Aptus 65 woes

[ssherman]

Hi,
I have been using my Aptus 65 on Hasselbald H1 + H2's since May.
I have never once used it without problems.
It is the quirkiest piece of gear I have ever owned.
Is it just me or the back ?
Yesterday , I was using it on location tethered to my Macbook Pro (latest), running 10.04 v2
When I tested it the night before, it hooked right up and worked fine.
When I was on location I had a series of problems.
First, a bunch of Firewire errors, camera not connecting, etc. Light WAS green on the back.
I tried resetting the prefs, restarting the computer, restarting the app. no better.
I then got a bunch of error messages on the H1.
Body error messages, lens error messages.
Nothing worked on the camera then.
I then switched to my H2 and it seemed to work.
On a hunch , I went back to the H1 and it too then worked fine.
What the heck is going on?
I then did the shoot and it worked fine throughout.
I have had similar Firewire connectivity problems on my G5 tower in the studio.
I have not had a single shoot that the back worked without some sort of error.
This is very disconcerting considering they now have updated models coming out and mine has never worked right, will the new ones?
If I upgrade will it work right?out some sort of error.
This is very disconcerting considering they now have updated models coming out and mine has never worked right, will the new ones?

[Terence h]

Hello i have had my Aptus 65 for only a few weeks now and with Christmas and new Year have not done much testing. The testing i have done has been with LeafCapture 8.4.4 using rapid shoot mode processing using Lightroom , no problems at all, totally stunned with the image quality shooting with flash.

I would be a bit hesitant to shoot long exposures though seems to start getting a bit noisy at 1 sec.

Terence

[James Russell]

Though you are not specific on the length of the firewire cable or if the powerbook is powered by battery, or what charge the powerbook has.

I had the same issues with my A-22 using a Contax with any firewire cord that was longer than 14'.  I finally went with a non powered firewire repeater cord that that Leaf recommended and it made working in V-8 stable.  LC10 I've always had tethered issues with.

Still, with this is the powerbook goes below 50% in battery charge the conection will stop dropping as the Aptus seems to be power hungry.

Leaf needs a battery powered solution when working tethered like the Phase P-30.

JR

Hi,
I have been using my Aptus 65 on Hasselbald H1 + H2's since May.
I have never once used it without problems.
It is the quirkiest piece of gear I have ever owned.
Is it just me or the back ?
Yesterday , I was using it on location tethered to my Macbook Pro (latest), running 10.04 v2
When I tested it the night before, it hooked right up and worked fine.
When I was on location I had a series of problems.
First, a bunch of Firewire errors, camera not connecting, etc. Light WAS green on the back.
I tried resetting the prefs, restarting the computer, restarting the app. no better.
I then got a bunch of error messages on the H1.
Body error messages, lens error messages.
Nothing worked on the camera then.
I then switched to my H2 and it seemed to work.
On a hunch , I went back to the H1 and it too then worked fine.
What the heck is going on?
I then did the shoot and it worked fine throughout.
I have had similar Firewire connectivity problems on my G5 tower in the studio.
I have not had a single shoot that the back worked without some sort of error.
This is very disconcerting considering they now have updated models coming out and mine has never worked right, will the new ones?
If I upgrade will it work right?out some sort of error.
This is very disconcerting considering they now have updated models coming out and mine has never worked right, will the new ones?
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=94146\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

[robert zimmerman]

...using rapid shoot mode processing using Lightroom...
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=94155\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Can you explain this further? Not quite sure what "rapis shoot mode using Lightroom" is...sounds good though.

[AndreNapier]

deleted

[MarkKay]

I believe the Hasselblad folks  will tell you that you need to update the firmware on the H1 to eliminate the multiple error messages.  I do not remember which firmware but it is 9.something.  Nonetheless,  I can say that I was having similar multiple error messages on the H2 with the aptus 65.  I could fix usually by doing a  manual reset on the camera or turning things on and off.  I had written to Hassy and Aptus and both agreed to take a look. The other problem I was having with the back even on a rollei 6x9 view camera was that about 25% of the time, I had to turn the back on and off to get it to boot up.  I sent the back to Leaf and there was a faulty circuit board. THey replaced and had it back to me in 24 hours.  Not one issue since that time. Works great on the H2. Mark

I am using A75 since August. My DB is in H1 mount. Using it on H1 I also had experienced a lot of errors. Very frequently I had to disconect the back from the body, the lens or prism from the camera due to back messages. Also in auto focus mode when you keep the focus locked and recompose, the camera would lock and the shutter will stay open for about 1 sek. When you shoot to fast the following image would come all grainy and unsable. Tons of problems.
About two months ago I switched the camera to Rz67 still using the same back A75/h1 via Digital Art ECO adapter. Originally focus was off and I had to adjust the camera focusing screen a bit to  have perfect focus.  It is done very easily by moving the three Rz screws that the screen sits on. Since than I have shot 6400 frames with no problem whatsoever. Not a single glitch, not a single disconnection. Easy and smooth. I am not advocating here moving to Mamiya because the camera is not for everyone. However it is a fruit for thought that maybe the problem is not with Aptus but rather with Hassy. I had two bodies of H1 and both interface sucked the same way. I am always shooting tethered to Powerbook and had not change nothing in the way I work with the exeption that now I don't have to stop and pray that the camera/back will work.

Andre Napier
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=94179\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

[Terence h]

Can you explain this further? Not quite sure what "rapis shoot mode using Lightroom" is...sounds good though.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=94160\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

First off i am quite new to Leafcapture, but initially i was watching the images coming up in LeafCapture which i assume i would then have to manually send to my folder of choice because they were not appearing in Lightroom , i then switched to Rapid Shoot which made them appear directly in Lightroom with out having to bother with LeafCapture while shooting.

After quickly checking LeafCapture i think Auto Save will do the same thing , i must check on that though.

Regards
Terence

[ssherman]

Both my Hasy's have the latest firmware.
The Macbook Pro was plugged into the wall.

I was usig a single 15 ft firewire cable.
Tried it with a repeater too no diff.
I have had all those issues descibed above including takig the back, lenses, bateries off and , rebooting, tec to get it to work..
Maybe it DOES need a trip to Leaf...

[James Russell]

Both my Hasy's have the latest firmware.
The Macbook Pro was plugged into the wall.

I was usig a single 15 ft firewire cable.
Tried it with a repeater too no diff.
I have had all those issues descibed above including takig the back, lenses, bateries off and , rebooting, tec to get it to work..
Maybe it DOES need a trip to Leaf...
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=94188\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I don't know how fast you shoot, but I've learned to shoot just slightly, very slightly slower than the ready beep on the back.

This corrected 98% of my connect issues.

JR

[ssherman]

Thnaks but most of my issues are before I get it working.
When it finally sarts to work it usually keeps on working.

I did have a bout of problems that the camera wold work for awhile the images wouldn't transfer until I disconnected and reconnected in  caputure.
If I run the reset prefs utility itt fxes it for awhile.

[James Russell]

Thnaks but most of my issues are before I get it working.
When it finally sarts to work it usually keeps on working.

I did have a bout of problems that the camera wold work for awhile the images wouldn't transfer until I disconnected and reconnected in  caputure.
If I run the reset prefs utility itt fxes it for awhile.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=94204\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Since you are shooting tethered I would strongly suggest you learn V-8.

V-8 is faster on a power pc machine like a powerbook G4,than it is an intel box,  but it is very, very, very stable.

I have only recently had issues tethering with V-8 and I have shot about a billion frames without issue.

V-8 has an old UI, but it runs very fast and is well worth the effort it takes to learn it.

I really wish Leaf would produce some QT tutorials on thier software as I think a lot of the complaints in shooting tethered could be solved if people learned and used V-8.

JR

[rljones]

I have a Leaf 65 and have had very few issues using it on a Mamiya 645AFDii and on an Alpa. I do not shoot tethered, only on CF cards. About the only problems I've noted are on the Alpa with the connection between the lens and the back: wiggle the jacks, shot again and all is ok.

As for long exposures, I have made many at 6-10 sec that look terrific processed in either RD or Lightroom.

-R Jones

[Ben]

Thnaks but most of my issues are before I get it working.
When it finally sarts to work it usually keeps on working.

I did have a bout of problems that the camera wold work for awhile the images wouldn't transfer until I disconnected and reconnected in  caputure.
If I run the reset prefs utility itt fxes it for awhile.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=94204\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Where are you based? What version of OSX are you using

[ssherman]

I'm based in Boston.
OSX 10.4.8

[pprdigital]

SSherman:

You might also try (if you haven't already) doing a find by name for: Leaf. Delete everything Leaf (take care you don't delete any images). Do the same and find by name for: Creo. Delete all.

Then install LC10.0.4 Update 2. That should improve things. If it does not, it may indeed be something more hardware-oriented that Leaf will have to look at.

And this would be in conjunction with Mark Kay's recommendation of having Hasselblad take a look at your firmware situation on both your H cameras. If you deal with Hasselblad service, regardless of whether you use a Hasselblad back or not, they will be helpful in getting your H cameras in the best condition for working well with your Aptus.

Steve Hendrix
PPR Digital