Capture Pilot

The app is barebones, but I don’t require much more functionality than letting the client view and rate / make selects, however it is painfully hindered by its reliability in keeping good connection with the local image server from the computer. Out of all the features of this program, I wish Phase One would put more attention to amending the reliability of this feature especially with the upstart of sets in the COVID era.

This app is extremely basic, it only has the ability to rate photos and strangely enough, set the white balance point, the sole editing tool on hand. I use it as a way to play back my photos on AppleTV and a projector and for that it works very well. The app allows you to zoom around the photo in full res, loading more of the original RAW file as required to fill in detail, which is something that is not possible via Photos or Aperture. It would be great if we could access all your editing tools in Capture One remotely and perform edits as you review photos, maybe some day. As it stands this app feels like a side-hobby project and slightly like abandonware, but perhaps Capture One will take it seriously and make it a differentiator for their product over Lightroom, but i do feel that it is better than their current 2.2 star rating.

When capture pilot works, it’s a brilliant technology to have on set with clients so they can view incoming images, make selects, and the photo team can work uninterrupted. However, it’s more often than not that my digital tech is spending upwards of 30 minutes each day setting it up, troubleshooting dropped connections, restarting the pilot server, etc. For studio days, it’s almost easier to have a second monitor connected to our computer and hard wired to the client area. I wish Phase One would devote some resources into Capture One and Pilot so that they work seamlessly instead of useless things such as film-emulation presets.