Kuuvik Capture 6.5 : New Video Features

January 8, 2024 by

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.

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

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.

– o –

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: , , , , ,

Kwiketta for Adobe Photoshop 1.1 is Out

December 4, 2022 by

My “quickly open Photoshop using Rosetta” app, Kwiketta, has been updated to fully support macOS 13.

Part of this is that Preferences is renamed to Settings to reflect macOS 13’s new nomenclature. Of course it’s adaptive, and on previous OS versions it stays the old way.

Preferences is named Settings under macOS 13

And as you can see on the screen shot above, the app works perfectly with the latest and greatest Adobe Photoshop 2023 as well.

Version 1.1 can be downloaded from the app’s web site, or by clicking Kwiketta for Adobe Photoshop > Check for Updates… in the menu.

The update – and the app itself – is free. But consider buying me a coffee if it helps you in your work.

  ☕ ☕ ☕

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

Kuuvik Capture 6.1 Available Now

December 3, 2022 by

We’ve released a minor update to Kuuvik Capture earlier this week. It brings Canon EOS R7 support and mostly OS compatibility updates.

On the Mac the app follows the system-wide renaming of Preferences to Settings in macOS 13. Plus, you can now set the app’s appearance (that is, light or dark) independent of your Mac’s system setting.

The new Appearance setting in the Mac version

On iPadOS 16 this release restores the ability to use the actual device name during pairing.

In the new operating system Apple finally fixed the severe issues that plagued multi-touch in iPadOS 15, so we’ve updated our touch detection code to take advantage of the corrected behavior.

The iPadOS bug where 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, affects Kuuvik Capture as well. 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.

The update is free for existing users, and is available on the respective App Store.

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ShutterCount 6.2 Released with Canon EOS R7 and iPad Stage Manager Support

December 1, 2022 by

The latest update to my ShutterCount app is now available on the App Store. It adds the long-awaited Canon EOS R7 support as the headline feature.

This release also improves multitasking (split view and slide over) compatibility on iPad, and works with Stage Manager on iPadOS 16.

There are other small changes for Apple’s new operating systems, like following the system-wide rename of Preferences to Settings on macOS 13 and re-enabling the retrieval of the actual device name during network pairing on iOS/iPadOS 16.

So it is highly recommended to update the app if you are using these new operating systems.

The update is free for existing users, and is available on the respective App Store.

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

Technical Camera 2.2 Released

November 25, 2022 by

The latest update to my Technical Camera app is now available on the App Store.

Just like in case of the Mark II Artist’s Viewfinder, it concludes the fall release cycle for the app, adding iOS/iPadOS 16 and new device support.

But there’s more that makes using Technical Camera faster and more efficient.

First, the app now returns to shooting when you switch to it, closing any screens that you may have left open the last time you used the app. This stems from my own usage pattern, where I tend to put the app into the background with an album page open. In the past I subsequently cursed the developer that I have to manually close the damn album when I want to shoot immediately.

But we don’t pull the rug from under your feet – don’t close the screen – when you’re doing any of the following: creating and configuring an album, editing copyright information or navigating with the album’s map.

Second, you can now close camera and screen options by tapping their gray background.

And last but not least, when you are in the album browser, tapping the album’s name lets you change the current album with no need to close the album screen, go into the menu to do the change, and navigate back.

You can check out what’s new this year’s 2.x versions in the release notes.

The update is free for existing users.

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