Kuuvik Capture 6.5 : New Video Features

Kuuvik Capture 6.5 is now available on the App Store. This release sports a couple of features developed specifically for video shooters.

Let’s begin with the most-requested thing: audio level indicators. As you can see on the screen shot on the right, the audio meters occupy the place of the RAW histogram in video mode. We’ve put it there, because there is no RAW histogram in video mode, and because I strongly think that the image area is sacred and not willing to pollute it.

Audio metering is a complete mess on the latest Canons (R8 and such), so we did stick with the properly labeled and equidistant scale that was used on the R5 and older bodies, each step representing a 2dB difference.

Going downward on the screen shot, the Record/Stop button now turns red during recording. This was also requested by a couple of our users. Think of it as tally lamp, informing everyone on set that recording is in progress.

With the arrival of the EOS R series, Canon decided to make the internal 1/8-stop aperture handling available to users in video mode – and is actually the default.

Fun fact: every single Canon EOS camera ever made handles apertures in 1/8-stop increments, it’s just not available to users.

Now Kuuvik Capture fully supports displaying and setting aperture in these fine increments in video mode.

The last feature I’d like to mention is something I made for myself, but you can benefit from it as well. I’m shooting an increased volume of CRM video files with my R5C, and working on to build and optimize my workflow with these. So the Mac version of Kuuvik Capture can now import CRM files from memory cards (including automatically renaming them using a filename template), and can display the embedded 2K preview image from the videos.

Kuuvik Capture 6.5 is a free update for version 5.x and 6.x owners, and can be downloaded from the respective App Store.

Artist’s Viewfinder in the Update Magazine

Yours truly talks about the Mark II in Ebru TV’s Update magazine back at Photokina 2014.

Everything But the Kitchen Sink

This is the most popular Kuuvik Capture video to date, showing most of the app’s features.

Click here to watch it on our YouTube channel.

How to Make Focusing a Tilt/Shift Lens Easier

The tilt movement is used in technical cameras as well as DSLR tilt/shift lenses to precisely adjust where the plane of focus is on the image. Focusing with tilt is a tedious process (described here and here), but the results always worth the time!

There was a big pain point in using DSLR T/S lenses: checking what you have done. The viewfinder isn’t enough for that with today’s high resolution bodies, so you have to zoom in and check different points on the image using magnified live view. The adjust either tilt or focus. Then check the points. Then refocus… I had some images where I spent more than half an hour on fine tuning focus!

I said “was” – as it was the case before Kuuvik Capture’s Split View feature came along. I’m using this since I was halfway into developing the first prototype, and man, it can save lots of time! No, it won’t think instead of you, but the ability to quickly and visually asses what you have accomplished is priceless. It is also a great tool for learning how to focus a tilt/shift lens.

So watch the video below, and if you are using a Canon EOS-1D X, 5D Mark III or 6D with any of Canon’s great tilt/shift lenses, then grab Kuuvik Capture’s beta now! It’s that good (OK, don’t believe me, try it for yourself ;)).

Click here to watch it on our YouTube channel.