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5D MkII tethered capture stall/hang

Jamie111
My 5D MkII will tether just fine, but periodically Capture One will stall during the import process. What this looks like, is an image that doesn't render a complete preview. When it happens, I can continue shooting until the camera buffer is full. If I wait several minutes, capture will resume as though nothing has happened. The problem is intermittent. By this I mean, I am unable to isolate the specific situation that causes it. I can shoot hundreds of test frames without trouble. It's as though the irregular rhythm of a real shoot changes the way the drivers deal with the file transfers.

I first posted about this problem in February.

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=8353

Since that time, I've been through 3 different Mac Pros, and many OS/boot configurations, trying to track down the source of my trouble. I'm now running a brand new 8 core 2.66 with 12gigs of ram, on OS 10.6.4. C1 Pro 5.1.2 ran a few days in test mode without trouble. Not long after I put it to work on real shoots, the problem resurfaced. I resurrected my support case, and was told that 5.0.2 was the last version to use the older Canon drivers that were stable. Downgrading to 5.0.2 did not solve the problem. I should have checked my notes, because that's where the problem started. In the release notes, there is mention of this activity with "certain configurations," but I can't get an answer as to what configurations these might be. The last stable build for tethered capture was, 4.8.7, running on OS 10.5.6. I would gladly keep using it, but it crashes if I leave it processing more than 300 images. I've spent the last 5 months running two different versions of C1Pro on separate boot drives, to be able to shoot and process.

Has anyone else had a similar issue, and been able to solve it?
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Comments

33 comments

Date Votes
  • ProDigital1
    [quote="Drew " wrote:
    The issue is in fact the Canon SDK. Any program that uses the SDK which Canon provides will have the same affliction. The unfortunate reality however is that for this particular issue we are at the mercy of Canon and their SDK which is the engine behind the Canon Tether ability.

    I hope that all of the Capture One users that are having problems with Canon products tethering, are letting Canon know their frustration. Let Canon know that we want a stable working SDK provided to Phase One. Please go on Canon's forums and sent emails to Canon's tech support, and demand that Canon improves to SDK they provide to other software developers. The only way Capture One will work flawlesly Canon cameras, is if we let Canon know that we want them to help fix the problem.
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  • Douglas Garfield
    As a digital-tech I've been troubleshooting this issue for months looking for even a partial solution that would mitigate the stalling problem. The results are all over the board because everybody I work for has their system configured completely differently.

    I've talked to the Capture Integration group to see what their take on it is and they also believe it stems from the Canon drivers include in Canon's SDK. Bottom line: Everybody's stuck until Canon fixes the issue.

    I currently have a 15" MacBook Pro Core i7 and I've been able to minimize the problem on my system by doing the following. Some of these suggestions come from the CI group, so I will give them a HUGE amount of credit in coming up with many of these recommendations:

    -Max out the RAM...or at least put in as much as you can afford. In my case it was 8GB.

    -Run C1 Pro 5.0.2 from a CLEAN install. What that means is you have to trash all the prefs (.plist files), caches/temp files, and settings associated with whatever version you were running previously before you install 5.0.2.

    -Shoot to the Shared folder. I have a Shoots folder in the Shared folder on my system where all my sessions go. I then created an alias of that Shoots folder which resides on my desktop. You can also place your 'Shoots' folder to the right of the divider in your Dock as well as in the Finder sidebar. Doesn't matter where. Just make sure you have FAST access to it.

    -Turn off Airport and Bluetooth and close all apps that aren't crucial when shooting.

    -Go into the Image Capture app and set it to "Do nothing" when the camera is connected. In 10.5.8 I think you can set this whether or not the camera is actively connected when the software is running. In 10.6.X, you have to have the camera connected to get this option.

    -Use a decent USB cable no longer than 15'. I have a high-end, gold-plated 15' that I use most of the time and a 12' signal repeater I use on occasion if I need to go longer.

    -Set 'Auto Select New Capture' to 'Immediately'.

    -Always make sure to turn off your camera and wait for the software to recognize that the camera is no longer attached before disconnecting

    -Keep your capture folder under 300 files. Above that, performance seems to dramatically drop off. It may even happen sooner than that depending on your system.

    -In the prefs, set the image preview size to the minimum (600px) to ensure fast preview generation and minimize choking the system when importing the file.

    -The more tools you have open and the more adjustments being applied to the new capture contribute to slower performance as well. I've seen cases where shooting with no adjustments has minimized stalling. Also, keep the focus preview small or closed, if possible, when shooting a really fast burst.

    -The faster the hard drive the better - nothing slower than 7200rpm. I haven't had a whole lot of time/opportunity to test it, but using an SSD may contribute to smoother operation as well. The jury is still out as far as mitigating the stalling issue is concerned.. It certainly can't hurt.

    -It seems that running firmware 1.0.7 (or at least a pre-2.0 version) is beneficial to some users. If you are unable to downgrade, then run the most up-to-date version (which was 2.0.7 until very recently). Don't linger on 2.0., 2.0.1, etc if you're having fairly regular problems. I've had better luck with 2.0.7 than I did with 2.0.3 or 2.0.4.

    Side note: I've heard running 10.5.8 eliminates or reduces the likelihood of the stalling problem occurring. However, I have not found this to be true in my experience. One of the photogs I work for has his system set-up by the book, running 10.5.8 and the stalling problem is worse for him than for anybody else I have EVER worked for. I've seen it to a lesser extent on other 10.5.8 systems as well. Use whatever OS works the best in your situation. I'm running 10.6.4.

    Anyway, I'm curious if there is an appreciable benefit to running C1 Pro 5.2.1, OS 10.6.5 and/or firmware 2.0.8. I haven't had any time to test any of those updates alone or in conjunction with each other. If anyone has any insight, please share. And if you do, please let us know what your system spec's, firmware version, and software version are.

    Thanks.

    -Doug
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  • Drew Altdo
    Just as an update to hopefully instill hope with Canon Users... there has been a new SDK released by Canon and we will be looking into integration with the next update of Capture One. However, I say this without prior knowledge of it's performance. So no promises on a miracle cure, just a glimmer of hope.
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