Kuuvik Capture 5.1 Available on iPad

June 26, 2020 by

Continuing the decade long tradition of bringing you industry-first solutions, I’m pleased to announce that Kuuvik Capture 5.1, both on Mac and iPad, is now available on the App Store. It is the world’s first Canon EOS remote control app that can be used with a USB cable between your camera and iPad – thus skipping slow and error-prone Wi-Fi completely.

Camera connections on iPad work exacly the same way they do in ShutterCount Mobile, as described in my post announcing USB support, as well in the Getting Started Guide for Wi-Fi.

More information about Kuuvik Capture on iPad can be found my previous posts (here and here).

Now I’m taking a deep breath, a few days off, and start posting short articles as the handbook is updated.

Enjoy!

IMPORTANT: If you purchased the app for Mac and want to download it to your iPad (or vice versa), the App Store may not recognize your previous purchase and display the full price. Make sure that you are using the same Apple ID you did for the original purchase, and go ahead with “buying” the app. Instead of charging your card, the App Store should display the message “This update is free”. This is an App Store bug, so please address your comments to the party responsible for it (that is, Apple).

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Sneak Peek : Kuuvik Capture 5 on iPad

May 13, 2020 by

After a month, we’re roughly halfway through the project that brings Kuuvik Capture 5 to iPad, and I wanted to show you how does it look now. Click the image for a full size version.

The iPad version sports the familiar Kuuvik Capture interface, but there are several subtle differences because of the touch input. Buttons are generally bigger, for example. I’ll show you quite a few interesting new user interface elements during the coming weeks.

As I mentioned previously, it’s going to be a full-featured professional tethering app, supporting both direct USB connections as well as your Canon’s built-in Wi-Fi. 3rd party Wi-Fi boxes are NOT required. I strongly think that Kuuvik Capture on iPad will open up a new era of in-the-field tethered shooting.

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. Since the app is a universal purchase, the iPad version will be yours for free soon.

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Kuuvik Capture 5.1 : The Move to Metal

May 7, 2020 by

Kuuvik Capture, as well as my other apps, used OpenGL and its mobile counterpart, OpenGL ES, as the base technology behind their display engines.

While it was working, ES was different enough so that I had to keep Mac and iOS code effectively separate, with serious consequences.

Then a year ago Apple announced that OpenGL is deprecated in its operating systems (and I guess it will be removed completely in a few years). So it was time to move on.

My new unified display engine, rewritten on top of Apple’s proprietary graphics technology called Metal, will debut in Kuuvik Capture 5.1. Both in the Mac and iPad versions.

The benefits are nothing short of breathtaking. Kuuvik Capture was always known to be amazingly quick. But now images appear on screen up to 2x faster… Live view CPU utilization is further lowered by up to 25%… Even previous versions used 10x less CPU for live view compared to Canon’s EOS Utility, so the difference is simply brutal.

You’ll be able to enjoy these enhancemets when version 5.1 is released later this summer.

Stay tuned!

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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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Kuuvik Capture 5 – Leaner and Meaner

April 10, 2020 by

I’m proud to announce the immediate availability of Kuuvik Capture 5, our premium Canon EOS tethering app for macOS!

Kuuvik Capture saw the light of day on April 2, 2013, and some of its features are still unmatched after 7 years. Version 5 is by far the biggest update, elevating the app to a whole new level, all the while shrinking it to an almost unbelievable 3.9 MB.

I’ll cover the new stuff in separate posts, but let me go trough the most important bits in a nutshell. I also recommend to check out the release notes, plus the brand new Features and Screen Shots pages on the web site.

Adds the Most Requested Features

Number one is overlays. You can place an image overlay on top of both live view and captured images. It can be repositioned, resized, rotated, and of course can be made less or more transparent. And it works in magnified live view, helping in precise alignment. Overlays use our high-performance graphics engine, so you can expect the same swift and smooth operation as you are accustomed to with images.

Number two is hideable screen elements. While you were able to hide the browser in previous versions, people had asked for more. So now you can also hide the sidebar, the toolbar, and the rulers. Separately. Or you can quickly toggle the visibility of all bars (browser, sidebar, toolbar) by pressing Ctrl+Tab. Screen element visibility is remembered separately for full screen mode (where the default shows the info overlay with no bars and rulers). Ideal for culling or presenting images to a customer.

Number three is live view auto-rotation. Turning the camera to portrait orientation will automatically re-orient live view to match it. Well, it works in any of the four possible orientations. Manual rotation is disabled when auto is active, so auto is off by default. You can activate it from the View menu or by pressing Ctrl+A.

One Big, Plus One and a Half Dozen Smaller Things

Variable-step (or inhomogeneous) exposure bracketing allows you to disable individual frames. Just click the corresponding green (or yellow/red) square on the bracketing monitor. And click again to re-enable. This is a real time-saver in situations where you would only throw out frames in a part of the bracket.

Then there’s the AF feedback on the point of operation indicator – turns green on success, red on failure. Just like on the camera. And improved sliders with precise numeric display and entry. And the ability to disable user interface animations. And on and on…

Again, I would recommend to go through the release notes for the whole list.

Farewell to Legacy Technologies

There are times when legacy technologies get in the way of progress, and need to be eliminated. This is such a time.

The app no longer supports tethering with the 5D Mark II, as well as the previously obsoleted 1Ds Mark III and 50D. Files created with them can still be opened. These cameras used incomplete and buggy tethering interfaces that littered the code with – well – crap. On a side note, I got a mail from Canon a few months ago, noting that they no longer service the 5D Mark II. So its heydays are pretty much over.

We also moved forward with the minimum macOS version required, to 10.14. Mojave is a stable release (unlike Catalina), and works with each Mac released since 2012.

This is a Paid Upgrade

Free upgrades until eternity is unfortunately not a sustainable business model for professional apps. So to be able to provide the usual stream of new features and camera support updates, we had to change the model. But instead of going the “popular” and much hated subscription route, we decided to stick with good old-fashioned upgrades.

From now on, major versions will be a paid upgrades. We’ll continue to add new features to point releases, and these will be free updates. Without pre-announcing anything, I can tell you that very cool things are coming to Kuuvik Capture 5.x!

Kuuvik Capture 2.x-4.x users can upgrade with the Kuuvik Capture 5 Upgrade bundle on the Mac App Store. This is the usual “fair” upgrade provided by the App Store: the price is calculated from how much you paid for the previous version.

Kuuvik Capture 4.5 remains on the Mac App Store as it is required for upgrades to work. The price is reduced to make it a cost-effective solution to new customers needing 5D Mark II or older macOS support.

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ShutterCount 4.4 Brings USB Connections to iOS

March 21, 2020 by

The history of my ShutterCount app is a story full of world’s firsts. Just to mention the most important innovations:

  • October, 2013: The world’s first Canon shutter count reader on macOS.
  • April, 2016: The world’s first Canon shutter count reader on iOS (for Wi-Fi equipped cameras).
  • June, 2017: The world’s first shutter count reader on Mac and iOS that supports post-2014 Canon cameras and that introduces live view counters and the Distribution Chart.
  • October, 2018: The world’s first shutter count reader that supports Canon mirrorless models.
  • March, 2020: The world’s first shutter count reader that supports Canon cameras via USB connection on iOS.

The complicated Canon Wi-Fi pairing interface was always a problem for users of the mobile app. I’ve written a long guide and produced a few videos that allowed lots of people to successfully navigate this mess. But what I always wanted was proper USB support on iOS.

Last fall, with the release of iOS 13.1, Apple partly delivered my requested feature. USB tethering appeared in the OS, but was completely defunct. We’ve provided extensive feedback to Apple during the last six months, and now finally have an OS where USB tethering works reliably. I have only one gripe (with permission prompts) that I’ll discuss shortly.

How Does It Work?

First, you’ll have to have a USB port on your iOS device. New iPad Pros have a USB-C port, that’s fine (although you may need a USB-C to A adapter if your camera doesn’t have a C-type port). But for all devices having a Lightning port, Apple’s Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter, or the former USB 2 version, will be a required accessory.

ShutterCount USB connection on iOS

The above image shows a typical setup, with my good old 7D Mark II hooked up to an iPhone 7 Plus using the Canon-provided USB cable and Apple’s adapter.

Once the camera is connected and turned on, you’ll be greeted with a series of permission prompts. These prompts are presented by iOS (not ShutterCount), in a very un-Apple-ish manner (three prompts for a single thing).

The first two ask for Files and Folders and Camera access permissions. As I mentioned regarding Catalina’s similar approach, this is not just terrible user experience, but also a security issue as you’ll have to grant much broader permissions than it would be necessary. An example of Apple ignoring its own guidelines…

And to add insult to injury, there’s the third prompt, which will appear every single time you connect a camera. This is a rather ridiculous one: it tells you what you already know, and you don’t have an option to block access (tapping Settings will bring up Settings, but the connection will succeed). I’ve already called out Apple multiple times to fix the permission mess around tethering – nothing happened yet.

So please don’t blame us for this thing. But I do encourage you to provide feedback to Apple. The more of us complain, the more pressure on Apple to make this right.

New Camera Support and Availability

Speaking of new cameras, we’ve added support for Canon’s new EOS-1D X Mark III in both the Mac and iOS versions.

ShutterCount 4.4 is available now on the respective App Store. To use USB tethering, iOS 13.4 is required, which Apple promises to release on Tuesday.

The update is free for existing users.

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