M9 tethering to Mac?

[carlmuck]

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There was an informal survey here once, and the results was 80% Mac.

 

There is a version for Mac OS X, but it stopped working in Leopard. I don't know why Leica never updated it for Leopard (or Snow Leopard). I suppose they don't think that a significant number of people want to use their cameras that way, which might be true.

 

The original "Leica Digital Capture" was a pretty fragile piece of code, built with good intentions under a bad framework (QT4) to be "cross platform". I assume that the original developer moved on and there wasn't any point in updating it since the native Mac tools (Image capture) are "good enough." And I'm pretty sure that the number of tethered M shooters is very small.

 

For those that may do that (shoot tethered) would the Eye-Fi be a reasonable alternative (and more mobile!)? Or do you really need to fire the shutter from the computer?

 

c.

[ho_co]

... I suppose they don't think that a significant number of people want to use their cameras that way, which might be true.

 

And after all, even though we chose the Mac to get away from Windows, we do (sadly) now have the option of running that OS on our Macs.

[Kittyphoto]

There was an informal survey here once, and the results was 80% Mac.

 

There is a version for Mac OS X, but it stopped working in Leopard. I don't know why Leica never updated it for Leopard (or Snow Leopard). I suppose they don't think that a significant number of people want to use their cameras that way, which might be true.

 

I don't know whether it is true or not. But LFI 4/2009 has an article about photographer Rinze Van Brug use M8 for fashion photography.

I remember James Russell used to post in luminouslandscape digitalback forum that he owns M8 and post some fashion pictures from M8. I also use M8 for jobs in fashion.

 

I just really wish Leica will use Capture one tethering to M8 or M9 not Lightroom.

On M8 files develop from Capture looks much better than Lightroom.

I still remember the day I download M8 eagle head raw file from Leica website and process with Captureone comparing to ACR.

Files develop from Captureone looks better in everything from color, sharpness, 3D look.

 

In the past I thought Leica focus on S2 only. Since they launch M9 I just hope they will develop tethering workflow for M8 and M9 again.

 

kitty

[35mmSummicron]

Another hand raised for a Mac OSX 10.5+ Fashion photographer wanting M8/M9 tethered shooting (I prefer Capture One Pro, but I'll take anything so long as it is RELIABLE and won't drop captures)

 

andy

[wlaidlaw]

I have to take about a hundred ++ document copy photos for a Scottish museum of old records of my family textile factory from the 19th century. I am not prepared to let the museum do it themselves, as the last time I did this to a different museum, it took 2 years to get the documents back. The museum tried to say I had given them the documents rather than lent them and I had to threaten bad publicity and legal action to get them back. It would be much easier to use the M9 tethered. After Data Capture died with Leopard, there was a work around by using an http address for the M8 tied in with the USB cable. I assume this would work with the M9 as well. Can anyone remember what this method was? The museum is happy with out of the camera JPEG's rather than DNG's.

 

Wilson

[35mmSummicron]

Take a look at this thread:

 

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-m9-forum/105995-tethering-would-nice.html#post1119707

 

 

I can't verify if any of these solutions work with the M9 as I do not have mine yet. I do know if you are running mac OS X 10.6 then most of the programs won't work on M8. (although I have not tested with the recent 10.6.2 update).

 

Another option is to open up Image Capture and click "Import All" every few frames. Cumbersome at best, but its better than taking out the card.........

 

Hope this helps (and hope Leica or SOMEONE releases a better solution.)

 

.a

[wlaidlaw]

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Take a look at this thread:

 

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-m9-forum/105995-tethering-would-nice.html#post1119707

 

 

I can't verify if any of these solutions work with the M9 as I do not have mine yet. I do know if you are running mac OS X 10.6 then most of the programs won't work on M8. (although I have not tested with the recent 10.6.2 update).

 

Another option is to open up Image Capture and click "Import All" every few frames. Cumbersome at best, but its better than taking out the card.........

 

Hope this helps (and hope Leica or SOMEONE releases a better solution.)

 

.a

 

Thanks for the link. I am using 10.6.2. but my wife has a Macbook Air still on 10.5.8, which I can borrow for a day or so as she still has her old G5 iMac to fall back on.

 

Wilson

[Guido]

Few people seem to have noticed, but there are at least two ways to shoot tethered with an M9:

 

1. The easy way: Mountainstorm's free "Studio & Lightroom Tether" (works standalone and as a plugin for Lightroom 2)
   
2. For hardcore Unix geeks: the open-source ptpcam command-line tool
   

In both cases, the M9 is not explicitly mentioned as a supported camera, however it does work. The M9 must be configured as a PTP (not mass storage) device in the camera's menu. Regrettably, the current M9 firmware only supports a limited subset of PTP operations (capturing and downloading images are among them) but does not let you remotely set shutter speed, for example.

[davidanthony]

From Phase One forum,

 

"The Leica M9 will shoot tethered to the Apple application Image Capture. Using that program to facilitate tethered capture you can create a session in Capture One and Enable the Hot Folder. With the Capture Folder as the same location for storing the images through Image Capture, you're shooting tethered in a round about way."

 

Obviously any program can then access the folder (Lightroom, etc.) - also Image Capture has a Take Picture... option on the menu and you can take a picture from there or use the camera

[wlaidlaw]

From Phase One forum,

 

"The Leica M9 will shoot tethered to the Apple application Image Capture. Using that program to facilitate tethered capture you can create a session in Capture One and Enable the Hot Folder. With the Capture Folder as the same location for storing the images through Image Capture, you're shooting tethered in a round about way."

 

Obviously any program can then access the folder (Lightroom, etc.) - also Image Capture has a Take Picture... option on the menu and you can take a picture from there or use the camera

 

David,

 

Are you getting the "take photos" to work consistently? I found it worked once or twice then not any more until I shut everything down and reconnected/restarted. I admit I have not tried with recent versions of C1/V5 over the last 4 months or so and my M9 is currently on holiday in Solms, having its rangefinder vertical alignment adjusted.

 

Wilson

[AlanG]

I don't know if Phase One or other companies want to support M9 tethered shooting in their software.But I believe it is up to Leica to supply those software companies with code for what the camera needs for tethered shooting. This is generally in a software developing kit (SDK.) I have no idea if Leica is supplying this or if software developers are simply not including Leica tethered support despite having the Leica SDK.

 

At the moment there are issues with the Canon SDK, C1 Pro, and the latest Mac operating system. (Tethering on Windows works fine.) Phase One stated the problem is caused by Canon not supplying a new Snow Leopard SDK for the 5DII (and perhaps other cameras.)

 

Phase One, Leaf and Mamiya Official User to User Forum • View topic - 5D MkII tethered capture stall/hang

 

Lightroom 3 has tethered support for various cameras including the S2. I don't know why the M8 and M9 are not supported. (Perhaps lack of an SDK from Leica?)

 

For tethered shooting, C1 has some advantages over Lightroom.

[AlanG]

From Phase One forum,

 

"The Leica M9 will shoot tethered to the Apple application Image Capture. Using that program to facilitate tethered capture you can create a session in Capture One and Enable the Hot Folder. With the Capture Folder as the same location for storing the images through Image Capture, you're shooting tethered in a round about way."

 

 

Hot folder tethering into C1 works but only for default C1 settings. And it is a bit slower. If you want a certain style - e.g. white balance, b/w, exposure adjustment, etc. you'll have to apply that to the image after it is in C1. (It can't automatically copy from the previous image or other method as you can with standard C1 tethered shooting.)

 

As one who has shot hundreds of projects over 7 years using C1 tethered, I can say that it really is a very refined way to work and has numerous features to support a good shooting workflow (such as the ability to overlay a layout or have a focus mask) that are very valuable to me.

[wlaidlaw]

Alan,

 

Thanks for the information. I too would like to be able to shoot tethered for the museum archival work I do, where it would save me lots of time on reshoots, where the lighting on a particular item was not quite right but I would guess supplying Phase One with an M9 SDK is very low on Leica's priority list. At least, as Leica do the firmware development in house, there would not be a intellectual property rights issue to prevent them passing on the SDK. However, I seem to recall that relations are somewhat frosty between Leica and Phase at present.

 

Wilson

[mn4367]

This thread covers the current options with Image Capture on the Mac.

[AlanG]

Alan,

 

Thanks for the information. I too would like to be able to shoot tethered for the museum archival work I do, where it would save me lots of time on reshoots, where the lighting on a particular item was not quite right but I would guess supplying Phase One with an M9 SDK is very low on Leica's priority list. At least, as Leica do the firmware development in house, there would not be a intellectual property rights issue to prevent them passing on the SDK. However, I seem to recall that relations are somewhat frosty between Leica and Phase at present.

 

Wilson

 

I don't know if Phase One is opposed to the idea of supporting the M9. They do support Canon and Nikon cameras, and of course Leaf backs since they bought Leaf. But they don't support Sinar backs. I have no idea what is preventing Leica from supplying Phase One, Adobe, or others with an M9 tethering SDK. But I believe some of the M9 firmware and electronics may have been developed by Jenoptik so there may be a rights issue involved. I am also not sure if it is possible or practical for third parties to develop tethered support without manufacturer supplied SDKs.

 

To elaborate on tethering, it is very useful to commercial shooters who collaborate with others or who have to shoot to layout or want precise viewing of sharpness, depth of field, dynamic range, lighting and color. Basically, you can see your finished product as you work. C1 is a very capable program but it lacks the ability to show a live view window for cameras that have that feature. But in the new version (5.2) C1 can be set to ignore the tethered camera. This allows one to have a Canon live view window open via EOS utility and still shoot to C1 via the hot folder method. Nikons should work in a similar way. This is very handy when the camera needs to be placed in a position where it is difficult to get your eye to the viewfinder.

[Gilles L.]

I don't know if Phase One is opposed to the idea of supporting the M9.

 

I keep going back to this thread hoping for new solutions. I've been using the M9 with the Eye-fi card and importing through the USB, but a more direct tethering would be more convenient, especially in a software like C1. I contacted Phase One by email a few months ago and they said they have nothing against supporting the M9 tethering, however Leica would not release the code that would allow C1 to communicate with the camera. Or something like it.

 

I remain hopeful and will check back this thread in 3 months