter seems to be already in Lr]. No problems tethering to Lr as of now, hopefully the new Mac OSX "High Sierra" will not reset our compatibility back to zero.

I have a shoot booked for next week and will take the S2-P as a second camera to try it out in a real World situation. Fingers crossed! :) 

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS

Neil,

 

Which OS is your MBP running?  I am awaiting an appropriate time to upgrade to High Sierra.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Yes, the Tethered plugin works like a "dream", until you try to apply import presets while shooting tethered (in my case S007). You can select whichever profile you want in the plugin, but it doesn't get applied. I reported this to Leica in February, haven't heard back, beyond a generic answer from Herr Schmidt, along the lines of "we have already informed product management". Someone else also mentioned the same bug on this forum last year. If your experience is different, please let me know in case I missed an update to the plugin. 

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Hello All,

 

I set foot in Leica S-land this June with the purchase of an S2-P; my copy had the sensor glass corrosion problem and it has just come back to me from Wetzlar with a brand new sensor

Hi Tom,

If I read between the lines, it took 3 months to replace your sensor?

 

Best regards

Peter

Edited by Peter E
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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Tom,

If I read between the lines, it took 3 months to replace your sensor?

 

Best regards

Peter

 

 

Hi there Peter,

 

Sorry I stopped checking in on this thread a while back. Yes, it took three months to replace the sensor. I live in Tokyo Japan, so the route was: me => the store I bought the camera at => Leica Japan => Leica Germany => overhaul and repair at Leica Germany => Leica Japan => the store I bought the camera at => me.

 

Three months was still a long time, and most of that surely the camera was just sitting on a shelf somewhere, but I recalibrate my expectations when it comes to Leica. Leaving aside whether we like it or it's good or bad, I take reality as it is and we [outside of Europe] know that if our equipment has to go back to the mothership, it's going to be a while, it's going to be a wait, and that is almost always non-negotiable. It is what it is. I read well on this before jumping into Leica and the Leica S system, so mmm, three months was a long and mildly frustrating wait; but, not outside of my expectations. There are other system cameras for users with different outlooks.

 

Camera is working well for me since coming home I can report. Leica not only replaced the sensor for nothing, they completely overhauled the camera for free: replaced all weather sealing, replaced rubber body guard, cleaned everything. And back on the topic at hand: it still tethers well with Lightroom "Classic" and I have used the S2-P on a couple commercial jobs without incident. I need to save my pennies and get to the S120 Macro asap to blood it on more real work.

 

I use Nikon for my work, very reliable and tough and the image is nice, but I will be switching over to Leica for my main camera; in no small part thanks to this experience. Nikon service turnaround is way quicker than Leica though they nickel and dime for every last little thing and at the outset are generally unhappy to help. Once I'm satisfied the S2-P will hold up to my work OK, probably after another 6months, I will let the Nikon holdings go and purchase a second S-body and a couple lenses. Couldn't be happier with it.

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