Setup Capture Pilot for iPad/iPhone

Watch Intro Video

How does Capture Pilot Work?

Capture Pilot is a two-part system:

Capture Pilot Server – built into Capture One 7 Pro (in the Capture Tab)
Capture Pilot (viewer) – an iPhone/iPad app available through the App Store (iTunes link)

Features

Set a password (for sensitive shoots)
Opt to share all images from the current shoot, specific folders (anything in your favorites list), specific images (by creating an album) or dynamically updated smart albums such as “recent five star images”, “green tagged images”, “50mm lens images” etc.
Zoom to 100% ON the iPad with accurate 100% view of the image
All image styles, adjustments, and corrections (e.g. contrast, curves, etc) made in Capture One are reflected on the iPad nearly instantly
View (or not) an accurate histogram of the image
View (or not) images as they come in in real time (i.e. auto-updating to the more recent capture)
View past shoots including retouched tiffs or JPGs (great for client demos/pitches, pre-production meetings, or post-production consults)
Lock (using the iOS preference) the orientation or allow the screen to be rotated to fit the image best
Use it with ANY Capture One supported raw file, meaning tethered or untethered shoots with Phase/Leaf/Mamiya/Canon/Nikon
Useable anywhere within the range of the WiFi signal; if needed multiple AirPort Extremes can be bridged together to have a wireless network that covers hundreds of feet or multiple floors of a building
Very easy to use and stable – provided the “Ideal Capture Pilot Setup” is used as described below

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Possible Fashion Scenario

On a fashion shoot with an Art Director, Hair Stylist, and Makeup Artist on set the photographer tethers a Phase/Mamiya/Leaf/Nikon/Canon to a Mac Pro where a digital tech checks focus, keeps the images organized by model/look/shot and makes backups every 30 minutes. The Art Director is given an iPad with Capture Pilot running, a couch, and a cool drink. The Hair Stylist and Makeup Artist work on the next model, but keep an iPhone with Capture Pilot running next to their kits so they can browse through the shots of the day to ensure a consistent look to the images. The photographer has an iPad mounted on a tripod so that they can quickly reference the last shot (including zooming in to 100% and with any styling/adjustments/corrections applied) without walking back to the computer. At lunch the digital tech sets the Capture Pilot Server to share only green-tagged images so that the Art Director can browse through just the best shots of the day so far and provide his or her commentary while at the Food Services station 100 feet away.

Ideal Capture Pilot Setup

The stability/speed of the network you are using is very important. If you are using a cheap/generic wireless router, have several other computers/printers/devices using the same network the results will be understandably slow, unstable, or otherwise troublesome. This is not a workflow you want to run on a network on which you’re streaming wireless music for instance (as many studio photographers do). The most reliable setup we’ve found is to use an Airport Extreme or Airport Express to create a dedicated-to-ipad-tethering wireless network with a password. Only the tethering computer which is serving as the Capture Pilot Server, and the iPad(s) or iPhone(s) that are serving as Capture Pilot Viewers should join this network and it should not be used for any other purpose (e.g. transferring files, printing, etc).

Troubleshooting

Are you signed onto the same network on both the iPad and the computer running Capture One?
Is Bluetooth turned on? Bluetooth should be off. If it is not the result will be strong instability and poor performance.
Are you using a dedicated wireless network as described above?
Did you start the server in Capture One? (“Start Server” in the Capture Pilot tool under the Capture Tab)
Are there any firmware updates available for your wireless router?
Are you using the latest version of Capture One, the latest version of Capture Pilot, and the latest version of iOS?
Try restarting the app on the phone by double-tapping the home button, then tap-and-hold on the Capture Pilot icon until an X appears to close it. Since iPhone/iPad iOS version 4 the iPhone/iPad do not actually close an app when you single tap the home button. This is great since you can quickly return to an App and it will pick up where it started, but not great in that if you want to “restart” and app you have to know this trick.
Try restarting your iPhone/iPad.
Try resetting the settings on your iPhone/iPad.
Try deleting and then reinstalling the iPhone/iPad app from the App Store.

Our Opinion Today

After playing around with several computers (Mac Pros and MacBook Pros) using various network setups we can recommend Capture Pilot, but only in the Ideal Capture Pilot Setup we describe above. In other configurations the results are not yet satisfactory with many dropped connections or error messages.