First Batch of iPhone 12 Support Updates

November 4, 2020 by

Artist’s Viewfinder 6.7 and Technical Camera 1.8 now support three of this year’s four iPhone models: 12, 12 Pro and because it shares its camera system with the regular 12, the 12 mini. Due to camera differences between the 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max, we’ll issue another update once we have a 12 Pro Max in the lab and completed all the measurements.

Compared to 11-series devices, the new camera systems bring both a positive and a negative change. The ultra wide camera has optics that can be corrected more precisely than last year’s, but in exchange the wide camera has more distortion (clearly visible in the corners). You can’t have it all… Other that these, there’s nothing worth mentioning – the ultra wide inherited most of the flaws and limitations of its predecessor (no RAW, no AF, requires software distortion correction).

As usual, we’ve added a few new cameras to the Viewfinder Camera Database, including the Canon C70 and RED KOMODO 6K (for the complete list see the release notes).

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iOS 14 Breaks USB Tethering

September 16, 2020 by

WARNING: iOS and iPadOS 14 that is going to be released later today completely breaks USB camera remote control on iPad and iPhone.

Customers relying on USB connections for Kuuvik Capture and ShutterCount Mobile MUST NOT upgrade to iOS 14.

We had reported the problem to Apple on July 23, and it is still not yet resolved as of today despite our numerous attempts to get Apple to fix it. I will not add further comments right now, I think the facts speak for themselves, but I’m not amused. Not remotely amused.

Update (October 2): Apple confirmed that this is a bug in iOS 14, with no workaround, and they “anticipate a fix getting included in an upcoming iOS release”. Stay tuned.

Update (November 6): The just-released iOS 14.2 fixes the bug.

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ShutterCount 4.5 Released with EOS R5 Support

August 12, 2020 by

The latest update to my ShutterCount app is now available for both Mac and iOS on the respective App Store. The headline feature is Canon EOS R5 support.

Since the app supports Wi-Fi connections in EOS Utility (Remote control) mode, it’s time to bring another gross R5 fault to the spotlight: glacially slow Wi-Fi connections.

Normally a Canon EOS camera would establish a Wi-Fi connection in a second or two, but for the R5 it may take 40-60 seconds. The same happens with Canon’s own EOS Utility 3 software, just its badly designed, slow-to-operate user interface covers most of this time. Slowness kicks in after the last step of the pairing is done on the camera, as well as in case of all subsequent connections. So if you must use Wi-Fi, then be prepared to brew a coffee while the camera connects. This is one of the many R5 bugs that Canon should urgently fix with a firmware update, but for now I would recommend to forget Wi-Fi and use USB instead – it works even on iOS. Update: firmware 1.1.0 is still unusable for Wi-Fi.

Speaking of bugs, we’ve fixed a crash that could happen when IPTC information is set to a camera having no IPTC set before, and another one in the iOS version’s copyright info template editor.

With this release the iOS version gains a few new features. History logs can be accessed via the Files app on both iPhone and iPad, and ShutterCount now fully supports slide over and side-by-side multitasking on iPads. The latter is a great way to have the app and the Getting Started Guide open side-by-side while you’re doing your very first Wi-Fi pairing, for example.

To use USB tethering on iPhone and iPad, iOS/iPadOS 13.4 or later is required. During the last couple of months we’ve received a few support requests complaining about non-working USB tethering. The cause in all cases was the cheap aftermarket Lightning to USB or USB C-to-A adapter the customer tried to use. We continue to recommend only Apple’s adapters as well as Apple, Canon or TetherTools USB cables.

The version 4.5 update is free for existing users.

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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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Technical Camera 1.6 : Keeping the Lowest ISO

November 29, 2019 by

Technical Camera 1.6 introduced a new option, Keep Lowest ISO. But let’s start with a little background information.

Multiple cameras on an iPhone usually have different ISO ranges. For example on the iPhone 11 Pro Max, the ultra wide camera’s ISO range is 21-2010, while the wide camera’s range is 32-3070. The telephoto camera is capable of ISO values identical to the ultra wide.

The difference on the high end of these ranges doesn’t really matter as everything above ISO 400 tends to produce unacceptable results for serious photography, and ISOs above 1600 are pretty much useless.

But the low end is different. You have to use the lowest ISO possible to get the highest image quality. And switching between cameras having a different lowest ISO value in manual ISO mode was a bit of a pain, as you had to adjust the manually set value every time.

This is no longer the case in version 1.6. If you turn the Keep Lowest ISO option on in the menu, the app will automatically set the lowest possible ISO on the camera you switched to, given that you had the lowest ISO set on the camera you’re switching from. Please note that this works only in manual ISO mode. And that’s it. A pretty simple but highly effective feature for those pursuing the highest possible image quality even in mobile photography.

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Celebrating 140,000 Wonderful ShutterCount Customers

October 28, 2019 by

I’m proud to announce that ShutterCount just passed the 140,000 customer mark. People in more than 120 countries rely on this app to measure the number of shutter actuations on Canon, Nikon and Pentax cameras. Thank you for helping to make ShutterCount the gold standard!

Launched almost exactly six years ago in October 2013, ShutterCount was the first shutter count reader for Macs. It supported Canon cameras only at that time. But we didn’t sit on our laurels, and in April 2016 launched the first (and to my knowledge the still only) shutter count reader for iPhone and iPad: ShutterCount Mobile. Canon has changed the way its cameras work, and we were the first on the world to support this new way in ShutterCount 3, available since June 2017. This release also brought Nikon and Pentax support, and the ability – again as a first – to count and graphically display live view actuations separately. Mirrorless cameras from Canon introduced a new counting mechanism, and ShutterCount was the first app to include support in October 2018.

With an app having such a widespread user base, it is inevitable that some people will have problems. During the last six years we had helped several hundreds people. From pre-purchase questions to actual problem solving. They helped to shape the various resources we offer today to get the most out of the app: the Getting Started Guide, my step-by-step pairing guide, as well as a handful of instruction videos. Thank you!

Unfortunately there are a few people who doesn’t allow us to help: doesn’t read/watch the instructions, and doesn’t contact us for help. And usually end up leaving a bad review based on their beliefs how the app should work. It’s really hard to shepherd them back to the correct way, but we take it as a challenge and continuously improve both in app-messages and our guides.

Again, thank you all for this wonderful journey!

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