iOS 17 Breaks USB Camera Tethering

September 20, 2023 by

Update 12/6/2023: Although Apple informed us that: “There is no workaround Developer Technical Support can provide”, we found a solution that’s immune to the card contents enumeration bug described below. It is released in ShutterCount Mobile 6.5.1 and ShutterCount Pro Mobile 6.5.1.

It seems Apple will also fix it in iOS/iPadOS 17.2. Please update your software accordingly. The next update to Kuuvik Capture will also contain our solution – as well as many other exciting things.

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While most professional users know that you should NEVER EVER install a dot zero version of any operating system on production devices, and that you have to evaluate all your apps on a new operating system before moving to it, I’m going to save you save some time by discussing why you should avoid updating to iOS/iPadOS 17 in case you rely on Kuuvik Capture or ShutterCount – or any other USB tethering/remote control app.

There are two separate issues. There are also workarounds for them, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t a pain in the ass.

Card contents enumeration is stuck at 0% when there are no images on the card, or no card in the camera

Due to peculiarities of iOS USB tethering that Apple mandates, we must enumerate card contents before connecting to a Canon EOS camera. Otherwise the camera would almost certainly crash with an ERROR 70. But in iOS 17 that enumeration never completes when you have no card in the camera or have an empty card.

And you will be greeted with the stuck progress indicator that you see on the screen shot on the right, followed by an error message that the connection cannot be established.

The workaround is to have at least one image on the card, in which case iOS will be happy to go ahead with the connection.

Apple Lightning to USB Camera Adapter works only if you connect the USB cable to the adapter last

If you do not obey this rule, iOS 17 will not detect the camera at all. Not even in Photos, or in any other app.

That is, you must remember to do the follwing: 1) connect the adapter to your iPhone/iPad, 2) connect the USB cable to the camera, and lastly 3) connect the other end of the USB cable to the adapter.

Filed Under: My Apps, Operating Systems, Photo Software Tagged With: , , , , ,

Viewfinder 7.2 Concludes the Fall Update Cycle

November 21, 2022 by

Each fall Apple releases new devices and operating systems that we have to add support for.

This year was no different, except that iOS/iPadOS 16 has changed some of the fundamental parts of the OS (device rotation support, to be exact), which caused some extra headache. We’ve started to roll out changes in September, and now the app is considered to be complete in this regard.

As you can see in the release notes, new device support was also added to support all models in this year’s iPhone 14 series – both in terms of new screen sizes and camera profiles.

Speaking of the latter, Apple screwed up iOS provided angle of views big time for the Pro phones, but fortunately we don’t trust their data (which is usually off by up to 10-15%) and our profiles are precise as usual.

Sadly, there’s one more iOS bug that you should be aware of when updating any of our apps this fall: the OS may fail to properly close the app before updating it, and subsequently, not knowing which one to run, greets users with a pitch black screen. The fix is quite easy: force quit and restart the app (both copies) to wipe corrupted state information. See our knowledge base article for detailed instructions.

We’ve added support for 20 new cameras this fall, a bunch of lenses, and new aspect ratios that users requested.

The Mark II Artist’s Viewfinder 7.2 update is free for existing users and is available on the App Store.

Filed Under: My Apps, Photo Software Tagged With: , , , ,

Kuuvik Capture 5 Coming to iPad

April 28, 2020 by

This isn’t a big surprise if you followed what I have been doing lately: a high performance imaging pipeline for Technical Camera, and then USB support in ShutterCount Mobile a month ago. I have technologies at my disposal that nobody else has, so it would be silly not to make it happen.

So I’m pleased to formally announce the development of the iPad version of Kuuvik Capture 5.

Let me stay for a moment with the prerequisites. In 2015 I had re-acquired the rights for Kuuvik Capture, and started paying royalties to my original business partners. But as the app evolved, keeping the old code separate from new (so that I can calculate the amount to be paid) became a headache and a roadblock to innovation. To resolve the situation, I did redeem all future royalty payments in February, opening the door for improvements across the board. You can already enjoy these in the Mac version of Kuuvik Capture 5.

Now on to the exciting stuff!

We’re aiming for the full Kuuvik Capture 5 feature set. Complete with overlays, dual histogram, multi-point live view, and so on. Of course a few things will work differently, since there are vast differences between how you interact with an iPad and a Mac. But the basic principles will remain the same.

Both USB and Wi-Fi connections will be supported. Actually, the complete camera control and sequence automation machinery is already working. I’m going to reiterate: at the time of writing nobody else in the world has the tech required to support pro-level USB and wireless tethering with Canons on iPadOS. Period.

The iPad and Mac versions will be offered as a universal purchase. That is, if you already purchased (or upgraded to) Kuuvik Capture 5, the iPad version will be a free download.

It will require an iPad running iPadOS 13.4 or later. This is a requirement for USB tethering, plus older iPads that can’t run iOS 13 simply aren’t powerful enough for the app. If you happen to have one of those, it is a great time to upgrade quickly, because…

It is planned to be released during the summer. If I were hard pressed, I would say June, but there are way too many things that can delay a development project.

I’m currently working 7 days a week on this project, and you could encourage me to push even harder by purchasing the Mac version right now. The iPad version will be yours for free soon.

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Viewfinder iPhone 11 Support Coming

October 18, 2019 by

The release of the iPhone 11 series marks the end of an era for me. Six years ago we’ve released the Mark II Artist’s Viewfinder, a new incarnation of our successful Viewfinder Pro app. The Mark II brought first class wide angle conversion lens support, complete with real-time distortion correction. A world’s first tech at that time, and still unmatched.

This opened up a whole new world for landscape and architecture photographers, allowing them to simulate ultra wide shots and stitched panoramas.

But the converter lenses were bulky, expensive, and sourcing them early was a huge problem. We have a big box of lenses for every imaginable phone that are nothing but worthless junk now. So I don’t feel sorry that this is history and that some converter lens manufacturers will go out of business. With the exception of ALPA, they were all a pain to deal with.

We’ve received our 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max two days ago (more than a month after placing the order – sadly Apple doesn’t provide an equal playing field for developers in some European countries). And now I’m happy to report that ultra wide angle camera support is almost complete. Yes, I wrote most of the code in advance.

A screen shot showing the ultra wide camera in action

During the last month we had been asked frequently whether the new ultra wide camera will be able to simulate a Rodenstock HR Digaron-S 23mm f/5.6 on a 40×56 mm sensor, such as the Phase One IQ4 150. Although precise bench measurements still have to be done, based on iOS provided angle of view information the answer is a resounding yes. Just take a look at the screen shot above. For 35mm cameras, this is roughly 15mm equivalent. Sides of a 14mm are slightly clipped, so the 13mm in Apple’s materials seems to be marketing exaggeration. But we’ll see after the measurements.

The ultra wide camera is treated as a permanently present wide converter. That is, activating Wide Mode will switch to the ultra wide camera. There’s nothing else to configure. And there are no workflow changes. The updated app will also provide a separate Frame Size Adjustment slider for the ultra wide camera.

We still have about a week’s worth of work ahead, and thus I expect the updated version to be available by the end of October. The update will be free for existing Mark II users.

Filed Under: My Apps, Photo Software Tagged With: , , , ,
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