Phocus Workflow Logic

[Chris Crumley]

I need help understanding Phocus' workflow logic.

I do a capture with the H2/39CFH and write a 3FR to a SanDisk CF card.
I copy the card contents to a shoot folder on my Mac system; today the folder is "080724_TestingPhocus"
I open Phocus and in the left panel, see my shoot folder and the image captures in it. They display as 3FR. But nothing can be done until they are FFF.
I select the 3FR files in Phocus, click Import and that writes an FFF to the Scratchpad folder by default; no way I've found to have the FFFs write to my shoot folder.
Now, I have to copy the FFFs from Scratchpad into the Shoot Folder.

Isn't that a bit convoluted?

The Danes have this funny way of thinking/navigating and sometimes I just can't see the paths they take. Can someone explain it?

Is there a better way for me to merge into the Phocus workflow? Doesn't seem to be a problem if I'm tethered.

Thanks

[NickT]

Hi Chris
Very much a tethered user here, let me do a quick test and come back to you.
Nick-T

[AaronF]

Hi Chris,

Just did a quick test here.  I think the step where you copy the images to your shoot folder is the issue (do all the importing within phocus only), here is what I found to work logically.

- Plug your card reader in (don't copy items across just yet)
- Create your shoot folder (within the 'job' tab in phocus)
- On the left hand side, select the folder you shot to on the CF card
- Select all images in the thumbnail preview
- Hit import
- All images will import to your shoot folder as FFF

Hope that helps.

[Chris Crumley]

Aaron, thanks. That works
Derek, I am happy that HBlad compressed the 3FR; that part of the design is fine. Being forced to download direct from a capture card to Phocus doesn't make sense.

I have 140,000 image files in Lightroom that came from HBlad and Canon captures and have never been forced to download directly to any processing software. Phocus should import from a hard drive folder just the same as importing from a capture card.

[robertpoll]

Hi Chris,

You can simplify your process a bit when importing from disk (rather than directly from a CF card).

do a capture with the H2/39CFH and write a 3FR to a SanDisk CF card.
I copy the card contents to a shoot folder on my Mac system; today the folder is "080724_TestingPhocus"
I open Phocus and in the left panel, see my shoot folder and the image captures in it. They display as 3FR. But nothing can be done until they are FFF.
ctrl-click on your shoot folder and set as capture destination
I select the 3FR files in Phocus, click Import and that writes an FFF to the Scratchpad folder by default; no way I've found to have the FFFs write to my shoot folder.
Select all of the 3fr files (actually if you include any fff they would be ignored) and click import
Now, I have to copy the FFFs from Scratchpad into the Shoot Folder.
Unfortuately the fff files won't show up in the browser until you switch to another folder and then back which is obviously a bug. Also you might want to remove the 3fr files from the directory (would be nice to have an option not to show them in the thumbnail window actually).

This isn't quite as slick as lightroom, I have to say but it's not too bad really, and should be a big step forward over your original process.

...rob

[Chris Crumley]

Robert,

Thanks. That sounds workable.

I printed the Phocus manual yesterday and looked for a solution, but didn't see the Ctrl Click you described. Just now found it on p12.

Thanks again.