Computer configuration for Phocus: Warning - geekoid material

[cunim]

Dustbak chided me for not specifying my configuration on the Phocus survey thread.  Actually, I did specify it early on, but occurs to me that it would be very useful to have people post detailed configurations that are and are not stable.  If we can find some common factors in the problem systems, perhaps we can change them. BTW, HUSA has all of these issues in log files.

Here are my Phocus machines.  One comment, since I loaded the latest ATI beta driver for the laptop graphics card, things appear to have changed.  There are fewer outright crashes (still plenty) but many more images are blanked after acquisition.  When this happens, the log file contains lots of references to D3X errors, which is an inappropriate interaction with DirectX 10 far as I can tell.

Workstation: PC, i7, W7-64, 12GB RAM - stable with all other software.  Never use this for acquisition.
Firewire 400 via port on the MB.  Seems stable.
- Built this machine from an EVGA X58 motherboard + QuadCore Intel Core i7 Extreme 975, 3700 MHz (28 x 132)- Overclocked, water cooled, a real screamer.  I would expect this to be a bit flaky, but no.  Crashes are rare.  However, a number of times the program has stopped running and thrown blocks of itself at the display - very slowly.  Only way out is via task manager as interactions (e.g. mouse movement) take forever.  If my laptop worked this way, I would be happy.

Laptop: Dell Studio XPS, i7, W7-64, 6 GB RAM - stable with all other software - Basically the latest and greatest Dell laptop, unmodified, used tethered.
- Firewire is via a Sonnet Firewire 800 pro expresscard (http://www.sonnettech.com/product/fw800expresscard34.html) powered from either its own AC adaptor or a Tekkeon battery.  Have also used the firewire 400 port built in to the computer.  Strangely, running the unpowered fw400 cable to the camera and using the H3 batterry to power acquisition is the most stable configuration I have tried.
- Firewire 800 cable is usually the one from Hasselblad, though I have a few others.  Makes no difference.
- Crashes are very common, with Phocus regularly causing the ATI graphics driver to crash to the desktop.  Crahses are most common when tethered, but also happen without a camera attached or expresscard installed.  There is also the blocky display problem requiring a cold boot in this case.  Worst case is crash every few minutes.  Best case is every half hour or so when tethered.
- Data file corruption is common.  Unlike others who see artifacts, I see black.  When acquiring from the back on a tech camera, an image appears as a thumbnail but never gets to the display.  About 1/2 second later it is overwritten with black.  This happens to about 15% of the images.  No such problems with the back on the H3D.
- In general, the back on the H3D is much more stable than the back on the tech camera.  I can often get 50 shots or more before crashing.  Unfortunately, I need to use the tech camera.

[Dustbak]

Have you tried using a different laptop (along with different cables)? I would also try a different Hasselblad with this laptop. All to find out which part of your flow is the culprit.

I have not been using Windows machines anymore for the last 4 years (after having used Windows since 2.0) so I am not the best guy to give you any advice in that direction.

The configuration that is extremely stable for me:

1) Studio, MacPro 2009 (Nehalem) 8-core 2.26Ghz, 24Gb main memory, ATI4890 (custom flashed, I would recommend most people to go for the 4870 which comes for Mac native), 1 system drive, 3 drive RAID0. MacOSX 10.6.3.

2) Location, Early 2008 MBP15 2.4Ghz with 6gb of main memory, Nvidia 8600GT video card.

Both these are extremely stable currently. The Early 2008 MBP is too slow for my taste and will be replaced when the new MBP comes to market.

I shoot tethered whenever I can. I also use my CF39's on a view camera. The only problem I sometimes have are sync issues with the Rollei Lenscontrol.

[KeithL]

OK, the following are my specs. Computer and Phocus 2 are very stable although never tethered for shooting.

PC
Motherboard = Gigabyte EX58-UD3R
Processor = Intel Core i7 920 (quad-core) 2.66 GHz
Graphics Card = Ati HD4890 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express.  Catalyst ver. 09.6 (have not upgraded as no issues with this driver version and 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it)
RAM = 6GB Corsair 3 Channel DDR3 (not all recognised by 32bit XP)
XP Home 32 bit - Service Pack 3

Disclaimer = I no nothing about computers, my wife builds or specifies all of our machines.

[pchong]

hi cumin...I use pretty much the same Dell Studio XPS, but even smaller i5 processor, same graphics card with dedicated 1GB RAM...and have had no problems with Phocus crashing (touch wood), tethered or otherwise. And never had a corrupted file. So it must be something else in your system causing the problem.

Phocus sometimes fails to recognise the camera, though...and this happens sometimes embarrasingly often...I am on a shoot right now, in a clean factory environment...shooting macros of watches, and my assistant (I don't usually work with an assistant, but I am lucky this assignment) has even invented her own excuse to the clients and "models" (usually watchmakers working on the watches) when I struggle with getting the Dell to recognise Hasselblad. But when it works, its a charm...and the files are very nice.

I shoot with H3D-39, and use a simple, over the counter firewire 800 9 pin to 400 4 pin directly on the Dell.

[Dustbak]

How do you resolve this error? How does it manifest itself? Is your camerabody suddenly reporting that the back has no storage medium? This sounds like a silly question, is your camera mounted upside down with the lens facing down?

[pchong]

usually, with plugging and unplugging the firewire...if that doesn't work, switching the H3D off and on again. Usually after a few tries, it works.

I do shoot with the lens facing down...afterall, macros of watch movements to show the intricate details feature about 40% of my work. But I don't tilt the tripod head till after both Hassy and Dell are happy that they know each other.

[cunim]

hi cumin...I use pretty much the same Dell Studio XPS, but even smaller i5 processor, same graphics card with dedicated 1GB RAM...and have had no problems with Phocus crashing (touch wood), tethered or otherwise. And never had a corrupted file. So it must be something else in your system causing the problem.

Phocus sometimes fails to recognise the camera, though...and this happens sometimes embarrasingly often...I am on a shoot right now, in a clean factory environment...shooting macros of watches, and my assistant (I don't usually work with an assistant, but I am lucky this assignment) has even invented her own excuse to the clients and "models" (usually watchmakers working on the watches) when I struggle with getting the Dell to recognise Hasselblad. But when it works, its a charm...and the files are very nice.

I shoot with H3D-39, and use a simple, over the counter firewire 800 9 pin to 400 4 pin directly on the Dell.

Very interesting.  I have had exactly the same error with the 50 back but never when the back and camera are together.  Are you on the Hasselblad camera?  I did find that shooting directly from the Dell to the camera, using the camera battery is a fairly stable configuration.  Problems arise when the back is off the camera.

With the back on other cameras, Phocus will sometimes fail to recognixe it ("no device connected").  This happens even if the back shows in the Windows devices list.  Only solution is to reboot. 

Was talking to Dell and have loaded new bios, operating software and graphics drivers.  Will report the result.

[pchong]

yes, always on the camera. I don't have a view camera...yet...thinking of Rollei...

[Dustbak]

I have similar errors. Also with a H body. Trying to find out what is actually the culprit here.

BTW.. I have a really nice Rollei for sale

[cunim]

So, I ran Phocus for a few hours with all the latest mod cons on the Dell Studio XPS.  50 back was on the Monolith.  Things changed very little.  It took about 45 minutes to get real acquisition going.  First the computer had reset it's internal 1394a port to "Enabled".  Nothing would run until that was disabled in setup.  Then, Windows would not recognize the back.  Uninstall the 1394b card and reinstall.  Reboot and back is recognized in Device Manager but now Phocus would not recognize the back.  Connect, disconnect, check back settings, etc.  Nothing helps.  Reboot.  OK, back is now seen in Phocus but sync not working.  Live view yes, flash sync no.  Diddle with sync cord to Rollei controller, turn things on and off more or less randomly.  Reboot.  OK, now flash sync is running.

Then Phocus froze - twice - while getting composition set up.  Reboot each time because it is not possible to terminate the Phocus32 process.

As I said, 45 minutes after all this started the system was running and then ran quite well for an hour, freezing only once (reboot).  Finally, disconnected the camera and started to modify/export the images.  Phocus froze twice (reboot).

Did the latest drivers etc. change anything?  Possibly.  I did not see the graphics driver crash during this session.  However, stability was still terrible.  Oh, by the way, the picture turned out fine.