Capture One for iPad and your IQ-Series Digital Back
There are many times in many situations that it isn’t practical for a commercial or even advanced amateur shooter to tether into a laptop, and so, depending on the brand of camera you shoot, there are varyingly appropriate solutions available to help your mid-game… something less than a full laptop setup, but something more than just the stock screen on the back of your camera.
Last week, Capture One for iPad was updated to offer direct tethering into the Phase One IQ4-Series digital backs. This announcement has been met with a decent amount of ire from the IQ4 owning community since we’ve been waiting for iOS integration into Capture One for more than four years and the product still does not offer in some ways, what was available for IQ2 users nearly 10 years ago.
That being said, it is an absolutely welcome addition in compatibility and benefits to not only IQ4 users but augmented workflows for Phase One digital back users going all the way back to the original P-series.
Ok, so let’s start at the top…
IQ4-Series Digital Backs
Pictured above is a quick & dirty setup for making use of Capture One on location, all on a single tripod, with easy movement of the rig to different locations and views without having to dismantle a single portion of the kit.
Pictured below is the rig I’d run if I were needing to be out on that same location for an extended period of time:
Blue Cable = Ethernet | Black Dongle = USB-C to Belkin Ethernet Adapter | Black Box in Pouch = USB-C Battery Bank
White Cord = Power into Ethernet Adapter to fuel iPad | Black Cord = Power into IQ4-150 to avoid battery changes
With the aid of only one of my two 27,000mAh battery banks, I can shoot all day long without having to exchange batteries in the IQ4 or deplete my iPad Pro internal battery, which can be pretty hungry at the necessary full brightness to be perfectly viewable in outdoor environments. (If I only have one battery bank on a very long day, I would just use it for the iPad side only, knowing I can just swap out the battery in the IQ4 every 90 minutes or so of constant use. )
Workflow as described in the video below:
Capture One for iPad also allows for a great deal of control for user settings over both the XF camera as well as the IQ4 digital back when it’s alone on a technical camera or paired with an XT and XT Rodenstock lens. (Still no remote control of Frame Averaging, Focus Stacking or the like, but the team at Cascable has been charged with picking up at least some of that slack that we may see before the year 2035 when we’re all eating bugs for sustenance)
IQ2 or IQ3-series CMOS Digital Backs
There is no wired tethering of any other Phase One digital back to Capture One for iPad other than the flagship IQ4-series, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t good uses for the iOS version of Capture One on location.
Starting with the IQ2 series from around 2013, Phase One IQ2 and IQ3-series digital backs produce an Ad-Hoc WiFi network that can be paired with Capture Pilot, originally a Phase One product, but now also branded as Capture One.
Workflow as described in the video below:
IQ2 or IQ3-series CCD Digital Backs
While Live View isn’t a possibility at all other than through a tethered connection directly into a laptop, Capture Pilot still provides camera control as well as the same, near instantaneous post-capture review of images on your iPad, in an otherwise identical workflow as described above.
P-Series, P+ – Series, and IQ1-Series Digital Backs
The good news here is that Capture One for iPad will interpret and work with all IIQ format files, so you can shoot to CF card and then import those images directly into your iPad without having to open up a laptop to do the same.
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