Note to Phase.
Get rid of those four "soft" buttons, either that or give us a way to lock them out. It took me a few minutes to "remember" what they all did, but shooting low, knees in the sand on the beach and placing the camera in my lap always turned something on like the histogram or some grayed out stuff telling me about the file.
You can lock the buttons under a second. Push and hold the upper left button and tap the bottom right button. Those buttons are now locked until you do the same to unlock them.
Note to Phase One Software guys.
An assistant did me a "favor" and tethered me to version 4. I haven't tethered to version 4 ever except an early test when it came out and realized I wasn't going to beta test this thing until it got to version 5 point 7 something but yesterday I looked at the computer and instead of that familiar no nonsense white screen I saw that grey thing that has 24 tabs and thought well since it's running I'd give it a try and every-time I changed lenses, it would disconnect the camera. I bought Phase for the stability of the software and tethering and though I gotta admit I'm not a version 4 expert, just changing lenses shouldn't shut it down.
You know I have a lot of respect for you. But you used software for the first time on a job and it's Phase's fault that the user interface looked unfamiliar? Capture One 4's interface is ENORMOUSLY flexible (version 5 will be even more so) such that you can have everything on the screen at once (nice for power users with big monitors) or nothing but the image (or anything in between).
Your camera disconnecting when you change lenses is (very likely) not related to your software. If you were tethering to a more recent mac then you probably had insufficient power coming from the firewire port. Set the back to [Configuration > Power Source > Battery] and put a battery in the back and that will likely go away.
Capture One 4.8.3 is very very stable.
Last night when I processed the files, I thought ok I'd try version 4, but they just looked prettier, (I know that covers a lot of territory) in 3.78 so I used what I know, life was easy and I made the deadline.
This of course is purely aesthetic. Most of our user's have found the color, detail, and noise/grain structure to be better in version 4; however, anytime you change ANYTHING about the way an image is processed you'll have some who feel it was in the wrong direction, and that's fine.
Once again, somebody please loan phase a Canon with that EOS utility disk. I know it's dumb tethering software but anyone that owns an Iphone can learn to work it in about 3 minutes. Version 4 must take a class to really learn it . . . a very long class.
It's very rare to find photographers who prefer EOS utility to Capture One (assuming they have spent more than 5 minutes in each). You know this I'm sure.
We do start up training very frequently now and I can say from direct experience that every user we've trained has been up and running in under two hours. Yes, it does take 2 hours. It's a professional program with a lot of power and options; if you don't care about any advanced features I can show you everything you need to just connect and shoot in 10 minutes (just about all you can do with EOS utility).
Last note to Phase.
How about a firmware upgrade to give us a black and white option on the lcd? I know the lcd sucks, I know it's hard to tell it's color anyway, but yesterday the AD wanted to see the shot in black and white and I had to say naw there's no black and white function on here. but don't worry I'll do it when I process. Every camera on the planet has a black and white function.
Done. The P40+ and 65+ (and presumably every future back) has a black and white option on the LCD. It's possible this will be extended to previous backs in the future, but no promises.
Please throw away that paper mask that comes with the back. If you put it where it belongs (under the ground glass) everything is back focused. If you put it on top, it bows and of course doesn't give exact framing. Come one guys, stop being cheap, at least put Bill Maxwells phone number in the Phase One box so you can get the cropping without having to jury rig black photo tape.
Bill Maxwell in fact would be happy to make you such a mask and is literally a phone call away. If you don't want to deal with two vendors then when you're purchasing your back just ask your dealer to order you a focus screen with the proper markings. It's not being "cheap" to not include it as a Phase One part; business 101 tells you that doing so would only artificially increase the price of the product for those who want it and impose that cost even on those who don't.
Now please, please don't get rid of version 3. I know it's old, I know it's got a white background and the type design came from a ms-dos word processor, but it works and if it does crash when you shoot 500 files to a folder at least it starts back up fast and doesn't lose anything.
Version 4 is so heavy so many tabs nobody has time for it under even a light pressured project.
I never know if you use such phrases for literary effect or whether you really believe that every other user feels the same as you, but the vast majority of our user base has not only made the change to version 4 but are very very happy with it. It's very fast, very stable, and very customizable.
It's being used by many of our customers in very high pressure projects and they report rock solid fast performance.
Version 5 will allow you to add/remove any or all of the tabs, and just like version 4 add and remove any tool from any tab. It even has a preset workspace called "simplified" that hides all the advanced tools.
Doug Peterson
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Head of Technical Services, Capture Integration
Phase One, Leaf, Canon, Apple, Profoto, Eizo & More
National: 877.217.9870 | Cell: 740.707.2183
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