ProCap - OM Systems AMA video and other things..

[BDennis]

I watched this OM Systems talk on ProCap last night and it made me think about using ProCap more

https://www.youtube.com/live/HciF7HgM-mc?si=a7Hl4IxTZgFRq6XU

One question I had for them which they didn’t answer was whether it’s possible to activate the ProCap buffer so it stays running without keeping the shutter half pressed. I find having to keep that half press for a long time quite annoying and when I rest my finger to relieve the strain the bird or whatever it is takes off! So I want to press the shutter or a custom button once to start the ProCap buffering then have it record the buffer when I hit the shutter to capture the event of interest. It could even keep the ProCap buffer running and you just keep hitting the shutter to record the images.

After the OM System AMA event I had a play around with ProCap and OI Share. With OI share you can use the phone as a Bluetooth remote and it supports ProCap. The OI Share remote screen (not the live mode, the other one) has a button to do “half press” and it keeps it active until you stop it. So with half press active you can then press the shutter control on the OI Share remote screen and it records the buffer then keeps the ProCap active - because the half press is still running. It does exactly what I want! Since I’m not an octopus I can’t walk around holding the phone as a remote with the camera and 150-400mm so this is only useful in a tripod scenario. Why on earth does the phone App support something that’s not possible on the camera with all the button customisation etc - have I missed something?

Bill

[KennyC]

I have the same problem with procap, not only does my finger get fed up, my arm gets tired because I am a hand-holder not a tripodder.

[kbouk]

Smart idea. For procapture you can’t use Back focus button.

So maybe this is the right button to program for locking half shutter

[Ian]

I must admit I don't use Pro Capture enough. I don't really use BBF either. I think I'll try the former more though.

Ian

[KennyC]

I do use procapture in fact the way it works on Oly cameras is one reason that I have not jumped ship to Canon or Sony. I have found BBF can be useful as it allows the old fashioned focus-and-recompose method rather than actually moving the focus point. If I do the latter I end up forgetting and missing focus on later shots. But I really don't like BBF no matter how much the internet tells me that I should use it.

[BDennis]

I don’t like BBF either, for a perched bird using bird subject detect focus and recompose is easy anyway because it tracks the bird so I find it doesn’t really matter where the focus point is.

I think I might try using ProCap SH2 more often as my drive mode for regular bird and butterfly shooting. There’ll be a lot of files to sort out though! I think the trick might be to start with an empty card (which I rarely do) and star rate the good shots on camera. Then at the end of a session do a mass delete on camera keeping all the shots with ratings.

Bill

[KennyC]

I do nothing in camera other than take pictures and format. I transfer all files to the PC using a card reader and then format the card in camera. I do all the culling in PL7. I start the day with an empty card. I do use procapture very often and upwards of 1000 shots in a morning is quite usual, but this may only result in half a dozen really sharp and interesting keepers. Funny hobby isn't it!!

[shakyHands]

I'm similar to KennyC. I use pro-capture almost exclusively and probably end up with 1000-4000 images (most commonly about 2000). I use lightroom to cull and import (I just connect the camera via the usb). When the images are displaying on the lightroom import screen, I press the 'uncheck all' button then scroll through the images displayed at full screen size. Left arrow takes me to the next image and I press 'P' on the ones I'm interested in. Then I use the import page 'sort by selected' so I can further cull if required. This gets me down to a reasonable number of images (<50) quite quickly which I can then press 'import' and go with processing the selected images - which is typically select them all and fire them through Pureraw while I have a cuppa. It is annoying when I forget to reformat the card and have to find where today's images start - I tend to not immediately format as sometimes when I'm processing I think hmm maybe there was a better one in the sequence that I would like to go back and check.