Kuuvik Capture 5.5 : Multi-Point Live View on EOS R5

The latest update to my Canon EOS tethering app, Kuuvik Capture, is now available for Mac and iPad. The headline feature is multi-point live view availability on the EOS R5.

When R5 support was introduced in Kuuvik Capture 5.2, the release notes indicated that multi-point live view is not available due to firmware bugs. Later Canon informed me that these “bugs” were actually “by design” behavior, and not going to change.

Fortunately, I’m a sucker for impossible problems, and was able to make it happen what Canon declared impossible. So multi-point live view is now working nicely on the R5. The only limitation – shared with the 1D X Mark III – is that depth of field preview is not available during multi-point live view. This is caused by another odd firmware behavior. Speaking of which…

This release also works around the aforementioned issue when moving to a marker: if DoF preview was active before the move, it will be re-activated after the new position is set.

On the iPad, a fine-tuned gesture detection improves long-tap handling when a tap is used to stop flick panning. The original implementation drove me nuts by bringing up the context menu way too early.

Plus the iPad version sports the missing “local network” permission handling message discussed in my former post.

We have published “privacy nutrition labels” for the app. It’s rather simple: we do not collect data from Kuuvik Capture. We are in the business of making and selling software to you, and not selling your private life to some sneaky data brokers. This is one reason why the prices of our apps are what they are.

The update is free for existing Kuuvik Capture 5 users. We also offer an upgrade from 2.x-4.x to version 5.

Kuuvik Capture 5.4 Released

The latest update to my Canon EOS tethering app, Kuuvik Capture, is now available for both Mac and iPad.

With this release, we’re starting to roll out a new focus bracketing engine. Building on new features of the DIGIC 8 and DIGIC X processors, Kuuvik Capture can now execute focus brackets with the mirror locked up during the entire bracket (on DSLR cameras), saving time and reducing mirror wear. The new engine is initially available for the EOS-1D X Mark III and 250D/Rebel SL3/Kiss X10/200D Mark II. Of course we’re planning to bring it to other cameras as well in the future.

The new engine also drives focus bracketing for the EOS R5, much faster than the old one did. Electronic shutter is supported for focus brackets with both the 1D X Mark III and the R5, resulting in minimal shutter and mirror wear, and rather quick operation.

Firmware for DIGIC X-based cameras unfortunately still full of bugs hindering proper tethering operation. A newly discovered one is that once depth of field preview is engaged, you won’t be able to move around the point of operation (that is, can’t move around in live view when zoomed in, or can’t jump to a marker). This is a rather serious oversight from Canon.

We’re mitigating this issue by automatically turning off DoF preview when it would break the operation you are going to perform. For example, one typically uses DoF preview with the jump to marker feature to be able to assess depth of field with the current focus placement. We faced a choice here, either a) jumping to a marker would silently fail when DoF preview is on; or b) turn off DoF preview and do what you asked for. B is a clearly better solution here, and we consistently do the same in case of all other operations where the bug would cause a problem.

On the 1D X III this bug also causes issues with multi-point live view, so we completely disable DoF preview during multi-point live view.

The update is free for existing Kuuvik Capture 5 users. We also offer an upgrade from 2.x-4.x to version 5.

Kuuvik Capture 5.3 : JPG Only Download Option

The latest update to my Kuuvik Capture tethering app is now available for both the Mac and iPad.

This is the first Canon remote control solution that offers native Apple Silicon support, and is also optimized for macOS Big Sur.

Regarding new functionality, we’ve added an option to allow downloading just the JPG from a RAW+JPG pair. This ensures a much faster image display in cases where the download is slow – for example when using the camera’s built-in Wi-Fi transmitter.

Download options when shooting RAW+JPG

Of course the camera will store both the RAW and the JPG to the memory card, so you can process RAW files later.

With the release of iPadOS 14.2, Apple fixed the USB tethering bug that rear up its ugly head with iPadOS 14.0. So this very convenient and fast connection option is back in business. But they also took care of another bug report of mine, which makes a pretty neat little feature possible.

iPadOS 13 immediately suspended all USB camera communication when you put the app into the background, for example to write a note, or check a message. With iPadOS 14.2 and Kuuvik Capture 5.3, the connection will stay alive for 30 seconds. Your sequence, or download will continue to run in the background. After 15 seconds you’ll get a notification, that the communication will be suspended soon, but you have plenty of time to return to the app – the easiest way being to tap the notification. This is the same behavior you get when using Wi-Fi/Ethernet connections.

The update is free for existing users. New users can buy the app in the respective App Store. Don’t forget that the Mac and iPad versions are sold together – buy any of them and you’ll get the other for free!

Enjoy!

Privacy Issue With Canon Copyright Info Setting

I work with Canon cameras a lot as a developer, and sometimes discover nasty things in their firmware. Most of the time these are just annoyances that delay or block some feature’s availability, but what I recently found may have a serious impact on every Canon EOS camera user’s privacy.

To demonstrate the issue I’ll use my ShutterCount app, which among many other things, can display camera data in question.

The Problem

You are a photographer who cares about intellectual property rights and thus properly set up copyright info in the camera. This consists of four fields: owner name, artist name, copyright and (on newer pro cameras) IPTC info.

Now, you are also privacy-conscious, and delete these before selling a camera to a used equipment dealer. You use the camera’s Delete copyright information menu item, thinking that it will remove everything. Unfortunately this isn’t the case. Besides not touching owner and IPTC fields at all, it only replaces the very first character of the author name and copyright fields with a zero, leaving your previously set copyright information in the camera.

ShutterCount‘s new Raw Copyright Information feature reveals deleted data.

Moreover, setting a shorter-than-previous author or copyright using the camera’s menu will just overwrite the newly entered characters, leaving part of the previous longer text unmodified.

Red characters mark the leftover, black characters are legitimate, currently active text. Zero memory values are displayed as spaces for better legibility.

Leftover after setting shorter text in-camera.

The remote control interface is also affected. Using EOS Utility (and possibly many other remote control apps) will fill the remainder of these fields with arbitrary memory contents of the camera. Actually this is what triggered my research into the issue: I saw part of my address from the IPTC info in the author field.

The garbage EOS Utility leaves. Note parts of the previous values!

As far as I know, this behavior is exhibited by every single Canon EOS digital camera model announced since 2007.

Consequences

Your identity may be exposed to anyone who buys your camera through a used equipment dealer. I don’t know about you, but the idea that some camera-illiterate idiot will bug me after buying my old camera through a shop makes me uncomfortable.

Or worse, your long-sold camera may be found on a crime scene, and CSI finds the copyright info that accuses you being connected with the crime. Creepy, isn’t it?

Yeah, private information leaks are creepy. But this bug is double-edged sword, and may be terribly useful every once in a while.

Suppose your camera was stolen, and the thief deleted your copyright with the aforementioned menu command. Law enforcement will be able to reveal that it actually belongs to you.

Used equipment dealers may also benefit from it, being able to double-check the camera’s owner.

Mitigation

There’s a zero-cost method, which takes some time, but there’s also an automated method, which costs a few bucks.

The zero-cost method is to first delete both the owner and and IPTC info with EOS Utility, then go into the camera’s menu and completely fill the author and copyright fields with spaces, or X characters (or anything you would like), and save them. Then use the Delete copyright information menu item.

If you prefer the automated method, ShutterCount‘s Wipe Personal Data command will securely wipe all ownership and copyright information from the camera. This feature is available in the Pro version, or after you purchased the Plus Plack in the regular version.

I’d like to mention that the Copyright Information Template in both my ShutterCount and Kuuvik Capture apps will set the author and copyright fields properly, removing any previous leftover.

Ultimately I hope Canon will step up and address this issue by properly zero-padding the author and copyright fields, regardless of whether they were set in-camera, or remotely.

Exploiting It for Good Purposes

As you know by now, ShutterCount can reveal the extraneous information contained in the author and copyright fields, and can be used by anyone who has a reason to peek into that. It displays the dialog box what you see on the screen shot above.

I’m sure used camera shops and law enforcement agencies will find this feature rather useful. And hope that camera shop personnel will go through their used assets now, wiping personal data from every single one of them as a courtesy to previous owners.

The mentioned features are available in ShutterCount 4.7 or later. The Raw Copyright Information and Wipe Personal Data commands are on the Camera menu on macOS and under Camera Settings on the More tab on iOS.