Remote Tethered Shooting with Capture One on macOS and the Capture Pilot iPad iOS App

Phase One is a curious company in the photography world. It started out making top-tier photographic equipment, and along the way it also released image editing software called “Capture One,” which immediately became the top choice for many professional photographers. Not only is its photographic equipment high-end, but its post-processing software is equally top-notch. This god-like work ethic is truly admirable.

The Dilemma of Camera Manufacturers’ Software

Looking back at the two major camera optics manufacturers commonly seen on the market, “Nikon” and “Canon,” they actually follow a similar approach. However, the image editing software they released, “Capture NX-D” and “Digital Photo Professional (DPP for short),” are both rather underwhelming and cannot even match Adobe Lightroom.

DPP, this official editing software, is said to have been heavily criticized and directly abandoned by users. As for NX-D, although the results are decent, its disk reading and image preview performance are too poor, and sometimes it even crashes or quits unexpectedly.

Strictly speaking, in today’s global market, only Adobe Lightroom or Capture One are viable options. Both software packages have powerful image editing capabilities and camera tethered shooting functions (Live View), but their common drawback is that neither is cheap (though compared to Phase One cameras that start at millions, the software can be considered quite inexpensive). In addition, Lightroom and Photoshop work together more easily, which is also the main reason Adobe occupies such a large market share.

Since we’ve mentioned Capture One, this powerful image post-processing software, we must also discuss its companion software, “Capture Pilot,” which is almost equivalent to an Apple iPad-exclusive application.

Capture Pilot App for iPad

Simply put, Capture Pilot provides users with a monitoring and operation software that can be installed on Apple’s iPad tablet. Photographers can shoot their work while letting models quickly review whether the expressions and poses from previous shots need adjustment; on the other hand, it can also be used to display works to manufacturers or clients while avoiding their contact with the main computer.

If you’ve seen professional studio shoots, you’ll notice that photographers place a tablet on a tripod specifically to avoid the hassle of walking back and forth, allowing both the photographer and the model to focus on the shooting work. In fact, this function is called Live View (tethered shooting) in Lightroom, and Nikon also offers the same software “Camera Control Pro 2” (about USD 200). However, by combining Capture One with Capture Pilot, you can go a step further and connect directly to a more portable and mobile tablet.

Nikon also offers remote shooting software such as “Wireless Mobile Utility” and “SnapBridge” for iPad, but they are not highly rated, and their hardware versatility is too poor. Unless you use Nikon-specific models, they are not practical.

Capture Pilot supports white balance settings, portfolio sharing for clients to view, a rating system, and remote shooting operations, and it uploads photos directly to the computer.

Hands-On Experience with Connection Stability

In actual use, the connection stability doesn’t feel very good, and sometimes it fails to connect. When starting on the computer side, the iPad side can actually find the Server List within three seconds, but the connection is not very smooth. After checking, it was found that this may be related to the settings (quality) of the wireless router used for indoor WiFi.

If you encounter unstable connections, it is recommended to first check the wireless router’s settings and signal quality, such as whether AP isolation is enabled, whether the frequency band is too congested, or whether the router’s own processing performance is insufficient.

References

1. Capture One official website
2. Capture Pilot app download:
   • Capture One A/S - Capture Pilot App (for Apple iPad)