Pages: [1] 2 3   Go Down

Author Topic: Netbooks etc for tethering with MFDB  (Read 15368 times)

michaelnotar

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 367
Netbooks etc for tethering with MFDB
« on: June 07, 2009, 02:21:41 am »

i am considering a netbook or ultra compact PC for tethering with my P25. this would be in addition to a mac book pro. a few questions...

is the computer that michael wrote an article about the only one that looks like a good canidate...?

it seems the more cells the batteries have the longer they last...are batteries usually hot swapable or do i need to restart the computer inbetween changes?

exactly how fast are these things? with 1.6ghtz processors, 1-2GB ram, i would expect they are about as fast maybe a lil slower than my G4 powerbook 1.5ghtz PPC/1.5GB ram/OS 10.5.7/ capture 1 4.8.

how viabable is a USB to femail FW 400 female for these things...sure the one michael wrote about has an express slot i think it is to add a card with a FW connection. is that the only computer with it? i would like to see it and buy it in the US. i tried kabatek, placed an order and am waiting on paypal.... i never entered any payment info...whats that about...?

how much HD space should i get? i assume i could buy any Sata/esata HD and install it, what ever it takes. i have an 80GB HD and i dont use it now, but understand i need extra space for OS/software virtual memory use.
Logged

bcooter

  • Guest
Netbooks etc for tethering with MFDB
« Reply #1 on: June 07, 2009, 03:52:46 am »

Quote from: michaelnotar
i am considering a netbook or ultra compact PC for tethering with my P25. this would be in addition to a mac book pro. a few questions...

is the computer that michael wrote an article about the only one that looks like a good canidate...?


I don't mean to take this thread of topic, or to give it a negative tone, but I and a hundred others have asked this question before.

Why doesn't medium format backs have in camera processing, a better more detailed preview and a decent lcd?

Is ti really that expensive and difficult?

Now to put the thread back on topic, if any of the medium formats backs offered this, would anyone really care about shooting to a tiny pc computer?

The extra batteries, learning curve, expense just to view an image on a better lcd, is it really worth it and if your using C1's full version you will have to deactivate one of our computers to make the software legal, or by another license.  Then the added expense and hassel of transferring images form a pc disk to a mac disk isn't impossible, but not the easiest thing in the world.

OK, now I''m back off topic

This year our productions have changed, (it actually started last year).  As clients want more production per day, about mid of 2008 I decided to stop tethering, even in studio, even though we have a dedicated digital tech.

I shoot to cards, first "my" polaroids to set the light and the stye, then clear the card, shoot 10 to 15 frames, depending on subject, and we put them into the computer for review if the client requires.  Sometimes I may show a quick image to the AD on the back of the camera.

Once 15 or so images are on the computer we have a quick review with the AD and crew, then we shoot like we use to with film.  We shoot until the card is full or the session has ended, download it, quick review again and then on to the next session.

This may seem like a strange or complicated workaround to replace tethering, but I've found we not only shoot with less interference from comments, (which saves time and allows us to work the shot), I find not having a cord always dangling between me and the computer liberating.

I've worked this way for over 7 months and I am absolutely positive it's faster and easier than tethering and frees up the tech and the AD to make an edit while I keep working.

Once again, I am sorry for hijacking this thread,but I am still curious as to why medium format won't allow for this or an hdmi port so you can view a high def image on a hand held field monitor.

B
Logged

Graham Mitchell

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2281
Netbooks etc for tethering with MFDB
« Reply #2 on: June 07, 2009, 07:00:25 am »

Quote from: bcooter
Why doesn't medium format backs have in camera processing, a better more detailed preview and a decent lcd?

The Sinar eSprit65 has all of that, as has been mentioned many times before
Logged

amsp

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 810
Netbooks etc for tethering with MFDB
« Reply #3 on: June 07, 2009, 08:42:03 am »

Quote from: foto-z
The Sinar eSprit65 has all of that, as has been mentioned many times before

The eSprit65 has some nifty features for sure, how come they haven't made a full frame version without microlenses?

Logged

Graham Mitchell

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2281
Netbooks etc for tethering with MFDB
« Reply #4 on: June 07, 2009, 08:51:54 am »

Quote from: amsp
The eSprit65 has some nifty features for sure, how come they haven't made a full frame version without microlenses?

I don't know. I have been wishing for that since I heard about the eSprit65. A 645 sensor version of that back would be great.
« Last Edit: June 07, 2009, 09:33:42 am by foto-z »
Logged

Doug Peterson

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4210
    • http://www.doug-peterson.com
Netbooks etc for tethering with MFDB
« Reply #5 on: June 07, 2009, 09:34:29 am »

BCooter: he would not need to buy another copy of C1 or deactivate one of his other installations. Capture One requires no license/activation or registration to run in "digital back only" mode.

There is no FireWire to USB converters suitable to this.

shutay

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 203
    • http://www.asiaphotohub.com/Jason/
Netbooks etc for tethering with MFDB
« Reply #6 on: June 07, 2009, 10:05:56 am »

I do believe that the only way is a netbook with an ExpressCard slot, then buy a Firewire ExpressCard, but as I have already mentioned, of the ExpressCards that I have tested, none provided power to the digital back, or at least, even if it did, it was not sufficient to even power up the back. For me, it is not a problem because I have an Ixpress, so I can just keep the battery slotted in. If you have a PhaseOne back, you can set it in the menus to draw power from the battery while tethered. No such luck with Leaf Aptus, am I right? I could be wrong with the Leaf backs as I don't have access to one for testing. Unfortunately, I did not think to try it with the Sinar eMotion 75 LV whilst I had it.

Performance wise... I found that running FlexColor or Phocus on the netbook Atom 1.6GHz was approximately 3x slower than running it on an Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.4GHz. I used FlexColor more than Phocus on the Atom. Exporting JPEGs from 3F RAW files took about 30+ seconds each, whereas the same only takes 8 - 10 seconds on the Core 2 Duo @ 2.4GHz.

Remember also that most Netbooks can only accomodate 2GB of RAM, maximum.
« Last Edit: June 07, 2009, 10:08:27 am by shutay »
Logged

amsp

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 810
Netbooks etc for tethering with MFDB
« Reply #7 on: June 07, 2009, 10:23:01 am »

Quote from: foto-z
I don't know. I have been wishing for that since I heard about the eSprit65. A 645 sensor version of that back would be great.

Have you seen the LCD in real life? Is it as good as a Nikon D3?

Logged

Graham Mitchell

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2281
Netbooks etc for tethering with MFDB
« Reply #8 on: June 07, 2009, 10:27:46 am »

Quote from: amsp
Have you seen the LCD in real life? Is it as good as a Nikon D3?

People who have seen it report that it is the same as the D3's screen.
Logged

narikin

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1371
Netbooks etc for tethering with MFDB
« Reply #9 on: June 07, 2009, 10:36:03 am »

Quote from: dougpetersonci
BCooter: he would not need to buy another copy of C1 or deactivate one of his other installations. Capture One requires no license/activation or registration to run in "digital back only" mode.
can you explain what this means Doug?

I have C1 on my main workstation, and high end (big) laptop, but also am thinking of putting it on a Netbook for checking stitch, focus, etc on light locations. Afaik, I had to put in a licence code for this 3rd installation, but... do you mean to say I can download a trial copy of C1 4.x and not register it if I work tethered, or what?

A bigger issue is why tethered DB live view is not available for Windows users at the latest release. C1 really have to fix this. (and for that matter add 64 bit support)
Logged

csp

  • Guest
Netbooks etc for tethering with MFDB
« Reply #10 on: June 07, 2009, 11:04:19 am »

Quote from: foto-z
People who have seen it report that it is the same as the D3's screen.


..  some people have also seen ufos ;-))
Logged

gwhitf

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 855
Netbooks etc for tethering with MFDB
« Reply #11 on: June 07, 2009, 11:10:11 am »

Quote from: amsp
Have you seen the LCD in real life? Is it as good as a Nikon D3?

I saw a preproduction back in NYC, at Photo East. I was not impressed with the LCD at all. It seemed very contrasty and harsh.

But hey, Javits is not the prettiest light in the universe, either. And who knows if they refined it, once the production models started shipping. It is shipping, right?
« Last Edit: June 07, 2009, 11:10:34 am by gwhitf »
Logged

tho_mas

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1799
Netbooks etc for tethering with MFDB
« Reply #12 on: June 07, 2009, 11:46:32 am »

Quote from: narikin
... I can download a trial copy of C1 4.x and not register it if I work tethered, or what?
yes. when installing you can choose from three modes: Trial, DB mode, PRO. If you run C1 in DB mode you don't have to register. So C1 DB (which is the PRO version but without support for DSLRs) is free for Phase DB users.

Logged

Dick Roadnight

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1730
Netbooks etc for tethering with MFDB
« Reply #13 on: June 07, 2009, 01:05:00 pm »

Quote from: michaelnotar
i am considering a netbook or ultra compact PC for tethering with my P25. this would be in addition to a mac book pro. a few questions...

exactly how fast are these things? with 1.6ghtz processors, 1-2GB ram, i would expect they are about as fast maybe a lil slower than my G4 powerbook 1.5ghtz PPC/1.5GB ram/OS 10.5.7/ capture 1 4.8.

I have an 80GB HD and i dont use it now, but understand i need extra space for OS/software virtual memory use.
What is wrong with the Mac book pro?
Do you just want a larger LCD without a full sized laptop?
I think that if you are used to a Mac book pro, you would hate anything else.

For phocus 1.2, with 50 Mpx files (and good fast performance with anything else) you need
twice the processing speed,
twice the number of cores (for laptop mobile use)
four times the ram
four time as much hard disk,
ideally... all networked to an 8 core, terabyte, multi-raid machine
Logged
Hasselblad H4, Sinar P3 monorail view camera, Schneider Apo-digitar lenses

bcooter

  • Guest
Netbooks etc for tethering with MFDB
« Reply #14 on: June 07, 2009, 02:16:06 pm »

Quote from: dougpetersonci
BCooter: he would not need to buy another copy of C1 or deactivate one of his other installations. Capture One requires no license/activation or registration to run in "digital back only" mode.

There is no FireWire to USB converters suitable to this.


Doug, your right, I should have mentioned the DB only is free, though small computer . . . large computer few photographers are going to go out and shoot without some backup and usually the medium format backup is a Canon.  

At that stage if you ever do need to tether or just view our canon/nikon files in v4,  to the netbook, or any other new computer, a new license or activation is required.

Since I have multiple computers, early on I tried just loading the DB version (this was in version 3 days) and it just gets too confusing so I bought an extra license.

I can somewhat understand the lure of a small netbook and have looked at a few, the prices are reasonable, but they're slow and honestly you can buy used intel macbooks for $700, used macbook pros for $1,200 and keep it all within the same system, not go through the hassel of loading drivers and macdrive so you can read an apple disk.


B

Logged

michaelnotar

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 367
Netbooks etc for tethering with MFDB
« Reply #15 on: June 07, 2009, 03:38:10 pm »

i like the idea of a netbook for tethering but if it is up to 3x as slow as a decent laptop, forget it. i dont expect to be as fast as the laptop but thats way too slow. i think i would go either untethered or laptop and try to define the situations where i would use each.

ya MFB screens arent anything special, but its enough to get by. cant wait till VGA quality screens are used like the 5d mark II, which has an amazing screen. we used it for a video project recently. its the first screen that show focus clearly and sharp.

Logged

Graham Mitchell

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2281
Netbooks etc for tethering with MFDB
« Reply #16 on: June 07, 2009, 03:50:14 pm »

Quote from: gwhitf
I saw a preproduction back in NYC, at Photo East. I was not impressed with the LCD at all. It seemed very contrasty and harsh.

It seems the quality is the same as the D3: http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index....st&p=280154
« Last Edit: June 07, 2009, 07:35:05 pm by foto-z »
Logged

Graham Mitchell

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2281
Netbooks etc for tethering with MFDB
« Reply #17 on: June 07, 2009, 03:51:10 pm »

Quote from: michaelnotar
i like the idea of a netbook for tethering but if it is up to 3x as slow as a decent laptop, forget it.

+1

A MBP might be large but it does the job.
Logged

ThierryH

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 409
Netbooks etc for tethering with MFDB
« Reply #18 on: June 07, 2009, 07:29:30 pm »

I have seen it: IT IS as good as the D3's screen.

Thierry

Quote from: amsp
Have you seen the LCD in real life? Is it as good as a Nikon D3?

Quote from: foto-z
People who have seen it report that it is the same as the D3's screen.
Logged

ThierryH

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 409
Netbooks etc for tethering with MFDB
« Reply #19 on: June 07, 2009, 07:31:09 pm »

... I didn't!

Thierry

Quote from: csp
..  some people have also seen ufos ;-))
Logged
Pages: [1] 2 3   Go Up