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I've been using Capture One for a few years and am now experiencing a significant problem for the first time. Basically, my Capture One 20 runs very slow. Spinning wheel on my 2019 15' MBP 2.6 GHZ i7 16GB RAM. C1 freezes up so often that I cannot really edit my photos. It's at least in part or maybe all my fault. Live View in Capture One allows you to see through your tethered camera directly on your monitor. Control camera settings, focus and capture directly from your computer without having to touch your camera. The ultimate tool for still-life photographers. On the left is the Capture One Pro preview at default zoom, and on the right is the file exported as an uncompressed 16 bit tiff. Note the difference in the colors. The preview has more saturated oranges and blues in the streaks, the export looks a little more washed out. The Sony Alpha 1 is Sony's flagship mirrorless camera for, well, just about anything. With a 50MP sensor, it gives you tons of resolution, but it also lets you fire off burst images at 30 fps for fast action sports.

Anyone else experience C1 catalogs taking forever to load? Once the app is open, then I can load/change catalogs with ease. But the first time I open the app and the catalog size is at least 40GB, it just takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r. Reminds me of Aperture 2. Just painful and my number one complaint. I’m still using the test version… but maybe things are better once I purchase???

Not noticing that here, and my machine is not overpowered.

“but maybe things are better once I purchase???”

That is never a good thing to assume. It’s rarely right. :-)

Apparently, it is a known issue. Received this from their tech support (which was pretty cool that they’d reply to a non-customer using their time-bombed app):

Hi

Motocrossracingunblocked games crew!. If you are on “All images” in the catalog, then CaptureOne is strating threads to open all images.
If you instead highlight a low count folder before closing, it will only start opening that folder and it will be much quicker.
We are looking in to things to improve this.

Kind Regards
Phase One support

Could also be linked to the size of the preview images?

I have a fast iMac, with a very fast thunderbolt drobo. My library contains 40k images. C1 opens in 2mins- 10sec. Holy Cow. I will try pre-selecting a low count folder as described above. Hope this works. So far C1 is the best alternative to Aperture. I tried LR… Really not happy with that program. It’s kindof a disorganized mess.

Like I wrote in the other thread, try to relocate your masters out of the Aperture library. I think reading an Aperture managed library may slow C1 down (just an idea).

My catalog also opens quite slowly, taking about a minute with 63K images. This is with the catalog on an SSD and the referenced images on a Thunderbolt drive.

It was worse when I first created the catalog from my Aperture library (over 2 minutes, like you are seeing) but I used the command “File > Verify Catalog or Session…” and it found some problems which it was able to repair. That improved the file opening time from over two minutes to about a minute.

Also, selecting either a small folder of images to open at startup or the full “All Images” collection doesn’t make any difference in the performance.

Look at what part of your catalog you have selected in the left sidebar when closing C1. I've noticed that if I select All Images, then loading of the catalog upon next startup can be slow. Selecting an individual Album or Folder that has fewer images speeds up loading on next startup. I've given this feedback to PhaseOne. Don't know if they will find a way to improve that in a future update, but they do seem to be very interested in user feedback so tell them all of the quirks you experience using their Support Case system.

I am experiencing this very slow startup as well. When the catalog and referenced files are both on external HDD, I have extremely slow startup. I made a screen recording and provided it to PhaseOne. It is an 8 minute video. I have under 40,000 images and the catalog is about 64GB. I copied the catalog to an internal SSD and left the referenced files on external HDD. Startup was extremely fast by comparison (under 30 seconds vs 5-8 minutes).

I have a running case open with PhaseOne (case #215211 if anyone else wants to reference it in their own case).

I’m using Apple Photos to be my reference catalog because C1 was so slow. C1 is too good and I don’t waste my time editing with any other software. Then Photos is too good at cataloging. jpegs and raw files show as 1 file and the viewing modes are perfect. No need to catalog every single photo with C1.

Milo, this seems like a brilliant idea. I would like to reference my growing iPhone images from C1. Are you able to comment on the following:

1) Did you create a new C1 catalog for the images in Photos?

2) By default, Photos does not download images to your computer. The pictures reside in the iCloud, unless you download them into the Photos application. Are you only referencing the downloaded images in Photos?

3) How are you organizing your images in Photos and how does that structure appear in C1?

4) Is the metadata, favorites, tags, etc. recognized when referenced by C1?

Capture One 21 Slow

Your idea of referencing your Photos library in C1 could be a great solution for those of us who increasingly use iPhone 7 Plus pictures from our travels, etc.

Sincerely, Alex

I haven’t seen the slow starting many have. My catalog is 82G, and opens in approx. 9.5 seconds either on the internal HD on my laptop, or the backup copy on an external raid 5 thunderbolt DAS. All files are referenced, there aren’t any stored in the catalog. Thats opening on a root folder with not thumbnails showing on start up. The time measurement is the best I can do with a stop watch.

absolutely. a pain in the butt

I had. a catalogue. at 70gb

it took 12 hours

it seems. that with Mac there is. a huge problem.

I have been. writing with them , they know there is a problem but will not. admit

and so far nothing has really changed.

I don’t think they know what the problem is

Capture One Slow Tethering

Capture One Slow Motion

What is your configuration? Memory? HDD or SSD? Catalog on internal or external disk? I get the best performance from placing the catalog itself on internal SSD and leaving images on external disk. I have a late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina, 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7, 16GB of RAM, 1TB internal SSD, 2TB external portable HDD. My catalog has 56,000 images now.

If I select “All Images”, it sends Capture One into a tailspin where it consumes all 16GB of RAM and then some (so says Activity Monitor). The app locks up for 5-10 minutes, but eventually the memory goes back down and the app becomes responsive again. I opened several cases with Capture One and provided them a lot of evidence of the issue. They agree there is an issue. I believe an update will addresses this. I can't say when that update will be released.

If I select any other folder or album with fewer images with under 1000 image, for example, Capture One is much faster.

Some of you may already know how big a fan I am of Capture One. Making the change to Capture One as the primary tool for my workflow has sent my productivity into hyperdrive, the photographic equivalent of adding NOS to my tank (or whatever it is they use to make cars fly in 'The Fast and The Furious').

In this tutorial from Capture One's YouTube channel, moderator David Grover takes you through the basics of setting up a session in Capture One, and even shares a handful of advanced tips.

If you are new to Capture One, or tethering in general, it is a software program that essentially rolls many of the features of Lightroom, Photoshop, and Bridge into one, but it has made its name primarily as the industry standard for tethered shooting. I personally use it for around 90% of my workflow, only exporting images into Photoshop when I need to do fine tuning or plan on making major adjustments like composites. Once retouching is complete, I bring the images back into Capture One for exporting, final touches, and even cataloging (although Capture One's session workflow makes maintaining a master catalog less useful to me personally than in the days when I used Lightroom to manage my archive).

If you've ever been on a professional set and seen one of those bright orange Tether Tools cables hanging connecting a roving photographer to a workstation or a laptop surrounded by demanding clients, the odds are that Capture One is the program that they are all looking at. But how does it work? In the above video, David Grover takes you through step-by-step to creating and managing your own session workflow.

A few topics covered in the tutorial include setting up a session, naming files, and setting up personalized capture folders. That last bit is particularly useful if, for example, you are shooting a lookbook with multiple outfits, or a portrait session with multiple subjects, and you need to automate your file management to create an organized workflow. He takes you through the various ways to operate your camera from your laptop in live view. Let's say you have your camera in a position that is great for the final image, but not so easy to reach. In Capture One you can adjust your camera settings, refocus, or even check battery power without ever leaving the comfort of your chair.

Perhaps the biggest time saver for Capture One over other platforms is the ability to export multiple file formats into multiple customized folders simultaneously. This may sound small, but has already saved me hours of productivity. And speaking of productivity, one of the lessons David covers in the tutorial is how to work with overlays. If any of your are shooting for magazine covers, packaging, or any other predetermined format, the overlay feature allows you to pre-load an image of the clients cover art into the system prior to shooting. So, if, for example, you need to leave enough room for the Vogue title at the top and the article titles to the bottom sides, the overlay feature allows you compose your shot accordingly and see the result instantaneously as soon as you press the shutter.

For anyone new to the program or existing users just looking to improve your workflow, this tutorial is well worth the watch.