on location thethering - Phase One

[Endeavour]

I have a workstation with firewire which can be used to tether my P30+ back, and this seems to work ok (although capture one doesnt seem to detect the lens on my Hasseblad H1) but its a beast of a machine. and not very portable

But what about on location or in a remote studio? I have a pretty powerful laptop, but unfortunately that neither has a firewire port, nor a PC slot to use a firewire card in

If I wanted a portable tethering solution, where should I be looking? an old mac with firewire/thunderbolt (I've never used a mac before) or a cheap firewire compatible laptop which I can throw some memory at and an SSD to improve performance?

I wont be doing on-set editing/processing of the images, just initial capture and review - so I'm hoping I wont need a super powerful GPU

[Kumar]

Not as portable as a laptop, but how about running Windows on a Mac Mini via Boot Camp? You'll need a small display as well, and will work wherever AC power is available.

[Paul2660]

To take advantage of tethering with a P+, back, you need firewire, so that puts you into a Mac hardware platform.  I guess there are some windows laptops out there on the used market that had a firewire port, but for your needs I would consider staying with Mac. 

Options, are to pick up a older generation Macbook pro, with the faster firewire port, you can get cables that have the slower style on one end and the faster port on the other.  You will need to get an older version of C1, than 9, but these you can still download from the Phase One site.  Version 8 should still work fine a Macbook pro that is running a version of the OS, prior to Yosemite.  I would make sure to have 8GB of ram installed at least in the Macbook.  This will allow you to tether and get the files across to your laptop with no problems. 

Any of the older 2.4Ghz i7 (models in the late 2011) 15" should work as they all have the Firewire port.  You can also look for an older macbook Air but many of the early models only had 4GB of total ram available.   The 15" macbook pro models will be the non retina display. 

You can also install bootcamp on this machine, and then run win7 or possibly win8 or 10, but odds are the boot camp level at this version of the Mac OS will not have driver support for the later win OS.  You can also upgrade the Mac OS to El-Capitan on the 2.4GZ machine and then install C1 9.0x.  Lots of options.

I have a 2.4Gz i7 which is running El Cap, but I only have C1 8 on it.  C1 8 should do fine with the P30+, but you may want to try C1 9 as there are some improvements in the processing engine that appear to help the older P+ backs and early IQ backs. 

Bootcamp, is easy if you are familiar with installing windows, if not, I would consider just running in the Mac world for tethering.  Mac is not a bad thing at all, I run win7 on most of my machines, but have 2 Macs, which I use often for tethering needs and quick processing. 

The Microsoft Surface 3 or 4 would be a great product, but as it's only USB3, you can't go there with the P+ backs. 

Paul C

[Christoph B.]

It's actually very straight forward: use a Macbook Pro with Thunderbolt - Firewire Adapter.

Run your back on batteries and you're all set!

Works like a charm, you just need to change the backs' power setting to use battery instead of auto-detect. Maybe the P30+ doesn't suck as much power as a 65+ but I found it to be much more stable this way. Thunderbolt just doesn't supply as much power as a 'real' Firewire port.

Just get like 3 batteries and you're set for the day (I actually only need 1-2 max but I'm a bit paranoid when equipment is involved )
The problem with powering the back via thunderbolt/firewire on a portable device is that you'll deplete your laptop battery very fast - and then what? It's much better to carry additional batteries for your back than sitting around with your laptop shutting down while the client wants to look through the photos one last time...

[Doug Peterson]

It's actually very straight forward: use a Macbook Pro with Thunderbolt - Firewire Adapter.

Run your back on batteries and you're all set!

Works like a charm, you just need to change the backs' power setting to use battery instead of auto-detect. Maybe the P30+ doesn't suck as much power as a 65+ but I found it to be much more stable this way. Thunderbolt just doesn't supply as much power as a 'real' Firewire port.

Indeed. Phase One allows (via menu choice) the back to be powered by battery even when shooting tethered. So any laptop that has either Thunderbolt or Firewire works just fine.

With the IQ/Credo series of course we also added USB which makes it even easier to pick a compatible laptop.

[Endeavour]

is 8gb RAM in a macbook pro an absolute requirement for tethering with the P30+ ?

[Paul2660]

It's more like a requirement to run Capture One without a lot of hangups.  You can go with 4, but I would stay with 8 if possible.

Paul C

[Endeavour]

It's more like a requirement to run Capture One without a lot of hangups.  You can go with 4, but I would stay with 8 if possible.

Paul C

got you, thanks

[andyptak]

If you've never used a Mac before - neither me - then you can stay on The Dark Side.

I have an 15" Asus with Thunderbolt and a 13" Toshiba and 13" Fujitsu with Express Card slots that take FW adaptors.

All of them work great when tethered to my P45+.

[Endeavour]

thanks all

I'm just returning to this topic after doing shoot at the weekend and realizing my lighting was out, something I couldnt spot from looking at the back/histogram

Although I've never used macs before I'm not against getting one, I am just really confused with all the variations out there, such as non reflective screen, FW800 or TB
and how early a model I can go for and still be able to work efficiently.

As I said above, I wont be processing on this, purely capturing and reviewing/rating. All processing will be done back at base on my main workstation.

[george2787]

I'm running a 2011 13" with SSD and 16 gigs of RAM and it goes so well tethering that i'll just keep it until it dies 

You could probably get one of those second hand, add ssd and RAM and keep it under 1k, although if I had to choose I'd look for a 2012 model with USB 3 for quicker backups.

[Endeavour]

Thanks
an i5 should be enough for tethered captured right? I dont need to go for an i7?

[Ken Doo]

i5 should be fine for tethered capture.  RAM and a fast drive (SSD) is what matters.

ken

[Endeavour]

Great, thank you

now I just need to sell my 7D to fund one

[Marce1o]

For the p30+, actually for most of my portable use, I have three 8,3 17" macbookpros, with two 1 tb ssds, (one in the optical bay) and 16 gb of ram.

On two machines I run two operating systems, for switching boot drives when needed.  One a Snow Leopard as it's a very unbloated os and the second drive boots with yosmite, for the few apps I have that must be Yosmite or higher.  SL is dead solid, Yosmite, a little less.

The third machine I have mountain lion as the startup disc and the second internal drive is for storage. 

All have 16gb of ram from owc (only owc) and they are all stable and fast.  They have a fw 800 connection, two usb 2 connectors, ethernet and thunderbolt 1.

They will drive a 2560px apple monitor along with a p30+ (sans battery if you wish) a 1tb lacie rugged for backup and are the last powerbooks to offer a matte screen which gives much more shadow detail and obviously less reflections.

Compared to a new retina there is little difference in speed and performance, more connectors, 17" screen more drive space, two built in graphics cards and customized as mentioned come in about $1000 less, if you shop properly.  So in other words you get virtually the same speed, twice the storage, at 1/3 less costs.

I always buy from a reseller, like powermax, so if you get a bum machine they'll return it without hassel, though I've only had one issue for my latest 8,3 and apple repaired it under warranty.

The key is to have a good certified apple tech that works within the graphics industry.  My guy is great in going through the machine top to bottom to make sure it's solid and issue free.

I have him replace the battery unless it tests as new.

The most telling of these last 17" machines is I use them all for editing with fcp 7, which uses little ram but is very processor intensive with certain filters and heavy timelines with multiple tracks.

It almost never crashes when editing and I mean virtually never, which I can't say for my newer Imacs, and 5,1 desktop stations.   

Same with lightroom, photoshop, and the older versions of c-1, though I don't use c-1 that often, except for tethering.

Most people want the latest and greatest, but read the specs and you'll see the highest end macbook pro 15" is just a hairs faster, offers less usability. 

Also remember when the p30+ came out this machine was introduced later, so it's not like they don't go well together.

IMO

BC

P.S. 

Though also not the latest and greatest, the p30+ is one hell of a back.  Mine was dead stable, always shot an amazingly detailed in color and tone file and I routinely kept it on 400 asa, went to 800 without issue.

In fact comparing it to my Leica S2 I think it has about 1/2 or more stops sensitivity with the ability to move the file deeper in post.

contax, p30+, 800 asa
   

For the p30+, actually for most of my portable use, I have three 8,3 17" macbookpros, with two 1 tb ssds, (one in the optical bay) and 16 gb of ram.

On two machines I run two operating systems, for switching boot drives when needed.  One a Snow Leopard as it's a very unbloated os and the second drive boots with yosmite, for the few apps I have that must be Yosmite or higher.  SL is dead solid, Yosmite, a little less.

The third machine I have mountain lion as the startup disc and the second internal drive is for storage. 

All have 16gb of ram from owc (only owc) and they are all stable and fast.  They have a fw 800 connection, two usb 2 connectors, ethernet and thunderbolt 1.

Hey James
I was planning to follow the same route as you regarding the 16GB RAM on a 8,3 17" laptop, but the Apple Genius here in London advised me not to go for 16GB and stick to the recommended 8GB. He said it puts too much pressure on the processor and causes problems. I also read several comments about this happening to other people.
Did you come across any issues with this?.
I'd like to hear your feedback please.
Regards.
Marcelo

[Endeavour]

I sold my 7d and went and got a 13" 2012 macbook pro for a great deal

It only came with 4gb but I was able to swap that with the same ram in my other laptop. which was 16gb and then added an SSD for the OS

Grabbed myself an adapter cable, and I am now tethered straight into Capture One. Very happy

[Conner999]

In the same basic theme as James and others we run a pair of 8.2 high-end 15" MBPs running on SSDs using Snow Leopard (dead stable) with a more up to date OS on a drive partition as a second startup choice if needed. Either can step in for the other with a simple boot off the other's latest OS backup on a small thunderbolt drive, take each others RAM, drives, etc.

One has been running with 16 Gig of RAM for years with zero issues and we'll be upgrading the 2nd to 16G momentarily (long overdue). While I wish they had USB 3 (and were 17"), they've been so reliable and so issue-free that we'll keep them until they implode. I also love the idea of being to upgrade SSDs and drives at my leisure.

[Endeavour]

Hey James
I was planning to follow the same route as you regarding the 16GB RAM on a 8,3 17" laptop, but the Apple Genius here in London advised me not to go for 16GB and stick to the recommended 8GB. He said it puts too much pressure on the processor and causes problems. I also read several comments about this happening to other people.

I strongly suspect that "genius" is talking nonsense.

in my (mid 2012 13") macbook, it's an intel  i5-3210M processor, which is good for up to 32gb ram.

[george2787]

In the same basic theme as James and others we run a pair of 8.2 high-end 15" MBPs running on SSDs using Snow Leopard (dead stable) with a more up to date OS on a drive partition as a second startup choice if needed. Either can step in for the other with a simple boot off the other's latest OS backup on a small thunderbolt drive, take each others RAM, drives, etc.

One has been running with 16 Gig of RAM for years with zero issues and we'll be upgrading the 2nd to 16G momentarily (long overdue). While I wish they had USB 3 (and were 17"), they've been so reliable and so issue-free that we'll keep them until they implode. I also love the idea of being to upgrade SSDs and drives at my leisure.

You are going to get tired of this one before you need another one if you only use it for tethering, I've shot 500+ shots of a 80MP back to mine in one long day with zero problems

[Conner999]

Yup, utterly rock solid - full day sessions and zero issues on the Mac side. One is used only for tether and the other as a processing machine.